Feedback & Reports

Eventually got to the river via diversions around Abergavenny - roads closed etc, hope it was not too serious. Monnow as low as I have seen it, and very slimy. Landed 5 at 7" - 10", on either a small GRHE or para midge. The para attracted interest everywhere from small parr - if they all survive it will mean many fish!!

5 Trout

2 Trout

fished for one hour. horrendous weed. drove 180 miles home.

Our second day on this beat. Slightly cooler and mostly overcast but still lots of weed coming through. We tried several swims at either end of the beat with the 2 barbel caught from the top end.

2 Barbel, 6 Chub

2 Grayling

Barbel fishing on How Caple better than ever!

All fish came to pellet fished with an open feeder in the faster water. The fish responded to the feeder hitting the water, and were all caught within 10 minutes of casting out.
Very weedy! Free weed flowing downstream constantly. Had to keep recasting, but that was fine as the fish were straight on the bait.

Note: The banks are steep at this venue and on the day, there was a drop of 3 foot to the river. Could the owners consider creating a safer platform on 1 or 2 swims that would make the venue more suitable for anglers of all agility.

21 Barbel, 8 Chub, 2 Other

Fantastic fishing on a delightful stretch of a fabulous river. The morning was slow with one good barbel and one lost plus several good chub, but the afternoon and evening were incredible, having hit jackpot and getting constant action in one of the swims which produced about 24 fish on the bank, and a few losses. Many of these were in the 1-3lb range but the best went 8lb 7oz with a couple of 6s and a few 4s/5s. The other swim came to life around 5pm throwing up several bites with a better average size around 5-6lb and a few nice chub to 4lb 8oz.
One word of warning: some of the swims/ pools listed are simply unfishable. It is impossible to get low enough to the water, penetrate the vegetation or cast out in places due to overgrown banks and overhanging branches. It would be nice to see more of the beat made genuinely accessible (and I am not afraid of a bit of clambering / pushing through nettles, but much of this stretch is literally inaccessible) and fishable. It is a long stretch but my advice is to move until you find the fish, after which fantastic fishing can be had.

31 Barbel, 9 Chub

Nice to get out after such a dry spell with low water levels. John and I fished the top run and I picked up one chub of about 6 oz fishing sunken deer hair sedge. Fished this pattern sub surface till dark picking up three more chub of same size. One trout took and thrashed the surface before detaching itself. John Lewis decided to move to Woodstream for last hour and picked up 6 trout between 5 and 8oz on the black gnat wet fly with takes throughout the fast water down to the belly.
water quite warm and 0.42m. Lovely late evening fishing.

6 Trout, 4 Chub

Pleasant day with nice breeze. Because of the floating weed needed to recast frequently. Lots of chub bites and odd barbel in between on pellets and paste. Very enjoyable.

5 Barbel, 12 Chub

8 Trout