Feedback & Reports

Fished for couple of hours around midday and caught inspite of anglers on the opposite bank, as soon as the cloud cover went the fish switched off and it started to feel very warm, packed up to cool down and returned to do a couple of hours around dusk but only a chub and a lost fish to report. Lovely to sit there with nobody about in the fading light.

1 Barbel, 3 Chub

Second day on river Wye. completely different to opening day. Plenty of chub between one and five pounds and some big eels(three pounds plus) that thought they were barbel taking 18mm halibut pellets. Once the sun was off the water managed two cracking barbel around the eight pound mark. All fish in really good condition. River at summer level with little colour. Not many snags in this stretch. My only niggle was the lack of swims. between the line of trees and the end of the beat only two, and those hardly cut back. Six foot nettles are not nice to walk through!

2 Barbel, 9 Chub, 4 Other

11 barbel and 1 chub all on pellet.

11 Barbel, 1 Chub

A nice afternoon in the sun, but I blanked. River was nearly back down to normal levels after the recent floods and looked great (just in time for the closed season) but I didn't get more than a couple of knocks on the rod tip. Should have brought maggots and my silvers gear but was after Barbel. Will be back in June!

First time I've booked this beat so took me a bit of time to decide what to do with it.
River colour was good and it was less than a meter up but pushing through strongly.
Access to the beat is good with parking for one vehicle at both ends of the beat with an easy flat walk along the whole length of the beat. Quite a straight beat with a large bend at the end so limited options if the water levels are high but should be more to go at with normal levels.
Ground was firm on Wednesday but I could see evidence that someone had difficulty getting off the parking so care should be taken in wet conditions. Looks like recent floods have battered the banks and eroded what must have once been nicely carved out pegs.
Salmon anglers were working away along the opposite bank and were polite.
Tried a few swims around the middle and at the bottom end of the beat but the Barbel eluded me. Persevered with maggot on the float before giving up and reaching for my faithful barbel rod to chuck the feeder with hemp and maggots. Managed to tempt seven lovely Chubb in fin perfect condition ranging from around two and a half up to four and a half pounds from the faster water. Great to be out on my favorite river, many thanks to the Wye and Usk Foundation for being so helpful and finding me a decent beat at short notice.

7 Chub

Nice stretch, water very fast and lots of snags. Lost at least 15 hooks. 2 barbel between 3 rods.

2 Barbel

Both Anglers used Halibut pellet on a hair rig. River very high, chocolate in colour but dropping around 1' over the two days. Friday 28th, 1 Barbel caught around 5:30pm about 4 pounds in weight. Chub of about 5lb caught 10 minutes later.
Both fish extremely healthy with no marks or signs of being caught before. 1 Barbel caught around 10:30am on Saturday 1st March, fish weighed around 6lb, caught on the same method. Weather wise Friday a.m was rainy but cleared later.
Saturday 1st March began with a hard frost but then produced the most stunning Sunny and at times warm day. We were given some great advice from Adam Fisher who joined us for over an hour on Saturday morning. He was recommended to us by the Wye & Usk Foundation so thank you. Thanks also to local Tim Gaunt for pulling us off the parking mound at How Caple as our van had got stuck and we had been struggling to get it off for an hour or more when he stopped to help. We stayed once again with Carol at The Old Mill in Hoarwithy, for us
there is quite simply nowhere better.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

No sign of barbel or chub to any baits. Fished hard all day on all available swims.
Spoke to the bailiff on the opposite bank who said we would struggle, he was bang on.

Beautiful venue with some great swims. Weather conditions were spot on and the river looked great too. We started in the last peg on the stretch, fishing into the edge of the large slack. We sat here feeder fishing with maggots for the best part of 4 hours without a touch. We then moved to the opposite end of the river and had a similar result. We spent the last hour of the day pike fishing and managed a pike each. 16lb 12oz and another of 10lb 12oz both taken on dead baits presented close in.

2 Pike

Just the 2 Chub today, both caught on bread flake. Fished nearly every swim but they just were not having it or I'm not very good. Still, better that being at Work!

2 Chub