Feedback & Reports

Stunning day on the river, small hatch in the morning, a few trout responding to the hatch. River as low as I have seen it and crystal clear made for hard work, F J had 3 fish on dry fly- F fly I think and I had 3 fish on bugs, all caught in the morning.

6 Trout

Nice beat Mike put me on the fish again but no pulls

2 Trout

12 x trout 6-11 inches, Rusty Klinkhammer. Once again that icy wind was blowing. No fish rising, so prospected again with a single dry fly - some fish lying under the runs at head of pools were provoked to the surface, and a few fish did rise naturally by mid-afternoon. I totally failed to fish the top section above the house on the opposite bank, which is now badly overgrown. Pruning urgently needed! Also there are some access problems where fencing contractors have put barbed wire across field crossing stile and access points to the river.

12 Trout

3 Trout

A bit windy but when sun came out it made the day, not many bites in the morning but the tide turned around 12 pm

5 Trout

So, water was v low (0.97m Monmouth gauge) which meant quite a lot not possible to fish a fly through, but can see the huge potential of this beat for sure. The water running down from Slaughter to the foot bridge is just wonderful and can imagine a lot of fish get hooked here. Below the bridge down to Martins it was all too slow for a fly, so fished hard with a spinner, scrambling the banks and wading the edges, didn't connect with one, but did see a fish roll in the Smokehouse pool.

I don't want this to be just another negative post about the canoe civil war that haunts this part of the Wye, but I put up with as much as I could on the top half until finally a large pack of men came through, one with a sound system so loud I could actually feel the bass through the water. So I wound in the line at that point. Around 50 % of them have obviously been briefed and passed me behind where my line was, but the other half carry on straight through the middle of the pool. The grumpy man in me feels it is perhaps a bit unfair to pay £50 to fish a beat where the main part of the day is virtually impossible, but the more easy going utilitarian in me says there is still a lot of water and I was outnumbered around 100:1 by canoeists, so I should give way to them. I doubt I will fish there again at this time of year, but would consider coming back from June when it's available mid week. In the mean time... i think we should all do a rain dance!

Highlight was filming two MASSIVE wild boar cruising down the treeline of Lady Wood in the half light on the way out!

First time on this beat and enjoyed it . very nice stretch of water. river levels low with a strong continual wind made it quite tricky. plenty of fly on the water brook duns , uprights etc ten trout to french nyphing and three to the dry. fishing the dry was very frustrating with several good fish rising but casting a real problem. size wise all between 10-22 inches. shame the wind was up all day as there were fish rising freely for 2 hours. will fish this again but with a few more inches on the gauge as i am sure you could achieve a good catch here with some pace in the water

13 Trout

Great day. Overcast and drizzling, but there were a few hatches going on all day. All the trout and grayling were small (palm length) except one grayling of 22 cm. Map should be updated, as it is unclear where to park ans exactly what lengths are fishable..l

4 Trout, 7 Grayling