Feedback & Reports

This was a short 4 hour session and I took my brother in law who has Parkinson's so hoping for some safe swims to fish which is just what we found. Just to the right of where you can park the car there is a concrete ramp down to a long concrete pontoon about 4 swims long. The river had great even flow and limited canoe traffic. No bites for 1st hour. Moved down stream to another safe section which was a gravel bank with loads of open swims available. This is a big space of water so slightly daunting trying to locate fish. Again no bites. For the last hour we went back to the original swim and fished the deeper inside line 2 rod lengths out. 2 Barbel in the last hour. 7LB and 8LB, both in fantastic condition. I suspect a dusk fishing session in this spot would be excellent. I walked further upstream looking for other swims but these are few and far between plus the flow is rather slow.

2 Barbel

I'm a novice so pls bear with me. Caught one grayling on a PTN . Not much was rising. Had one or two decent rises but generally not much happening. There was a more experienced angler there and even he was struggling.
Beautiful place. Fish caught at head of "Lady Alexanders"

1 Grayling

The river was low and dropping after a small rise. Weather was warm and nicely overcast for most of the day. One salmon caught on Colemans on a shrimp pattern. Cock fish around 13lb.

1 Salmon

Fishing patchy , some swims produced quite well others seemed fishless.

7 Barbel

We each tried a couple of swims throughout the stretch and caught from each one fished. Best barbel was estimated at 8.08 and the biggest chub was weighted at 4.15. Our usual feeder tactics trying different baits was the method used.

14 Barbel, 13 Chub

2 Barbel

Nothing caught this time.

13 barbel caught throughout the day, between 1lb-8lb. River flowing fast and clear but levels up compared to more recent conditions. Great little beat to fish.

13 Barbel, 2 Chub, 1 Other

1 Barbel

Upper Bigsweir is a glorious beat and a very pretty stretch of the river. I would agree with your beat notes that the top part of the beat is excellent fly water and that the lower part is probably better suited to spinning. Wading was easy/straightforward.
Although I caught no fish (although something - a trout probably- tugged at my small dark salmon fly) I saw three salmon move: one on the far side in the middle of Ash Tree, one in mid-stream opposite the sign 'Ash Tree/Triangles' and one in the distance further downstream probably in Crescent. There were also a few trout moving.
The weather was warm and cloudy with a little sunshine in the afternoon and a few drops of rain.
A most enjoyable day's fishing despite the lack of fish and I shall definitely be back next season (when spinning is still permitted!). Thank you.