Feedback & Reports

3 Barbel, 1 Chub

With the conditions as they are we did not expect to much, however by 10a.m. all anglers had caught some fish. The bites did then dry up and hope was set on picking up a few Barbel at dusk, but alas it wasn't to be.
This was the first time on this beat and I have to say we were all very impressed with its beauty and obvious potential on the right day.

3 Barbel, 8 Chub, 20 Other

The river was running low and very clear making fishing difficult. That said the morning produced 8 fish with the first a Barbel of 7 1/2lb from Bait pool it took a pellet bait with feeder. The next 7 fish came from the area of the orchard. I waded out to a gravel bank near there and set up. I fished the far side into a pool under a group of trees. I started initially using a pellet and feeder and took a small Chub of a couple of ounces. I then waited an hour before the next fish which was a 5lb Barbel, the fish then came fast with 3 more Barbel the largest being 7 1/2lb. Two more Chub were caught of 3 1/2lb size. These all went for a Boilie with crushed boilie and pellet in a feeder. I had to wade out to deeper water to land the fish as it was difficult to get a landing net under the fish due to the river level being that low. At 12pm we moved down towards the Mill pool part of the beat and another Barbel of 5lb was landed between the Orchard and Mill pool on pellet and feeder. The last Chub of the day came just before last light to a boilie.
A difficult but great days fishing in amazing countryside. All fish were in excellent condition.

6 Barbel, 4 Chub

Good days fishing, river clear and low. All barbel came from same spot. Enjoyed.

7 Barbel, 4 Chub

Very low water levels. The one fish came late in the evening to pellet.

1 Barbel

Nice stretch but not many accessible swims/heavy canoe traffic/anglers on opposite bank and river down to 18inches in places made for a tough day. 1 chub fell to trotted sweetcorn but otherwise fruitless.

1 Chub

We loved this beat and will return, but only in mid week. The river was very low and the number of boats very high, we didn't expect to get anything because of the noise and disruption but were very happy to land a stunning 9lb Barbel on Richworth Xtracta Barbel baits before we had to leave for home. Many Thanks.

1 Barbel

Our group of 4 rods fished both Friday and Saturday as we were staying at Flanesford.
Friday we had the beat to ourselves. The river was exceptionally low and clear - "on its bones" as they say - and this made the fishing very hard indeed. One angler took two barbel from the lower end of the first beach, whilst the angler next to him tempted an eel and a chub. Two further rods engaged in some trotting and had a very enjoyable morning and early afternoon taking small dace, chub and the occasionally acrobatic brown trout. Come the later afternoon, all anglers fished the beach on feeder gear hoping for barbel, but only one chub put in an appearance. The magic "last hour" produced nothing (the two barbel being caught a 2pm and 3.30pm respectively).
On the Saturday, swim choice was limited due to the fact that we were sharing the beat with a number of other anglers staying at Flanesford. However, there's plenty to go round and all of the anglers wishing to fish managed to get into swims. Saturday was a tough day again, one angler managed two chub from a swim opposite the top boundary of The Kerne Bridge beat... the other 3 returned to the beach, where no barbel were caught. One rod had two chub at the end of the day, one being a rather impressive 5lb which was a personal best.
So overall the results of two days fishing were not so great. I put this down very much to the conditions, painfully low, clear water with little flow is never going to add up to bumper catches. One of the lads we talked to who was staying at Flanesford commented that in 8 years of coming to the Wye, he'd never seen conditions like it, thoughts echoed by the bailif Adam Fisher. We had the next day to look forward to at Wyatstone Leys, maybe our luck would change there.... maybe!
On a brighter note, the stay at Flanesford was great! We had the Walford appartment between four of us, a bit cosy but it had everything we needed. Highly reccomend the indian food from the Forgehammer in Lydbrook, we had a takeaway and it was very nice indeed.

3 Trout, 2 Barbel, 6 Chub, 1 Other

Mag, feeder, 4' fluorocarbon, small hook, river low, hot, cloudy spells. JB silvers on the mag feeder. Barbel 8lbs bracket.

1 Barbel

Tough day. Tried various baits and swims with not even a bite. Beautiful stretch of river that I would return to once we've had some rain.