Feedback & Reports

Took a party of old friends onto beats 3, 4 & 5. Water was still low but rising slowly.. Two of the party reported an estimated 80lb plus mixed bags of barbel and chub. Salmon showing in many of the pools. Coming back on Wednesday for another session. Beats 1, 2,& 6, Still untouched. Good luck for Wednesday.

Another early start, river running nice and almost clear. Opted for a different approach today, maize doctored up with active 8 and hemp. Crossed the bridge and pre-baited the 3 swims that side with the said bait, set up the tip rod with feeder and hair rigged maize (2 grains to a size 10 wide gape barbless hook). Fished the bottom swim 150m below the bridge first, instant response from chub to 2.5lbs and a very nice little Barbel of 4.5lbs, swim died after the hectic start. Moved back up to just above the big tree and applied same tactics with again instant results from a chub of 2lbs. Changed to a block end feeder full of maize and hemp and a hour later landed a very fat and short barbel around 5lbs, same thing happened swim died. Another move to the top swim saw a very similar fish reaction. Early chub again, 2lbs+ and a hour wait for the next pull which saw another 5lbs barbel netted. Sat here for bite-less 2hrs. Moved everything back to the bottom swim road side of the fishery. Back to tried and tested method's here 1.1/2 oz feeder open end full of elips pellets 10mm and elips dampened ground bait, hook bait 3 10mm elips pellets hair rigged to a size 8 barbless hook. This sorted some fine old bronzed warriors (chub) to 5lbs and I never lost any gear here, taking 6 chub before I left at 2.30pm Nice steady day and a pleasant chat with the fishery owner to boot. Will be back to try a evening session soon.

3 Barbel, 9 Chub

7pm to 9.30pm. Top end Leggs Meadow, 3rd peg down. Nothing until 8.30pm then 4 barbel in 6 to 8lb size and 3 chub around 2lb in next half hour. 10mm pellet, swim fed upstream by catapult with mixed pellet sizes. Water temp now down to 17/18 deg C from the 23 deg C of two weeks ago. Upper Courtfield pegs cut and cleared.

4 Barbel, 3 Chub

A pleasant days fishing at Lower Cannon Bridge. I note there have been several previous reports complaining about the walk to the river. I cannot understand why. It is an easy walk along a farm track to the river itself of approximately 600 yards. The track is neither rutted or muddy. Once on the bank there is a clearly defined path both up and down stream. The path is flat and you can access the well defined swims without the need of a rope. You walk along the edge of fields containing cattle but they are far more interested in grazing than passing anglers!
We fished the upper section of the beat opposite the well known "wall". It was a slow day with only five barbel and two chub between us but that didn't matter as we still had an enjoyable day. Anyone fishing these upper swims should be aware that they are VERY snaggy and you will need to step your tackle up to have any chance of preventing unnecessary fish losses.

5 Barbel, 2 Chub

Arrived mid-morning with same plan as last time. Fished same swim. Fortunately no drifting weed this time. Barbel were not so co-operative, only caught 1 barbel about 3lbs. However, caught 8 chub to 4lbs. Another enjoyable day.

1 Barbel, 8 Chub

Nice day, river at an awkward height for the beat, but still caught some nice barbel to 9lbs.

4 Barbel, 5 Chub

Sunny day with patchy high cloud, river at good height following rain earlier in the week but with colour hiding the streamer weed. Chub caught on sweetcorn, switched to pellet and had a barbel at the end. Didnt fish all day. Great to meet Tony the ghillie, a lovely man with lots of useful info.

1 Barbel, 5 Chub

4 Barbel, 7 Chub

An early start as we wanted to be on river for 1st light. the beat could benefit with some signs for anglers as even when following beat directions, not too clear on parking spaces. Once all parked up, off to the river. Water was very coloured and obviously much higher than has been from previous reports and the flow was extremely fast. Not to be put off we set up and tried our luck. Firstly fishing from swim under Vaga Cottage. Between the 2 of us we had quite a few knocks, lost fish but none landed. We then moved down the beat and tried a couple of different swims. Again plenty of knocks, and a lot of lost fish. Finally success was had and I landed my first ever river barbel on first ever barbel fishing trip and after a good fight landed a nice 7lb 2oz wye barbel. More knocks followed and then landed an eel at approx 1.5lb. We had plenty of action but unfortunately the fish got the better of us as we continually lost them or they snagged us by bolting straight to the fast flow. The majority of our action came as the river level started to decrease and by the time we left the level had dropped by 12 - 18 inches easily. Very hard and trying conditions due to the swell and colour of the river and as it being our first ever barbel venture but a great day. Unable to see runs due to colour and flow but still managed to get plenty of knocks even though it was hard to stay on the bottom due to flow, even with a 3oz cage feeder. Method used all day was alternating cage feeder/straight ledger, with hair rigged baits. Tried different types of pellets but the bait set up giving us our knocks was spicy sausage with corn cage feeder with halibut method mix and halibut pellets. Strange combination but this gave us all our action. The cage feeder created a cloud with a burst of 4mm feed pellets and whether it was the visual of the corn in the conditions or the smell of the sausage we dont know but probably a combination as individually those baits got no action. Late afternoon early evening tried Vaga again as water level had dropped and action started. Firstly with an eel of around 2lb, then missed barbel bites. Would loved to have stayed just a little longer as the area downstream of the island was coming alive. Take plenty of end tackle as all swims we fished were very snaggy and fish were breaking us up on 10lb hook lengths when they bolted for the fast water. The beat would benefit from the swims possibly being made a little more fishermen friendly but saying that we had a cracking day which tested our abilities on something we never done before.

1 Barbel, 2 Other

A tough day on a 3 FT and falling river, the lowest stretch was unfishable, concentrated on the middle section identifying an area of smooth flow near to a weed bed, steady fishing all day with 15 Barbel and 18 chub on a warm day. All caught on pellet feeder with a mixture of pellets, a lovely stretch with plenty of areas to fish, immaculately kept and maintained by Colin. The top end of the fishery is close to parking area so a long walk is not necessary. Great day again, looking forward to a return visit to W & U in Sept. Thanks.

15 Barbel, 18 Chub