Feedback & Reports

Arrived at the river at first light. Wasn't an obvious entrance into the wooded area from the car park side so I walked around the woods. Before entering there I walked the length of the beat and only found 2 spots where you can access the river. I would happily clear myself a swim but the river didn't look ideal for barbel anyway.
I entered the woods but left my gear outside and that was a wise move. The woods are very tricky to walk through even without your gear, and again very few places you can access the river, very steep banks which you have no chance of going down or up. As I made my way up river through the woods I could see what can only be described as the perfect low river level barbel swim, but getting down to it was far from perfect. I'm a fit young man and I struggled getting down to the river without my tackle. It was my only hope of a good day so I decided to go back and get my gear and do what I could to get down there.
It was very tricky getting to it with my gear, hit the deck a number of times, literally shed blood to get to it. I was sweating from the heat too so I was relived to get to my swim as I was pretty frustrated by this point and just wanted to sit down and relax, this wasn't to be the case though, started fishing at 7am and by 9am I had 10 barbel. The bait was never in the water more than 2 minutes, spent the whole 2 hours playing fish. After 9am the chub joined the party and they were taking it in turns with the barbel. Into the afternoon the barbel almost completely switched off but the chub clearly wanted to take advantage of that and went nuts. As I'd feel the feeder hit the riverbed on the cast they'd take the hookbait on the drop. Had 3 hours of it.
The barbel moved back in and the chub finally cleared off. Steadily caught barbel after that until I packed up with lots of light to spare to ensure I could make it out of the woods before dark. The woods didn't frustrate me as much after having the best days fishing of my life. There is one bit though we're if you don't grab the rope you're going to tumble straight down into rocks from a very steep drop. You'd be lucky if you didn't bang your head and be the end of you. I just grabbed the rope in time, a real heart in your mouth moment. I not sure what I felt most happy about, an amazing day or managing to get back to the car with just cuts and bruises. The woods did provide good cover for the sun though.
The barbel were all 6-9lb and the chub 3-5lb. 2 of the barbel had other anglers hooks in their mouth, so nice to know I did them a favour by catching them and removing these. What a day in so many ways.

24 Barbel, 32 Chub

Upstream dry fly. All caught on elk hair caddis size 16 hook (red gold rib body). Great days fishing!!

11 Trout

9lbs hen fish to David Bennett spinning the Rapids pool on 1 July.

1 Salmon

Super day out on the hottest day of July ever recorded, supported by Chris Price of casting with style. Lots of fish about but none energetic enough to bite.

Fished the last 2 pegs in the morning. No barbell,water very, very low with little flow. One angler returned in the evening and managed 2 barbel and 1 chub. Good going under the circumstances. A lovely stretch to fish with easy access but would definitely benefit from a bit of extra water.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

Got to boys rock at 5am in the morning. Tackle fairy was out and lost four or five rigs mid or main flow of river. No bites so moved to step swim and had 1 small barbel and two chub. Then at 14:00 hours moved back to boys rock where the barbel and chub had decided to feed - had three barbel biggest at 8lb 13oz, then two chub and an eel. Hard work but enjoyed the sweltering day. All fish caught on elips pellets and hinders bomb mix in feeders. Thanks WUF.

4 Barbel, 4 Chub, 1 Other

Afternoon session on the lovely Grywne Fawr. Tough going in the very low water and the small sentrys in the tails of the pool alerted the bigger chaps that are sometimes here. Best fish was a 12 incher of fighting fury, they really do go some down here! Lots of salmon parr topping and snatching the dry and the river bed is littered with case building caddis.

4 Trout

A couple of hours or so session after a cooling Butty Bach at the Skirrid Inn . A couple of 10 inch fish on the dry soon after starting by the houses but then all quiet as I moved up. Wading up below the rail bridge a bitch otter decided to join in. That explains the lack of trout activity there then! Was a fabulous sight though and she has a holt just below the bridge.
By the way, I was camping at the Maes Y Beran campsite a few mile up the valley. Highly recommended if you like it simple and peaceful, right on the banks of the Honddu. No toilets etc though. No problem. The owner comes round for the dues in the mornings or evenings.
Llanthony Priory campsite further up has bit better facilities to those that want them and is a great site as well. There's a bar underneath one part of the priory!
Thanks to all at the WUF for all these and more opportunities!

2 Trout

Travelled from Essex during the morning for a 3 day trip. Fished for just a few hours in the afternoon, very hot and humid. Just 2 chub to show for my efforts.

2 Chub

Three anglers fished beat 4 from dawn until 8-30am. Methods employed were stick float and bomb rod with various baits including maggots and pellet. The barbel caught was 27" long and weighed 8lbs and was caught on the bomb with Hinders elipse pellet.

1 Barbel