Feedback & Reports

Middle hill court. Fished until four o’clock had five decent chub no barbel, fished what looked to be the deepest and clearest swim a couple of pegs upstream from the car park. Interesting to see all weed in the clear shallow water which gives you an idea where to go when the river has more colour and height

Bait and wait approach in a deep gully between streamer weed - resulted in the blankety blank cheque book and pen!

Amazingly no-one was booked on this fabulous beat so at short notice all three of us managed to get our middle-aged bodies up over the hill and on to the whirly bit where the fish live.

We then spent a pleasant day doing what most blokes our age do – fighting the chub.

There must be something in the water here that keeps these chub present as I’ve never witnessed anything like the amount of a single species in one stretch. They’re like tadpoles in a pond.

I reckon between us we must have caught 75 of the blighters throughout the day in various shapes and sizes, all caught on various baits - not bad going bearing in mind our day also included a 4 hour gap midday for lunch and a red wine snooze.

We also managed some nice barbel (including a few one pound toddlers) to round off a perfect day. Despite the trek across the top, this beat never fails to deliver.

Especially if you like chub.

6 Barbel, 75 Chub

2 Barbel

1 Barbel, 30 Chub

With low levels it was hard to sustain fish feeding. Still, a great section. Very peaceful.

1 Barbel, 5 Chub

A pleasant day on The Wye in spite of low water making fishing difficult

3 Barbel, 2 Chub

Rolling meat captured all fish, not interested in static baits at all

2 Barbel, 9 Chub

Evening session only, pellet and feeder tactic between streamer weed - just the one chub at last knockings

1 Chub

As reported by many grumpy anglers before me, conditions weren’t great due to the lack of fresh rain from mid Wales. I’ve learned that fish get both lively and hungry after a downpour and also don’t mind getting wet so the more rain the better – they’re not keen on raw sewage mind.

Ever optimistic, we trudged down the hill in search of some fast water or a feature that might hold some fish. After a damp 15-minute walk up and down the bank we couldn’t choose a spot we truly believed in so decided to only fish in the morning. We also booked Fownhope 5 for the next day, knowing that there’s a better chance to get a bend in the rod in the fast gulley.

The few hours that we did fish were eventful though. One of us broke a landing net, the other fell in the water (again) and the third member managed to catch 2 barbel and a chub in the very end peg (all on magic pellet).

We retired to our digs around one for sausage and beans on toast. Delicious.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub