Feedback & Reports

River had come up over night making accessing the swims difficult. I had 9 barbel and my mate had 1 and a chub.
Fantastic stretch of river that would benefit from a bit of tree clearance being carried out.

An oddly shaped but pretty lake which is very shallow. As others have mentioned, one bank is not accessible and there are plenty of areas where fishing is not possible. I set up in the bay nearest parking spot. Beautiful clear day. Feeder (hemp-based ground bait) with corn was pretty ineffective although a couple of small roach did take the bait eventually. Stalking the margins with meat/corn yielded nothing, although I imagine it's a great tactic in summer. Plenty of small roach to maggot under the rod tip but it only keeps you interested for a while. I agree there doesn't appear to be a great number of big fish here although it probably wasn't the best time of year to find out. A real change from the usual commercial with just the cattle for company. Great directions and service from the Foundation. I'm back tomorrow as well.

20 Other

We arrived at the venue to find 11' of flood water and the river just within its banks. The river did drop 3' during the day but was still unfishable in most areas. However, both anglers managed to find suitable spots but roving was clearly out of the question. We managed to catch a barbel each which we considered a decent result in these adverse conditions. The usual pellet and feeder being the successful method.

2 Barbel

The river was big when we first arrived and although I had fished it previously when high with some success it was exceptionally high with loads of debris. We fished very heavy and in close in the meadow, put in plenty of pellets and tried to present a static bait. My son had a nice 9lb 7oz barbel about an hour later and we thought we would catch some more. Unfortunately it went quiet and we started to lose a lot of tackle. We persevered but after a helpful chat we Don he suggested moving down to the top of the Wyebank beat. We took his offer and moved down, it certainly was easier to fish and hold bottom but the fish just weren't interested so we finished up with just the one fish but on a day when no one else bothered, we were pleased!

1 Barbel

River rose over 11 feet overnight and was the colour of a Costa Coffee latte.
3 barbel to 2 rods on pellet feeder. Only 3 fishable pegs due to height of river backing up Carey Brook and a dyke at the bottom end of the fishery making a large part of the beat inaccessible. Couldn't be helped, nature's intervention.
As ever, lovely surroundings, far better than work!

3 Barbel

We had a great day in spite of the weather which was awful !!! The track was impassable so parked at the Priory.
Access to swims was tricky and very slippery but we managed.
River was flowing fast and coloured but it didn't seem that high... We managed 3 barbel of 4lb, 5 1/2lb and one of 8lb 12oz plus a chub of 4lb 2oz and a 2lb ish eel. The barbel were taken on feeder with hair rigged pellet hookbait and the chub was taken on meat.

3 Barbel, 1 Chub

River was rising slightly and colouring up throught the day as a result of overnight storms. First fish came from the first cast at 5am, the trusty peg 13, producing a beautiful 9lb fish. Then very quiet until an 8lb Barbel was landed around midday. keeping the lines in swim became increasingly tricky as a lot of weed and debris but I have a feeling it would have continued to fish well. A bonus chub of 3-4lb was landed later in the day (winning me the match, phew). Will definateiy fish well as the river starts to return to pre-storm levels.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

Lovely days fishing. Weather was rather nice to start with but river started to rise while we fished which made things more entertaining! We targeted the barbel using a combination of running lead and feeder tactics. The feeder scoring better. I fished a 3oz feeder with a 3 foot hook length. Size 10 CBS carp bait specialists trident hook and a trimmed 14mm dumbbell CBS river monster boilie. The feeder was packed with CBS fish meal ground bait, pellets and hemp. I had 4 barbel of 7lb 5oz, 7lbs, 4lb 8oz and 2lbs! All in pristine condition. My fishing partner caught just the one of 5lb 8oz and lost another. We found the beat to be clean, plenty of lovely swims to chose from and directions to the venue were spot on. Thanks for a wonderful day out and we both look forward to visiting again very soon.

5 Barbel

Pellet feeder method did the trick. Caught throughout the day from mid-river. River in perfect conditions but rising. Biggest barbel 9 1/2lb with a further 4 over 7lb.

13 Barbel, 2 Chub

After heavy rain the day before, the river had risen and coloured up slightly so we were hoping for a better day's sport. We started at the bottom of the fishery and worked our way slowly back upstream trying most of the swims. Although my mate Ben caught 1 barbel during the morning it wasn't till the afternoon that we caught any further fish. I caught my 4 barbel in the last 3 hours of the day from one of the middle swims so was a happy man in the end! Definitely a lovely stretch of water and very nicely manged too!

8 Barbel, 1 Chub