Feedback & Reports

Couple of hours on the Olchon this morning. All trout taken on copper bead head nymph. Did not manage to nab any of the larger fish today hooked and lost a few. All trout between 7- 10 inches. The water was carrying a lot of colour due to overnight rain. Fly on water was minimal with only one rise which was covered with nymph and bought to hand!

17 Trout

1 Trout, 1 Chub

Well got there at 6am and had to sit in the car for 4 hours because the rain was so heavy could even get my waterproofs on to stay dry. Then got to the river at around 10.30am'ish, started fishing for 30 mins and then it started... canoe after canoe after kayak until 4.30pm. Even some locals said they had never seen so many, it was impossible to fish, so my advice is don't fish this stretch on a Saturday not worth it. Also, they have no consideration for you fishing like on other parts of the Wye I've fished. All in all I fished for 4hrs 30mins out of a whole day that's nearly £5 per hour. What made it worth it for me was the stunning barbel I caught at 8lb 9oz. Simply the best outcome I could of hoped for considering circumstances as I nearly gave up a number of times. River was still low but with some colour and apparently a extra foot on it.

1 Barbel

Great day and lovely stretch. Water very low and rising while we were there. Brown trout 1.5 lb and chub on dry 3lb.
Low number probably because our first experiment at river nymphing and no fish rising to dries. No notable hatch.
Pub in Erwood provides excellent lunch. Will be back.

1 Trout, 1 Chub

Another cracking day out. Nice beat, with several swims marked by wooden posts with plenty more potential swims if cleared/cut back a little. Some areas bank very steep so little care needed when going to waters edge, plenty of areas where you can wade if you take waders. Parking good and very close especially at the orchard. We started the day first light at top end in the open field by the orchard. Although water levels low and competing tug of war with the weed beds, managed to land 3 barbel up to 7lb as well as losing several fish which seems to be the norm for us. As the sun came up by mid morning swim went quiet, so we decided to have an early lunch break, then head to the lower parking and have a go at the lower end of beat. Plenty of fishable areas but a bit of walking too. With some decent swims near to the parking end of field it is possible to leave gear there and you can venture off with rod/net and bait and walk all way up to lower boundary of orchard and work your way back down stream trying out different swims. Cattle watering swim was big with fast flow and plenty of fish and weed. Highlight of day being when MB hooked into a really big chub/barbel which nicely took him into one of the big weeds beds and so determined to land it, off came his boots and socks, trousers rolled up and he started to wade down to where he was snagged up but then realised some of the runs where deeper than appeared and more disappointing for him that after a while the fish had escaped and left his tackle nicely in the weeds so Twang, get another hook and end tackle on. However be prepared for the cattle to visit this location and although we stayed there for a little while as more and more of them came down the bank we decided we didn't want a stand off with them, more so as they are accompanied by a rather large bull (with balls bigger than footballs lol). At end of day its their field and watering hole. Although the big old bull watched us, no aggression was showed and he seems to be quite content as long as you stay to the edge of field by river bank. The Foundation might want to put a comment in the beat description as from the entrance style you can walk through field to get to top end of lower stretch, but with young cattle and big old bull, it might be advisable to walk the long way round keeping to the river bank. Absolutely plenty of fishing on the lower stretch and we took chub to 3+lb and a wee minnow for me lol. Late afternoon, early evening we decided to try and have another bash at top end which had produced barbel at the start of day but to no avail. Another fantastic day out which keeps us keen ready for another Wye excursion. all fish caught on pellet/feeder type tactics with different flavours tried, spicymeat/sausage seeming to be preferred. Another note for the Foundation, the barbel were quite heavily covered by some type of parasite.

3 Barbel, 3 Chub, 1 Other

River still very low and conditions difficult. Managed one good barbel from Boys Rock fishing halibut pellet over pva bags of loose feed.
To one of the previous swim occupiers: I picked up all your rubbish and discarded line, shame you couldn't take it away yourself. It's disrespectful behaviour like this that loses fisheries. To WUF. I hope the dates on the packets give you a clue as to the culprit!

1 Other

1 over 8lbs, 2 over 9lbs. 1 on pellet, 2 on meat.

3 Barbel

After overnight rain it turned out to be a sunny day. The river was very low and fishing was slow. My son didn't fish due to illness so it was one rod only. I had one barbel 7-8lbs and lost two more, of which one was a very good fish. Unfortunately and unusually the hook pulled. I have fished here before and caught well but I think the current conditions are affecting the fishing rather than a lack of fish. *t was an enjoyable afternoon/evening in a great location. One suggestion is that the parking is very limited and maybe some hard standing could be created in the field entrance, as in wet weather parking is very risky indeed. This would be helpful, but thanks again to the Wye Usk Foundation.

WUF note - There is also a lower parking area whioch is marked on the map and can be used in adverse conditions.

5 rainbows ranging from 2-3lbs.

5 Trout

River low but carrying some colour. Fish proved difficult to find, this wasn't helped by the fact that there are very few fishable swims especially in the middle field, expected more from a WUF stretch. Very disappointed not good value for money.

WUF note - There are 8 swims cut in the top field of this beat and the lower field is open, grazed banks. It is simply not possibly to cut any swims in the middle field as the banks are too high and dangerous. This middle field is very short compared to the large fields either side of it. This beat has a total of 15 swims created with options to create several more. Please see the beat gallery on our website to see the swims available.

1 Barbel, 2 Chub