Feedback & Reports

7 chub to about 4.5lbs on spam or corn.

A bright sunny day and the river a lot lower and clearer than I thought it would be. A struggle to get bites all day, ended up with just 1 medium sized chub at dusk.

THE VENUE;
I initially fished the upper area of this beat; as per many of the other comments I would suggest that this area is avoided. I struggled to find a suitable area to fish, even when I finally found a small flat area the drop to the water was still around 3 feet and the over-hanging trees made it very difficult to cast. However, I have noted that work is planned by the foundation so I will be interested to see what the fishing is like once the improvements have been made. There are no apparent signs that indicate the start and end of the foundation's fishing area (hopefully this will be part of the improvements).

TACKLE;
I would suggest that you keep the tackle to the minimum; wherever you park you will have to walk across fields or on tracks. Take boots with grip as the banks are steep, muddy and slippery.

COST;
I was also approached by an angler from the Monmouthshire club who fish the same stretch of water on the opposite side. It was interesting to hear that for £35 I could have become a member of the club and fished as many times as I wanted over the year. Hopefully the cost of day tickets soon reflects this price as I will struggle to afford the £16 every week-for the time being I don't mind paying if it eventually helps to improve the fishing venue and experience etc!

CATCH;
I initially fished the feeder method and did not have a single bite (this was in the upper stretch). When I moved to the lower part I witched to float and caught around ten small Silvers.

Really easy to find this beat, directions and map were spot on! Started in the favourite swim 'Boys Rocks' - first cast and a barbel was hooked and landed about 7 or 8 lbs, followed by 4 more in the next hour or so, all around the same size. Should have moved really as things went very quiet, but it was such a nice peaceful spot, except for the traffic on the nearby road! Eventually after another 4 or 5 hours that flew by, moved further down the wilds and found a nice spot in the trees, caught another barbel about 7lbs before leaving for home. Thank you WUF

Started at Boys rocks and caught 9 Barbel to just under 8lbs on Pellets by 11.00am. 5 of these were over 7lbs
I then decided to to try the bottom field in the afternoon but failed to find the fish and the school rowing club eventually persuaded me to leave.

A difficult day; 12lb pike first cast which attacked my feeder in Boys Rocks, half hour later a 6-7lb barbel then nothing else from that peg. Be aware this is a difficult, tight peg, very steep and slippery 'path' too. Moved down the woods and found a nice but awkward swim (due to overhead trees) and had a barbel just under 9lb from close in. Both barbel on pellets.

I saw an otter working the middle river/far bank and after that I could not get another bite for the rest of the day! I moved around the few swims on the stretch but could not buy a bite.

A nice day out though, thanks.

Caught 8 barbel best a tad over 8 pound and two chub one was 5.5 lb. River up a foot, nice comfortable peg at boys rock although lost a lot of tackle in snags ! (also some litter in the peg which i took away!) but a great days fishing, in a beautiful area. All caught on pellets and meat.

Thanks WUF.

Fished Boys Rock, 6 barbel, largest 10lb 4oz all taken on pellet. Anyone who fishes this swim will use a lot of end tackle due to the large stones. I found the best way is to fish as heavy as poss and just bully the fish to the surface.

River was still up 3-4 feet on this day so fishing the top peg (boys rock) wasn't possible sadly as the bank was submerged and dangerous. Roved the whole section fished 5 swims and only had one 8+ Barbel. Couldn't stay until dusk but would like to on another day. Travel light as there are fishable pegs all the way down the beat, but it is a long stretch.

Although the river had dropped probably 3 feet from the tide-line left in previous days, it was still chocolate, hammering through and carrying quite a bit of general detritus which, in particular made the tiny swim below Boy's Rocks virtually unfishable. The next two open swims in the woods were fine and in the hour or so we tried them John took one babrel at 7 lb+ and lost one, both on pellets. Moving down to the first field (the middle part of the beat) where there's one obvious swim but a number of areas you could fish as the balsam and nettles were nowhere near as impenetrable as they have been on other beats, again a decent fish was lost. Not being familiar with the stretch, the turbulent heavily coloured water made feature spotting a challenge and we resorted to feeding marginal glides under or around bushes and trees.
For the last part of the day we moved to the bottom field, switched to meat and paste baits and, again, concentrating on the margins using flora as features, we had two barbel around 6lbs from a swim at the end of the tree line that leads back to the lay-by stile, and a final 7 lb-er from the very last swim where the small stream enters.
All in all a very fair result from a rather straight beat where we couldn't scan features to fish to. Notably there were no snag issues on the bottom two sections so the bottom must be gravelly and quite benign, although the bump and grind progress of feeders and leads suggested loads of streamer weed, confirming what we'd seen on the satellite photos.

Thanks WUF