Feedback & Reports

Another very productive trip to this excellent beat. Barbel a bit more skittish than in previous years, probably due to the low water, but regular feeding and perseverance paid dividends over a day and a half of high-quality fishing. We found fish in some new locations this year, which was a welcome bonus. The chub shoals seem to get bigger every year; 100+ in the net is a very conservative estimate, and it was often impossible to get the feed through them to the barbel below.

49 Barbel, 100 Chub

Fishing is still very good despite the river looking about the lowest I have ever seen it.
Fishing in the wooded section produced some excellent barbel to 9lbs 10oz which is a pb off the river Wye. The other fish were between 6 to 8lbs 11oz which is a higher average size than most of the other beats.
Having said that there was a 14" barbel that shows there are plenty of different year classes in the river.
This really is an excellent fishery that continues to deliver great fishing. Well done Don and WUF.

10 Barbel, 20 Chub

River is very low, even lower when I fished the same area last year. There were some barbel and chub visible but they seemed uninterested in feeding. Eventually caught a 7lb barbel and a small chub. Fished in the meadow near the roadside parking, no cows to contend with this year. Thank you Wye and Usk Foundation for the chance to fish such a lovely stretch of river.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

First time on this beat and a great addition to the Wye & usk portfolio, a lovely peaceful spot to spend a day with very few canoes. Most of the fish came to our Barbel novice, he's not being invited again.

8 Barbel, 5 Chub

The river was low and clear and the fishing was difficult. One of us had a Barbel and I had three Chub, sadly the other angler blanked. Still, I can't think of a better location to have a blank so it wasn't all bad!

1 Barbel, 3 Chub

Barbel 6lbs Chub 3.5lbs, 3.13lbs and 12ozs (approx) method as per form submitted for 15th July.
Quality fish in good condition. Please see comments on 15th July re bank and access. We had problems with a group of French school children canoeing who were unable to control their canoes and were rude to us (we had not spoken to them). I then spoke to an English male who agreed he was in charge, explaining we had paid and did not expect to have children 'hollering and shouting at us'. He said they were only saying 'hello'. At this I gave it up as a waste of time. I do not consider "ello Meester feesherman, can I hav a feesh?" an accecptable method of introduction as you ram your canoe in to my bank. Perhaps I am getting old.

1 Barbel, 3 Chub

River nice colour and up 1 foot, looked great. Flogged it all day, every swim and all across the river on pellet feeder. Very disappointing result.

2 Chub

A pretty lean day. Caught one barbel 5-7lbs in the morning, second cast, then nothing. By 5pm a glass of wine on the patio was beckoning.

1 Barbel

Despite being one of the best looking barbel swims in the country and, crucially, closest to the parking, Boy's Rocks has never quite lived up to its promise for me in the past, so after an hour of inactivity I was glad to head downstream to pastures new. The shallows looked good but were occupied from the far bank and the pool between the two far bank Croys in the field section was too hard to fish from our bank, so by 4pm I was back at the Rocks after all. OB in The Wires swim had taken chub to 5 pounds but no barbel and that, it transpires, was because they were queuing up for my return. By 8 o'clock I'd had 4 barbel and broken my meagre pb 3 times, with fish of 7lbs, 7.08lbs and a stunner of 10.11lbs, the best looking fish I've ever seen! OB eventually got a little one of 7 pounds or so after scrounging some of my irresistible spicy sausage pellets, so we could finally leave and get home in time to 'boo' the Argies in the world cup final. I couldn't have been happier if I'd just lifted the trophy myself! What an awesome day, we can't wait to be back.

5 Barbel, 5 Chub, 1 Other

Just after setting up for the day and getting bites from the word go. I had my swim ruined by a salmon angler who set up just a few yards from me. He worked the whole beat for 4 hours before leaving me to it! Not best impressed to be honest. It took a long time for the section to come back to life and it wasn't much before 2pm before the fish started to show again. My fishing partner struggled a little after his late arrival and took just 3 small chub but I eventually got the barbel interested and bagged 9 to 9lb 5oz on the CBS River Monster Boilies also took 4 lovely big chub to 5lb 9oz too. Be warned the entrance to the hard standing car park off the main road has a rather aggressive drop and I caught the base of my car on it badly as I entered. The track down to the river is also very unnerving with high thick grass down the middle and generally very overgrown foliage which made it difficult to see the path.

9 Barbel, 7 Chub