Feedback & Reports

A wet and chilly day at Wyebank but rewarding nonetheless. Having visited this fabulous beat a few weeks previous in what were pretty tricky conditions we were eager to get another crack at it. The final tally was 5 barbel to 8lb and 2 chub. All barbel were caught from the bottom pool with touch legering tactics as some of the bites were a little twitchy. Great to meet Don for a chat and to listen to his valued advice. A great stretch of the Wye and one that we will certainly be returning to. I think our final tally would've been greater if I hadn't needed to retreat from the rain every couple of hours due to the lack of an umbrella!

1 barbel between 3 rods. Not a good day as river low and clear.

A dificult day's fishing on a day when the rains came down. Tried different methods and swims but the fish just wern't playing today. Still it's fishing not catching and will be back to the Wye on hopefully a better day.

A difficult day on Wyebank but non the less enjoyable. Conditions less than ideal with one of the first frosts of the season with temps of 4 degrees on arrival and clear blue skies. I fished the top pool below the island, wading to reach the fishable areas with high hopes of catching chub by trotting a float. My partner in crime headed for the bottom pool with Don's advice echoing in his ears.
Needless to say we retired to The Courtfield Arms for a lunchtime pint to compare disappointing notes with one chub from the bottom pool and two trout from the top! I did manage to catch 3 canoeists (or should that be, they hit me) which did not improve my mood!
I do feel that some degree of competency is required before letting people loose on the river. If I'd been knocked off my 'waded feet' I'd have been trying find dry land some considerable way down stream, if at all.
The day ended with a total of 3 trout and a few dace to the float on maggots and one chub to the feeder and pellet but having walked Courtfield, nobody had caught as much there, so perhaps we should be content!
Thanks to Don and Rudi for there kind advice but ultimately I think the conditions and canoes were against us. We'll be back though.

PS: I did hook "'something' from the top pool, freelining a cube of luncheon meat, which despite making early line on, turned and headed for Monmouth taking all 80 yards of line from my reel and leaving me with a rod and empty spool for contemplation! Ain't no stopping us now sprang to mind!
Don suggested that it may have been something with an 'adipose fin' shall we say, who am I to argue as I've never felt a pull like it!

We caught 4 Barbel ,8lbs 8oz, 7lbs 2oz, 7lbs 8oz and 6lbs 2oz. We fished the double swim just down from the weir pool.

Whilst fishing the lower Wall Pool on Saturday morning my specialist barbel rod and 35 year old beloved Mitchell 300 has wrenched into the river within seconds of casting out! It flew off the rod rest and raced out across the pool and sank out of sight. 2 hours in the boat with a heavy spinner failed to find it. 5 hours later my 12 year old daughter was spinning for trout with micro gear and a tiny mepps in the top of the Wall Pool. She snagged the bottom and I went to help. The bottom moved and we suspected a salmon! After a great tussle in came a foul hooked 11lb Barbel. When I netted it it seemed to be snaaged - and YES there was my hook and line in its lower lip. We bought the boat up the pool and I went out gently handlining and up came my feeder, rod and reel!!! 50 meters UPSTREAM of where it went in. These Wye barbel are truly wild, strong fish!! We totalled 8 barbel over the trip all in double figures!

Fished from 2pm until 7pm in very bright sunshine and gin clear summer level water. So not ideal barbel catching conditions. As the light faded, managed to winkle out two decent barbel circa 7lbs and my son lost a decent fish.
Nice looking stretch with lots of potential in perhaps more favourable conditions.

7 barbel to 9lb 4oz a 5lb chub. The beat boundary line indication on the W&U map clearly shows the bottom boundary being the centre of the Old Bridge. This is misleading as the boundary is actualy the upstream fence line. This was CLEARLY explained to me by the keeper when he turned up and asked me to move back over the fence when I had just set up to fish off the peg between the bridge and the fence. The W&U need to make the beat boundary specific to prevent any future anglers suffering the same embassment as I did.

3 barbel to 8lbs and 3 chub to 5lbs 10oz. All fish caught on pellet.