Feedback & Reports

8 chub and 4 barbel between the 2 rods.

3 barbel to 7-05 caught on swim feeder and elips pellets. Floating weed again a problem.

Around 15 fish taken between 4 of us, fishing cage feeder and pellet. Fished as close as possible to the run-off below Boy's Rock. It's a shame fishing is not allowed in front of the cottage (immediately below the rock), and this would undoubtedly be a fantastic barbel swim. River level was too low to realistically target the shallow reaches lower down, although with a bit more water on it looks like this could produce some fish. Quite a lot of rowing boats at the lower end of the beat, though.

During 3 hours we caught 8 barbel to just over 9lb and a couple of chub. Hemp feeders and long hook lengths worked well. River up about 6 inches - lovely.

Loose weed floating down made things a bit awkward but had 4 nice Barbel on feeder and pellett. A bright day but very pleasant and the fish were a bonus.

3 barbel to 6-10 and 1 mirror carp of 13-12. floating weed a problem. Swim feeder and elips pellets as bait.

Nice stretch of river. 4 of us fished most of the morning and evening for around 12 fish between us, including barbel to 7lb and chub to 4lb. All the fish came to cage feeder and pellet. Tried rolling meat for some time but to no avail.

Caught 3 barbel and 6 chub for 4 rods, very hard fishing and disapointing return from a normally good beat.

3 Barbel and 5 Chub

Thankfully after our pantomimes of the last two days we arrived at the beat with no mishaps other than the self-harm caused by our lack of restraint the previous evening.

The river was two feet up and tanking through carrying plenty of colour so our hopes were high although we knew it wouldn't be easy as in our experience MHC is quite difficult to fish due to the proliferation of snags in many areas, it's a real tackle eater. However, whilst the numbers of barbel caught here are often lower than other beats, the average size seems to be high with plenty of clonkers being regularly reported so it's well worth persevering with.

We weren't to be disappointed and although we had only 4 barbel and 5 chub between us (and lost loads of terminal tackle) 2 of the barbel were over 9lbs with the best going 9-11, a thoroughly deserved p.b. for TC!

It could and probably should have been better given the conditions and the effort we put in but it would be churlish to moan after 2 such fantastic, fin perfect fish!

Just a couple of other things of note.

The canoe flotillas were out in force and the number of d***heads that pilot them never ceases to amaze me and is getting progressively worse as every season goes by! I've no issue with the folks who do it properly, they've as much right as me to be on the river and I've found them universally polite and considerate but words fail me on some of the rest!

We observed a large amount of fish activity at MHC with numbers of large salmon AND barbel crashing out of the water at regular intervals throughout the day. One of the barbel that leapt out directly in front of me positively dwarfed the 9-11 I'd just seen, it was huge!