Feedback & Reports

As there had been so much rain, we thought we'd try an upstream beat early season, the logic being the salmon could be anywhere in the system. We'd anticipated the water would drop quicker than it did so there was probably 8" too much water on the beat. However, it looked very fishable and the water was pretty clear. My companion had a good sized grayling on a cascade fly and, having swapped to trout tackle, I had a tiny trout on a shrimp. We stayed at the Old Vicarage along the road, which was very cosy and hospitable. The day was marred by the fact that the path to Edw Pool and Abernant Stream was completely blocked by a fallen tree. It is obvious that work has been carried out to make the path more user friendly but the tree has fallen since then I believe. The beat details really ought not include these pools as this is the third time I have booked this beat and haven't once been able to access the top two pools.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

Weather fine but biting NW wind. Water .96m and good colour. Had another trout masterclass from John Phillips fishing his usual team of assorted spiders and coming up with two trout one over a pound, the other around 5oz in difficult conditions. I had one pull on Waterhen bloa.
I had an hour on the salmon double hander with hairy mary tube and no takes but water too high and fast flowing really.
Better luck next week though the height today (Wed) will be back up to almost 2m by this afternoon, and recent weeks suggest it drops very slowly.

2 Trout

River in good condition but very cold. Tried for pike and failed miserably. Did catch a single barbel in the afternoon which made the day.

1 Barbel

Landed 2 but had another on the line too. For the landed fish one was around 10 inches the other around 13. Fast flowing river and cold too but still, fish in the net at this time of year is a bonus! Thanks to Oliver Burch.

2 Trout

Cold and very clear, no fly on the water and no fish showing. Was not expecting it to be at all productive but a pleasant couple of hours.

A hard days fishing very difficult to see fish rising but persistence paid off with a full bag so well worth the effort. Banking was very muddy and difficult under foot which often resulted in near falls. Let's hope we have a dit of dry weather to make footing secure as a couple of times fellow anglers nesrly fell over.

6 Trout

Still very cold but water has dropped by about 10" since yesterday, a nice 12" Brown caught 100yds above the A40 bridge on a size 12 hares ear goldhead fished deep.
Very cold wading and a wayward hook in the thumb (ouch) forced an early finish at 3pm and the trek back to Oxford.
Thanks to the Wye & Usk and the organiser of the Oxford Ice Fishers - John Lewis, we look forward to returning in the Spring proper!

2 Trout

Another cold day for the Oxford Ice Fishers but we are a resilient bunch. Very good breakfast at the Dragon Inn, Crickhowell set us up nicely for a days fishing and the water was much clearer than the day before.
As the others found on Saturday the water level restricted access to the top 500yds of the beat and our skills were not able to winkle out any fish despite this we returned home happy if cold.

This beat is much better for access than Ashford House but despite that we didn't connect with any fish. Water level dropping but temperature only 6 deg C at best with a wind chill bringing it down further. Still we polished off the rest of the Pork Pie with some Fullers London Pride followed by cheese and biscuits.
Would like to return in the Summer.

River conditions were high but not unsafe. Methods were deadbaiting and ledgering.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub, 1 Pike