Feedback & Reports

Very many thanks for arranging my fishing at Upper Bigsweir. I throughly enjoyed my day. Water 46 degrees so just ok for barbel and I eventually caught one weighing just under 7lbs.

Managed a chub (4lb) on my first cast of the day, on luncheon meat, and then not another bite till late afternoon when a smaller chub was had. The track up to the upper part of the river is only accessable by 4x4. It's not a hard track. The access to the lower section is only a very short walk.

Tough day, couldn't find any fish with the float rod but did have two chub on stewing steak and a couple of other bites while roving about. River was coloured and up a foot or two.

Eight chub on a thoroughly miserable day, seven to my companion. Thoroughly miserable! We booked on the Friday when the forecast was better with a hopeful desire to catch a last barbel before heading off to the himalayas to circumvent another member of the family (may he be as heavy as Sir Roger). It wasn't to be, but we fished hard all day and found the chub shoals in the gullies mentioned in the description. We'll be back later in the year as this beat looks excellent for a summer barbel or two, or maybe three...

A lovely warm day with the river at a good height and with slight colour. The fishing though was very slow. Even the dace were elusive and I only saw one fish rise all day. Just one bite all day despite trying all the likely spots - this resulted in an out of season brownie about a pound.

4 Barbel to 6lb 15oz and 2 Chub to 4lb 13oz. Three fish taken early on with a chub early afternoon, then a long wait until 4pm when I had the final two barbel which were both over 6lb. All fish accepted ledgered Halibut Pellets.

Second day on this lovely stretch. I cut down on the gear and walked down to Quarry pool I think. Rather expensive on the gear, 6 casts resulted in 4 complete sets of end gear lost, 3 with fish on! I cast shorter each time but still it all went solid. The last fish was 100 yds upriver because I moved away from the area. Snaggy area was in the middle of the river just upriver of the green shed thats on the other side, beware. Today I moved around more as the weather was very pleasant. 4 barbel and 3 chub plus the lost fish means that today was far more productive. Same tactics as yesterday.

The details state that the steps are slippery, they are ok until you get down near the bottom then the tree roots have moved several steps. The second of the steps that have moved has tipped forward and was rather slippery as I found out to my cost, slipped off it and landed with a crash, was wary of it thereafter! What a lovely stretch of river. Conditions looked really good. The weather was a bit rubbish so I fished the 3 swims for longer than I would normally have done, still I had the day after there as well. I caught a couple of barbel 4lb to 5lb fairly early in the day and then struggled until gone 5pm before I had another bite which was a small chub. As I was playing it in I think I saw an otter opposite me, light was starting to fade so a bit difficult to be sure. All fish came to legered pellet.

We arrived at 8.30am to find the river high enough to cover a lot of the concrete path by the parking area. We went up river some 500 yds and set up and stayed in one place as the weather was very windy and not the sort of day to be moving swims. One rod had a barbel of about 4lb within half an hour of starting which was very pleasing, shortly after the other rod had a chub of about the same weight. By the end of the day the other rod had caught just the one barbel and I managed a barbel and 3 chub. Barbel came out on pellet and the chub came to sweetcorn. Nice and mild but less wind would have been so much nicer.

A very enjoyable day pike fishing. 4 pike, 3 between 5 and 7lbs and one 21lbs all caught in a large eddy behind a concrete croy. One large silver salmon seen following plug; not sure whether it was an early springer or a kelt. Looking forward to next visit.