Feedback & Reports

Fished 6am til 2pm. 8 Barbel, 2 Eels, 1 Chub on pellet and meat.

8 Barbel, 1 Chub, 2 Other

Took a trout fishing mate with me today, he was keen to experience the pull of a barbel. We got there around mid day, over cast and a little blowy, water up a foot and running dirty but clearing steadily. Set up on the far bank I fished the pellet and my mate, the spam both on the lead. I fished 15m upstream of him with the open ended feeder full of ground halibut, 8mm trout pellets and giant hemp, hoping this would draw the fish up and to where his spam would be on offer....this took about 2 minutes before his rod's bait runner screamed off. 7lbs of fit clean barbel netted and a real happy angler. One good eel fell to the spam and 5 barbel of similar size to the pellet. Fish came at hourly intervals. Oddly it died around 6pm, no other bites ensued and we left at 8pm. No chub at all? Good afternoons angling at a nice venue.

6 Barbel, 1 Other

First trip on this stretch, which is another lovely piece of river. The river dropped rapidly (2ft) overnight and a further foot during the day. Water very coloured to start with, but cleared as the water dropped.
Fished the end of the beat, as others (and Don) advised. Nothing in the morning, but had a nice 8lb barbel and 3lb chub in the evening on pellet. Both pristine condition and the barbel fought incredibly hard.
Plenty of canoeists between about 9.15am and 5pm but all very civil and did their best to skirt around my line for the short time I was fishing alongside them. River was still running at full width, so that may have given them more space than recently.
Loads of wildlife and a stunning dawn on the river, with mist rising through streams of sunlight - makes it all the more enjoyable. Will definitely be back.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

River up and coloured from previous day's torrential rain, which was an improvement on previous low levels. Masses of debris made it impossible to fish beyond the near margins for most of the day before clearing late afternoon. Found quality barbel up to 8.5 pounds in one swim, plus the unusual feat of foul hooking two eels (both safely returned).

8 Barbel, 2 Chub, 2 Other

A difficult day on a rising river complete with all the usual debris making it difficult to hold a bait in position, there are no slacker areas on this stretch to target when conditions are like this. Guess we went a day to early!

8 Barbel, 5 Chub

Started out in Boys Rocks but not a touch for 2 hours before the rapidly rising river forced me out. Moved to a swim lower down and had a 5lb barbel first cast but then struggled to fish effectively due to the amount of silkweed and rubbish coming through on a rising river, hanging on the line and dragging the feeder.
In the 7 hours I was there the river rose over 3 feet and was still coming up when I left.
As always though, thoroughly enjoyed the day despite the challenging conditions!

1 Barbel

3 Barbel to 6lbs caught in the first hour but the river was rising steadily and this seemed to put the fish off feeding. We only had one other bite between us in 7 hours and that fish (probably a chub) came off. By the time we left at 4pm it had risen by nearly 2 feet and gone a lovely brown colour! This also meant we had to move swims twice as the rising water effectively washed us off where we had settled in for the day. Really high banks mean there is very limited access to the water and the amount of weed, branches even half trees coming down the river made it a really difficult day. Will try it again but I think river conditions need to be spot on.

3 Barbel

River chocolate and trees coming down in the flood. Half-heartedly fished the slacks to blank. A washout really.

The river was in flood and very coloured so I fished a swim that was downstream of a croy. I used a 1.75lb TC rod, 15lb line, a 3oz cage feeder and a size 12 hook on a 12lb fluorocarbon hook-link. I didn't catch the barbel until about 6pm when I caught them both on consecutive casts fishing a swim a rod length out from bank.
I will be coming back in the not too distant future, hopefully when the river is back to normal when I'm sure I'll catch a lot more fish.

2 Barbel, 3 Chub