Feedback & Reports

5th visit to this beat and my 1st blank. The river was very low and the weather very sunny and hot. We fished from 12 noon until dusk with very few bites. I was very surprised how little activity we had. I assume the fish are shoaled up somewhere. We tried all baits and sizes and worked back and forth across the river. We tried 5-6 different swims up and down the length.
This is a lovely part of the river. We didn’t have too many issues on snags and the canoes, while many in number are polite and do use the right hand side of the river meaning you can fish up to half way out. It is however lovely and peaceful once they stop coming down.
We will be back despite the difficult day maybe after a bit of rain which I think is needed.

Very hard going. Fished from before dawn right through to dusk for 4 chub to 3.5lb and a couple of eels between us. The water was very warm and carrying a heavy algal bloom. Coloured salmon showed regularly throughout the day.
The canoe traffic was nowhere near as bad as expected although the appearance of an inflatable boat with outboard engine was an unwelcome twist on the usual circus.

4 Chub, 2 Other

Hard fishing in the morning for 2 anglers not used to river fishing. Few places to fish from. Improved in the afternoon and barbel about 7lbs and 3 good chub and eels.

1 Barbel, 3 Chub, 2 Other

We arrived at 2.30pm, we were really looking forward to exploring this new beat. What a disappointment. There was no access to the river in the lower section of the beat. As for the top section, there is a day ticket water on the opposite bank so very very limited water. There are only 3 swims fishable on the whole beat. We will not be returning.

2 Barbel, 4 Chub, 2 Other

Unsettled weather, sunny in the morning, followed by mostly cloudy afternoon with shower in the evening. Started fishing with EHC plus small BH nymph as a dropper. Despite the warm sunshine, almost no fish rising in the morning. Did not get any reaction by casting upstream. Fish were not been active before late evening, when rising increased significantly around 8pm. Caught a small brownie at the end. I fished this beat last September and caught more than ten nice brownies. Maybe it is not a good season for the fishing. Lovely beat, that I will back on this autumn.

1 Trout

Not much going on the day.

3 Trout

Beat 5 River Cothi. A lovely stretch of water but very low and clear.

Clear water and fish easily spooked, so nil caught. Good to see a few scurrying away though.

The river was very low this time round, and being a Saturday the canoe traffic throughout the day was very heavy. Both of these things made the fishing difficult, but we managed to find a few fish throughout the day.
Caught early on with around 6 chub coming to the float and coarse pellets, eventually moved to the feeder by mid afternoon after a bitelss hour. Plenty more chub fell to the feeder throughout the day, but a lot were in the 1/2lb to 1 1/2lb category, with a few better fish between 3-4lb. Had to wait until dark started to fall before finding the barbel, clearly spooking off the low water at the moment during daytime. 3 barbel from 3lb - 7lb 4oz.
On another note, we had three smaller chub taken by a seriously big pike hanging around the swim, which may have been causing the chub to spook (very finicky bites). The fish was well into double figures and almost unmovable for the few minutes we had it on each time.
Great beat, as always, but perhaps the conditions and the pressure on it at the moment are causing it to slow down a little of late.

3 Barbel, 17 Chub, 2 Other

Highlight was a 9.12lbs barbel to my colleague SC, a new personal best so well done mate. It looked like it should have weighed a pound or so more and probably will in a few months. A good feeding spell from about 4pm - 7pm, during which time we caught most of the barbel and a couple of inconvenient eels. River low with a little bit of colour.

8 Barbel, 1 Chub, 2 Other