Feedback & Reports

Arrived mid morning, weather very hot and sunny, the river was very low and clear. Spent an hour exploring the river, as previous people have commented many areas are over grown and it's difficult to get to the river.

I fish three different swims through out the day in the field below the orchard. Caught a 6lb 5oz Barbel first cast (on luncheon meat), I then had to wait until mid afternoon before another barbel around 5lb arrived (caught on 10mm boilie). As the sun went down the fish started to feed, I finished up with seven Barbel (best 8lb 12oz) and one chub. I caught fish on meat, boilie and pellet, overall a very enjoyable day.

10 barbel to 9.5lbs, 2 x chub.

River low but not as clear as our last visit in August therefore hopes were reasonably high. Misplaced optimism I'm afraid as the day proved to be very tough indeed. We fished the top & bottom of the beat extensively with a range of baits (including maggot) but could only tempt 2 barbel & 3 chub between us.

Despite hoards of canoeists and some of the hottest days of the year the barbel fed well and over a day and a half we banked around 28 barbel, most in the 2 - 5lb range but a handful were in the 8lb bracket. Several chub up to around 4lb were also caught. Big feeders filled with scalded pellet doing the job, with bites sometimes coming 'on the drop'.

This is our 3rd visit to Caradoc with only 4 rods fishing as per the local rules, again the river proved rock hard on what has to be one of our favourite beats available, extremely peaceful and quite, especially after Wyastone Leys the previous day, all set in stunning surroundings.
Like may other previous reports the weed was a problem throughout and despite searching most of the beat, starting on the shallows and working our way back upriver past the hut, only 3 Barbel around the 7lb were landed by the pellet anglers.
One of the rods did put together a reasonable catch of silver fish trotting sweetcorn from one of the croyes, dace and chublets etc, with none of the bigger Chub or Barbel being tempted by the method.
Again many Salmon were heard and spotted crashing around, especially around the hut leaping well clear above the water on several occasions, this must me some ritual the fish perform to entertain the anglers.
All in all a fitting end to a wonderful 3 day beak, made even more enjoyable by record braking weather, “we will be back”.

Not a bite didn't see any fish either, but it was very hot and sunny, there was so much weed coming down it was very hard to keep the rod in the water (huge clumps). Apart from that, lovely place, nice swims, easy parking.

2 Rods fished today 2nd trip of the week! 2nd 10LB Barbel ( 10lb 4oz ). Total was 5 Barbel & 3 Chub to one rod. Same tactics Pellet & paste. If you want big fish this is definitely the stretch for it.

After enquiring with the WUF for a 5 rod beat, Wyastone was booked after negotiation with the owner to accommodate us, this turned out to be one of our poorest days ever on the Wye and in effect a £100.00 day ticket for only one productive swim.
Again directions and instructions from the WUF spot on, but despite searching many of the swims downstream of the overhead wires, as far as the shallows at the bottom of the wood, only the pylon swim produced and fish, not a single bite was had anywhere else along the beat. Again it was possibly down to the bright sunny conditions, however apart for the water between the rock and wires, where several large fish crashed out, not another rise was spotted anywhere with the river looking devoid of fish.
The wire swim did produce a total 22 Barbel with fish averaging from 6lb up to 9lb, an awesome return with a couple of the guys sharing the bulk of the fish, but most disappointing for the others, on a plus note there were far more accessible swims available than first thought, just a pity about the returns.

The scenery on this stretch is probably the best i have seen on the Wye (complete with Cider trees). 3 Rods fished the lower section caught 5 Barbel & 1 Chub on pellet & paste! Very hot conditions but one of our party decided to step into the river for a quick unexpected dip up to his waist (look out for those piles of leaves pretending to be dry land). Think he had been too close to the Cider trees!! Barbel ranged from 7lb to 9lb.

Very hot day only had three Chub caught on pellet. Apart from the lack of catching the day was spoilt by far bank activity. Cars continually being driven along, anglers wadding across and fishing our bank and shouting being the means to communicate. Won't go again.