Feedback & Reports

This was both, mine and my Dad's first time on the Wye. Also our first crack at fishing a river of this size and pace. The setting is absolutely stunning, one the few places nice enough that I wouldn't mind blanking. This said, the river was fast flowing and coloured and proved a bit tricky for Wye beginners like us to start with. We both set up in swims around mid way down the stretch, neither proved successful in the morning. I moved further upstream around mid afternoon. Fished a swim for around an hour, that produced a 7lb 9oz barbel on my third cast. That came to 12 mm halibut pellet, fished under a heavy feeder. My Dad sat it out in his swim and early evening took a 4 1/2lb chub and eel around 2lb, both to luncheon meat. I moved back to original swim and had a good run from a barbel, before the hook pulled. Unfortunately we couldn't fish as late as we would have liked and that was the last action. We definitely intend to return as soon as possible and make sure we're able to fish later into the evening. This a stunning venue and well chuffed to back my first Wye barbel.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub, 1 Other

Tough day with an increase in water level and pace washing a lot of weed and debris down river. Conditions forced us to fish the meadow stretch and we managed a few fish to pellet fished on running leads. Biggest barbel was about 8lb, chub were about 2lb. We were due a not so good day as previous recent visits to Courtfield have been great. Back late August for another try!

4 Barbel, 2 Chub

River was just rising a little (not too much). The water temperature had dropped too. That's the excuses over. Still had a great day - 5 barbel to 9lbs 10z plus 4 others. Didn't get there as early as required as the Severn Bridge was closed due to wind. Left early too. The weed was coming down as you would expect with the river rise but not a problem.

5 Barbel, 2 Chub

Our second day and second WUF beat. Arrived at 4:45 AM, and decided to fish the swim with the inspection cover as suggested and the next swim upstream. Balled in some bait then went back to the van to rest the swim and tackle up. Fished with feeders till about 10Am with no joy. With canoes coming down we decided to come back later.
Arrived back to the same swims about 5PM and just used feeders to search the swims, fished until 10PM with only 2 chub an eel and a hand sized barbel, which took 2 elips pellet, greedy bugger!! River was slow and conditions were bright, also a lot of canoes as it was the weekend. Can't win them all.

1 Barbel, 2 Chub, 1 Other

Great session on this beat. The largest barbel was 8lbs 14oz. Caught a perch on a pellet which is a first. The largest chub was 4lbs 14oz. River still very low and the ranunculas coming down causing problems on holding the bottom.

12 Barbel, 3 Chub, 1 Other

We were a party of 2, both using standard barbel timebomb pellet method.
Using the far bank swims to avoid snags, the fishing became difficult from late morning due to heavy canoe traffic. Although most were polite and avoided the lines, some still managed to sweep away our tackle. As a consiquence, it was much easier to stop fishing until 4pm to avoid anymore upsets. Once we had resumed fishing, bites started from 5pm and lasted until late evening when we made our weary way home. Thanks for the day :)

3 Barbel, 2 Chub

Evening session using methods recommended in Courtfield literature provided landed two large barbel, a large chub and some smaller ones on one rod. Despite using the same set up the other rod had just one small knock. Good sport. We'll be back soon hopefully.

3 Barbel, 3 Chub

One early barbel, then nothing for the rest of the day.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

I enjoyed my day. No catch to report, lots of traffic on the river and they also were enjoying their sport but at times there were up to 10 boats every ten mins or so. I don't worry about the boats and I enjoyed the day. I had one pull round but suffered a hook pull. I'd love to fish this section of the Wye again, there are a lot of Barbel there. No complaints. Many thanks and best regards.

Great days angling. James and Chris caught pb barbel each. The canoes were pretty well constant for the best part of 6 hours. However, this didn't spoil the fishing. The ranuculus weed problem was still evident, however not as bad as before. Funny there are fewer larger chub coming out this year. All caught on feeder and pellet.

11 Barbel, 7 Chub