Feedback & Reports

Two rods caught 3 barbel 5lb, 7lb14ozs, 9lb2ozs. All fish were caught from van stone pegs using meat and pellets fished up against streamer weed. Very hot day put fish off feeding until cloud cover at 4pm. Fantastic scenery and a great place to fish. Definitely will come back again.

8 barbel and a chub from swims at the top and bottom of the fishery. All on the usual pellet and feeder approach. First visit to this beat. The location really lovely (all the Wye beats are, of course, but particularly good scenery here). Much of the beat is heavily weeded and inaccessible - one can imagine many barbel tucked away in the weed. River was still carrying some colour and it took some work to find weed-free spots to place a bait in the downstream swims.

The previous comment about strong tackle is well made - you do have to bully your fish away from the weed. Some of my fish had mouth marks suggesting that they had already been caught once or more since the start of the season - unfortunately this is becoming a common feature in the heavily fished swims throughout the Wye. There were big fish showing in three spots throughout the day. My first assumption was salmon, but after a carp swam under my rod top I began to wonder....

Since Sugwas has become available to the W&U, the reports lead you to believe that this beat has exceptional potential for the coarse angler, I can now advise that to be true!
The four members of the WBCaAC (Wye Barbel Catchers and Aspirers Club) set off even earlier than normal this time around as we were itching to spend as much time as possible by the waters side. This meant alarms at 02:00 hrs in order to arrive in time for first light. Arriving in the ‘Orchard’ car parking area on first viewing it was apparent that it may be difficult to fish this top end due to the lack of water. After much discussion amongst the four after perusal of the swims available, we opted to drive to the other two areas of parking further down stream. ‘Two Ton Trev’ and ‘Ton Up Tony’ surveyed the lowest section whilst ‘Bailiff Russ’ and ‘Jilted John’ (John the only ‘aspirer’ left in the party) cast their eyes over the middle section. It was the middle section that took the fancy of all and as Russ and John were in position first so had the first dibs on swims. John was placed in the swim most suited to his comfort and set about organising his ‘Tackle Shop’ of equipment (shame he forgot the milk!) and Russ settled into the swim below between a pair of trees. Trev and Tony arrived on the scene soon after and promptly settled on two swims below that of Russ. We broke at lunchtime, for a civilised glass of cabernet sauvignon and celebrated the loss of John’s Wye barbus barbus virginity!
We fished until approx 20:30 hrs with a return for the 4 rods of 47 chub to 5lb, 9 Barbel to 8lb and probably the catch of the day falling to Tony of a 2.8 lb Perch! The majority of the barbel were taken on pellet fished over hemp although the four did catch fish on 8 different baits.
It was a long journey home, especially for Trev and Tony in their BMW (Barbelless Men’s Wheels).
On a serious note: We would like to take this opportunity to thank the W&U for their normal professionalism with special thanks to Adam for his patience in talking to Trevor! We will be back later in the year albeit under our new guise of WBCC (since we no longer have any aspirers).

Thank you!

Lovely stretch of water with good variety of pegs and easy access throughout. Bright sunny conditions and low water may have contributed to wary barbel, with two caught during the day to 7 lbs, along with a dozen chub to 4 lbs, dace and two eels. All fish caught on pellets, paste or meat.

Another great day at Holme Lacy, the river was a bit lower than the previous week, but that didn't stop the fish feeding. Due to the lower flow we were able to fish along the island bank this time without using 4oz feeders.
We finished the day with 20 Barbel up to 8lb, plus numerous Chub to 3.5lb. Bait was again Halibut Pellet fished below a feeder.

The river is absolutely stunning and in a remote location away from any disturbance whatsoever. We had a few Barbel to over 6lbs and some decent Chub. The river offers a variety of different swim types and we caught from both the deeper pools and the shallower streamy water. We had a very enjyable day and will be back. We even had a chat to the owner! Thanks W&UF.

15 barbel (to 8lb) and 7 chub between the two of us, all caught on various pellets.

This is a lovely stretch that screams barbel. The first section is quite shallow with lots of streamer weed, it then deepens off before shallowing off again. There are quite a few swims with three well cut out swims at the top the beat near the croy. This stretch does not appear to be as profilic as other streches. The fish were quite wary, after catching a couple they would move out. They soon come back though. I tried three swims and caught barbel from all of them as well as a number of chub.

The walk back to the car is a killer, as is the walk to the far end of the fishery, you have a bridge and a stile to negioate. Also use strong line, the weed can be thick and the fish make straight for it. I retrieved two sets of tackle from two of the barbel i caught.

Wyebank truly is a stunning location which offers outstanding fishing. I arrived at the car park around 9am and was greeted by a gentleman called Rudi who gave me the low down on where and how best to fish the beat. His advice was duly noted and within around 40 minutes of fishing I had, not only my first barbel of the session, but my first river Wye barbel. It was a fish of about 2-3lb and what it lacked in size, it more than made up for in its magnificent beauty. After this first fish the action dwindled for several hours. However, from around 3pm until I had what must have been my 15th "one last cast" at about 8pm, the fish really came on the feed and took a liking to my feeder fished halibut pellets presented into deeper water off the bottom croy of the beat.

I finished the session with 10 fish. Two small chub (1.5-2lb), 5 small barbel (2-3lb) and three larger barbel: 4lb 13oz, 6lb 1oz and 6lb 4oz.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable session which was no doubt shaped by the kind advice given to me by Rudi at the start of the day.

Had a great day with six Barbel between us to 8.12 and a few Chub all taken from the swims at the top of the fishery. The river is stunning with plenty to go at and lots of varied water. Thanks W&UF.