Feedback & Reports

The river was fairly low but with a slight tinge of colour due to recent rainfall/showers. Access to fishable swims is very poor due to high, steep banks an no cut swims. The only pool which looks good can only be accessed by walking all the way up to the footbridge and back down again due to lack of accessible swims. There are some steps in places but they do not necessarily have a flatish area from which fishing is safe.
This could be a reasonable beat if some basic swim creation was carried out.

2 Barbel, 4 Chub

River needs another foot of water in it, and not looking the most healthy at the moment. Bit of silkweed coming down but not too troublesome.
Been some years since I last fished the Creel and access to the water is poor, apart from the obvious swim by the steps in the '1st field'. I'm fit and agile but you need skills of a mountain goat to get down the mud banks on the lower water by the island. I wouldn't risk if this was wet. The top field has some good swims if only you could fish them. Minimum 5 ft drop into 5ft of water at best and having saved myself from this fate once sense took over. I like my rivers wild but this beat would greatly benefit from a few enhancements to enable access down to the water along it's length ( or bring your own rope ladder). Especially on days like the one just fished where the fish weren't in the one popular swim and had to be found.
Did winkle out a few Chub on trotted meat but fishing was hard. Probably will leave the Creel for a few more years again and the Wye till conditions improve.

3 Chub

A day of roving and trying to find safe access to the water in likely looking areas. The only accessible "swims" were to slow moving water and confidence was very low. One bite all day which I somehow managed to miss which summarised a disappointing day with no fish caught by myself. My angling companions faired slightly better but unlikely we would return to this stretch unless some swims were created for safe access.

Chub caught on various methods including 2 on trotted Luncheon meat at top of the Beat, looks wild and not fished
but would be worth looking at if you had suitable tools to clear the stinging nettles.
biggest at 4lb 11oz with 3 between 3lb 9oz and 3lb 15oz. No Barbel showing. 3 others were eels.

11 Chub, 3 Other

Well this being the start of our 2 days on the Wye, all three of us where looking forward to it and no better place to get it up and running then here at Fownhope. The fishing was not as good as previous years but we still manages to get few nice fish . M H 17 chub and two very nice roach, all from the far side of Hamburger Hill, all on pellets. As for S G he was fishing in the woods and had 7 barbel and 15 chub, again all on pellets. S M started in the woods had 3 chub then moved down to the first field and ended up with 3 more chub. The down side to the day was again see two other fishermen what they call village rights fishing even though there is a new sign saying passport fishing only this is not the first time this has happen to us so maybe when i book up a beat again we could have it at half price .

Fishing Passport Note : If you encounter poaching/illegal fishing, please refer to the 'What to do if' Advice and Guildlines issued with you Order Confirmation email.

7 Barbel, 38 Chub, 2 Other

3 Trout

2 Chub, 1 Pike

First Wye Barbel and first Wye Chub on my first time fishing the Wye. The river was just perfect although did loss a fair bit of tackle in the first swim but after a chat with someone that knows the river things were ok. Both fish in great condition
Looking forward to next visit

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

Really hot day again, just for once the forecasters predictions of sunny spells was accurate...... that’s if a 10 hour cloudless sky with the sun beating down constitutes a ‘spell’?
Fishing was good despite the weather and all but 2 of the fish came from the meadow field to meat and pellets. A couple of chub on the float but the rest on a straight lead. Nice stretch and plenty of places to access the river, think some of the previous comments on river access were a little over the top, it is a wild river not a commercial puddle so sometimes it takes a bit of an effort!
One thing to note WUF, the parking area designated on the maps and directions has now been coned and roped off due to some logging work going on. There is a couple of places to park but not the best on a single track road!

4 Barbel, 12 Chub

Dry & sunny, river low and weedy. Fished from 2:00 - 22:00 Nothing ! Fished usual 3 swims using pellet feeder and tried sweet corn Disappointing but relaxing