Feedback & Reports

Another great days fishing on a cracking beat. Arrived midday and after an interesting scout around the top of the beat (very large cows and even larger bulls) I found a very fishy area and caught 12 barbel most over 7lbs to just under 9lbs and 1 good chub 4lb 11oz. Trip back to orchard again interesting (bulls) I think their name suits them very well!!! In truth they didnt seem bothered by me at all thanks again Wye & Usk.

Difficult access except middle fields beyond orchard. I ended with 4 barbel up to 6lb plus 6 chub to 4. Andy had 5 barbel plus some backing chub.

Arrived about 10am and walked the venue to decide where to fish. This resulted in an excellent days fishing with my son, between us we caught 20 barbel and 7 chub. The largest barbel was 9lbs 1 oz and all were in immaculate condition. The river was very low and clear but we caught throughout the day. Access to the river in the orchard area was difficult so we parked at the designated spot on the road and fished that meadow. All fish were caught on pellet.
It was a wonderful day in a beautiful setting and I would like to thank the Wye and Usk foundation for making this stretch of the river Wye available. We will definately return. There were cows in every meadow and a bull with each herd and although we were wary they gave us no problems!

Having booked the beat for two days on first arrival we walked the complete stretch and found that although large sections were not accessible the barbel, in low clear river conditions, were not hard to find. It also became clear that the one of us that had thought to bring chest waders and didn't have an illogical fear of cows was going to have the upper hand. I would say that we were expecting the fishing to be easier than it was and only through changing rigs, baits and swims did we manage to land the dozen or so barbel we had over the weekend. I would suggest traveling light to help over the styles and cover the large areas were there seems no access to the river.

Very disappointed with access, top section which reads very promising is virtually impossible to walk never mind carry the gear and fish, middle section also poor access, the stretch really needs some work.
However very pleased with the fishing 9 barbel to approx 8lbs, smallest around 5lbs and 3 very nice chub. All of the fish were in superb condition and were extremely strong
Enjoyed the day but wouldn't like to be in a party of 3 or 4, there are not the pegs to fish with "company".

Having fished here 2 weeks ago, we thought we knew pretty much what to expect.
The river however was even lower than last time and it was extremely bright and hot with very little cloud for most of the day.
We started the morning in the area of the orchard and really struggled in the conditions with just 2 small barbel and 7 or 8 chub between us.
We broke for lunch back at the car at about 2.00pm then returned back to the same swims we'd been fishing on the basis that we'd put in a fair amount of bait over the past five hours, and we didn't really fancy any of the other areas in those conditions.
It was now even hotter and we were anticipating a gruelling afternoon.
For some reason the barbel disagreed and we were stunned to start catching barbel immediately. We ended up with a further 20 barbel between us, average size was probably 5 - 6lb with a biggest weighed for refernce at 8lb 12oz. We also had approx 30 chub including some really nice fish with one of about 5lb and the majority averaging 3 - 4lbs - much higher average size than we've found on other stretches.
Virtually every barbel and chub caught was absolutely immaculate with fantastic colouration unlike some we've caught elsewhere - possibly because this is still a relatively new stretch?
Quite literally a brilliant day - and we have the sunburn to prove it!

7 chub, 9 barbel. Found access tricky in places.

Nice stretch of river. 4 of us fished most of the morning and evening for around 12 fish between us, including barbel to 7lb and chub to 4lb. All the fish came to cage feeder and pellet. Tried rolling meat for some time but to no avail.

Late start on the beat due to a flat on the Transit which was compounded by being unable to get the spare wheel off due to a securing screw shearing which meant that we had to get into Ross to get the flat repaired!

Finally got to the beat in the pouring rain! First time on this beat for us and it's certainly a lovely place. After a general explore our first impressions were that there is a lot of water but access to the vast majority of it is difficult at best and downright impossible for significant distances. We did spot a few barbel at the bottom of the beat but it was difficult to find enough swims with reasonable access to the water to accomodate all four of us and therefore we elected to fish at the orchard end and even here there was only just enough access for the four of us (we didn't venture further than the field above the orchard due to the presence of a rather large bull with his hareem!!) We definitely felt that more access needs to be opened up to make this beat more viable for four anglers.

The river was very low and clear and by the time we got fishing the sun was shining brightly just to make things a bit more difficult! We finished with 2 barbel & 9 chub to 2 rods with the other 2 rods fishless although I'm sure we would have had more as the light intensity dropped but alas we had to leave before then!

Worthy of note is the high average size of the chub with the majority of them definitely pushing 5lbs. I'm convinced one of them was well over this but before I could get it in the sling it flipped and promptly landed back in the water and shot off like a missile! Rather summed up the day did that!

Turned up mid afternoon and fished the lower middle section, not much happening so I roved around a bit, finally found a peg where the Chub were having it including one around the five pound mark. No sign of any Barbel until about 7.30 then it was a fish a chuck until 9.30 when they seemed to switch off and it was time to leave.
The river was very low and clear with many fish rolling and flashing in the shallow sections but oblivious to any baits presented, this is a huge section of river which will take many visits to fully explore I feel and will fish better with a bit more water in. All fish caught were in perfect condition and the Barbel fought very hard indeed.