Feedback & Reports

The final day of our trip to the Wye, one of our party having gone home. The river had dropped to 3 foot above normal summer levels and fell a little more while we were fishing. We opted to fish the deeper slower water in Leggs Meadow and managed 13 barbel between us on a mixture of pellets, boilies and paste. As usual on this excellent fishery the fish were of a good average size, best being 9lb 1oz backed up by several 8's and 7's.

2nd Day on Courtfield and River dropped back from 8 foot above normal height to 5ft above normal during the day. Still only Legg Meadow swims really fishable and fished the 2nd and 3rd pegs again. 5 Barbel caught between the 2 of us (and pulled out of 1).... 4 during the morning between 10 - 13:00 and one around 16:30 Fish were 6lb 6oz, 6lb 6oz, 6lb 10oz, 7lb 2oz, 8lb 5oz and 9lb 4oz all on double Ellipse pellets. Tried various other baits. Nothing much in the way of activity apart from the fish. Lots of wildlife again.

Booked on Courtfield for 4 days only to find the river 8 feet above summer level, but with Don's help ended the week with a total of 9 chub to 4lbs and 47 barbel, most in the 5 to 8lbs range with the best one of 10lbs 40z. Can't wait to move up here.

River was 8 foot above normal height and rose another 6-12 inches through the day. Only Legg Meadow swims really fishable and fished the 2nd and 3rd pegs. 2 Barbel caught between the 2 of us .... 6lb 2oz at 10:10 and 6lb 3oz at 21:45 and one small eel. Both barbel were on double Ellipse pellets. We tried various other baits but there was nothing much in the way of activity apart from the fish. Lots of wildlife. Used feeders around 2-4oz and lost a few during the day!
Stayed at the Bunkhouse at Jovial Colliers Inn in Lydbrok which we can recommend as very good value for money, clean, friendly and got up early too cook us breakfast !
No phone signal on O2 :-(

Large fresh fish of 18lb plus (3ft) caught on blue and silver devon below Legg Meadow crib at 4.30pm - the first from this lie this year.

16.00-17.15 Looking out window and although lashing rain down river was clear but rising. 3rd cast a fresh looking salmon of around 8lb took a small pink/silver flying c close under bank of pool to left of steel steps. Later in willow pool hooked into fish that hit spinner very hard and shot upstream fast, turned out to be a large shad, not much smaller than the salmon so presumed to be an allis shad. Rain ceased for half hour and hatch of upwing type fly and entertained by a male hobby coursing the river catching them. Moved to Wyebank

Due to the appalling weather I decided to stick it out at the Legg Meadow crib, but no fish caught.
Some points:
Access to the waters edge on such steep banks requires better maintenance e.g, proper graduated steps down for safe and secure footing, clearance of vegetation so you can see where you are walking etc. (e.g. some wood and crushed hardcore for a solid footing would not be exoensive?)
I got to the waters edge at Legg Crib very fast when I slipped and slid some 5ft on my backside down what appeared to be the only access to the pool, a well worn steep mud slide! (Getting back up was fun too!!)
If you're running this as a business and want people to return or recommend a fishery then some effort on the part of the fishery to make some basic safety improvements is a definite requirement here. Also wooden posts indicating where the pools are would be another simple inexpensive idea?
On the whole most canoeists were obliging and paddled to the other bank when passing, however there were a small few who passed right in front of me!

Fished from 5am to 9:15 when work intervened and had to go. Lost a fish in front of wood crib, looked bright and about 8-10lb or so. Landed a fish of about 15lb. that had started to just get some color on a flying C. Saw several fish moving in various locations mostly jumpers coming clear out and not much heading a tailing. Never did make it up to the meadow section so may have been some milling around in there, who knows. Water height was great, color so-so. Another lovely dawn on the Wye.

I had Wyebank booked for Tuesday but knew there was a lot of water coming down the river so decided to try and brave the bank holiday boat trafic and fish in front of the rise. It was busy during the day but as always got quiet again in the evening and the river looked good. Although having a couple of good takes which did not stick it was to no avail. The next morning the river was well up with some colour as I expected but still fishable. I went down Wyebank with the fly but not really confident, again without success knowing that it would be good again on Wednesday when I was back at work!

12lb sea liced fish this evening in the rain to a yellow and green devon minnow. Saw 4 other fish and one head an tailed in front of me on the Wood Crib, presumably running.