Feedback & Reports

Having fished Whitehouse Fishery the previous day and coming home extremely disappointed we were expecting a far better experience at Thomas Wood having watched the promotional video on access to the fishery and pegs. We arrived at the fishery entrance and made our way down the steep hill to the first parking area and parked in the first parking spot on the bend. We walked towards the upstream limit, again to our amazement no obvious pegs were identified, all were completely overgrown with steep banks, and there was no clue or evidence where access points were. No worn track or flattened grass to even indicate where access was achievable. We found one good peg with an outcrop of rocks that one person could if reasonably fit navigate the steep bank, (No ledges cut in to assist access) and comfortably fish. There was a large area of gravel where the river ran across shallows, that, at normal river level, may have been a good option, but it was so shallow even the armada of canoes and paddle boarders were grounding on the rocks , so clearly not an option on our visit.

The only other peg we identified was occupied with rough campers, who were camped in the woodland behind the track having breakfast with their canoe conveniently tied up on the rocky outcrop ,with cooking equipment and rucksacks. They were completely oblivious to the fact they were occupying one of only 3 accessible points to fish from on the river ..and made no effort to apologise “You really couldn’t make this up”…! We eventually turned about and made our way to the downstream limit where we walked past what appeared to resemble peg locations, but again completely overgrown with balsam and nettles and 10ft steep bank to the river. We found on a large bend almost at the end of what we believed was the limit of the fishery a sandy bank where we decided to fish from . From the minute we started fishing there was a continuous, never-ending flotilla of canoes and paddle boards travelling past which made fishing virtually impossible. Between the two of us we caught one eel, a few small Chub and one very small Barbel, but had little indication all day that fish were feeding. With so few obvious pegs available to fish and such high banks without having knowledge or a landscape gardening team equipped with powerful strimming equipment you would be better off looking at other options. The track back up to the main gate is extremely steep but our Ford Transit custom van managed to get up steadily in 1st gear, but it was very dry. I have read reports of vehicles struggling once the road is wet, this wouldn't surprise me , and where possible I would opt for a 4x4 to be on the safe side.
Overall , beautiful location, stunning scenery , but access to good pegs is shocking.....Extremely disappointed and wont be rushing back.

1 Barbel, 4 Chub

Nice couple of hours on the river. Float fished bread and meat.

15 Chub

Good fishing, all on spam rolling in the fast water at the croy

5 Chub

Water clear and very very low! Barbel 5lb came on cage feeder.
All the chub gave us great battles heading for the streamer weed which was good to see.
Being a Saturday we had what seemed to be hundreds of canoes so packed up at around 3.

1 Barbel, 14 Chub

2 barbel at 6 and 2lb, the entrance hole has been filled in and some work has been done on the pegs near the pump.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

We arrived at the fishery around 9.00am, access to the river is by a gate located to the right of the farm buildings to the very back of the farm. , however this was not clear and obvious as there were narrow ropes extended after the gate as if to indicate no thoroughfare. After raising the attention of one of the farm residents we were advised to remove the rope and replace it once past it. We made our way down to the river where a sign was posted stating Anglers Park here. The weather was fine and temperatures were again still quite warm but slightly overcast for most of the day with no rain. The meadow was divided with an electified cattle fence which prevented us from walking through between the upper and lower extents of the fishery. The first peg closest to where the irrigation pump is located is a reinforced concrete plinth just about big enough to comfortably place a chair or seatbox , however it was extremely overgrown from bankside vegetation and would have proved problematic to fish from. The river was extremely low and clear and large areas of gravel were exposed. A concrete outcrop extended out a 1/3 into the river which if levels were higher would have been a great location to fish a stick float from. The area to the right towards the upstream limit was competely overgrown, mostly with steep banks and no visible access to a comfortable fishing spot for the entire length. We decided to head towards the downstream section but in order to do this we needed to pass all our gear, rod bags, holdalls etc under the electrified wire and then crawl under it ourselves. Access to the gravels was approximately 200 metres from the car park with reasonable access but still quite steep for anyone who struggles in anyway with mobility issues. We decided to fish from the gravels a litle bit further down where a slight run off appeared to run faster into deeper water about 4ft. This was confirmed by passing canoeists who indicated the depth using their paddles a gauge. We fished light with a bomb to reduce disturbance in the swim and hand fed hemp and caster with catapults, we tried pellet in various combinations and sizes including meat and fished up to 18:00. There was little indication all day of fish present in the swim and we only managed 1 eel, 3 chub and 3 dace between the two of us. Canoeists were a bit of a pain passing every 2 minutes and later we had paddle boarders on the gravel bar making loads of noise and walking in the river only 100 yards away. Bites were virtually non existent and we left extremely disappointed . With such poor access and a distinct lack of peg management we woud need to be quite desperate to fish here again.

3 Chub, 2 Other

3 Chub

Lovely fishery, lots of chub around 3-6lbs, no barbel unfortunately, other was an eel

18 Chub, 1 Other

First day back after heatwave, this seems the place to go for chub biggest around 4lb , good fun in the lowest levels I’ve ever seen.

40 Chub

Considering the low conditions we had a fabulous day, 3 barbel from 1 rod up to 8lb and other rod producing a PB on the Wye, very long and sleek barbel that struggled to fit in the net, weighed it quickly at 12lb.
All fish recovered really well and looked beautiful.

4 Barbel, 3 Chub