Feedback & Reports

Fished from 10am to 12.30pm.
Having fished this beat 5 days ago in high water I was looking forward to giving it a go today. On arrival water conditions looked perfect. I only had a couple of hours so fished the lower end of the beat quickly only fishing the most productive looking areas.
The trout were in the mood and after 2.5 hours 15 had fallen to a PTN barbless fly. The largest a cracking 14inch fish! I rarely photograph any catches but I had to take a quick pic of this one.
8 salmon par also came to hand.
All fished returned. Small stream fishing at it's best in my book.

15 Trout, 8 Other

6 rainbow trout, all caught on worm and bubble. Most action started when weather changed to overcast and showers in afternoon.

6 Trout

Lovely day clambering over rocks and you need a stick. Hardly any fish about or rising, but a lovely river.

Two perfect 9" WBTs - one on a Parachute Adams, the other on a GRHE. Lovely to see so many kingfishers.

2 Trout

Hen salmon just over 11lb's taken on a home tied Silver Shrimp.

1 Salmon

Tough fishing, water very low. Did not manage to catch any fish but did spook some!

Love fishing the Wye but alas, only two fish caught. A very sunny day with clear water and levels dropping during the day. Barbel and Chub both caught on pellet. Haven’t been to How Caple for some years, the reason being difficult access to the water. Still the same, I am glad there was only two rods that day as any more would have been tricky. There was about nine access points to the river. However, some of them were slightly difficult and although I did not look at them all, some of them had very little platform/fishing stage to fish from.
It may be that my expectation and comfort was unrealistic, but I have fished the Wye through the Foundation quite a bit over the years and I am comparing to beats like Foy bridge.
The best fishing point was the one closest to the pumping station.
I would also like to say that How Caple beat is a lovely beat and I would go again, but only if I knew that there were only two rods.

WUF note - There are 9 swims cut at How Caple Court. These swims were strimmed back 5 weeks ago so access should not be a problem to this water. The pegs are not wooden platforms as the owner likes to maintain the banks as naturally as possible. Please see the Beat Gallery on our website page for pictures.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

Arrived at Courtfield to find the river looking fantastic.
Could not get a touch except foul hooking a small pike plus 1 eel.
After talking to the local guide Kenny, he thought it was the overnight temperature of 6 degrees which had put them down.
After some advice from a Kenny, I settled in a swim at 5pm.
2nd cast barbel. I ended up with 3 barbel to 7lb and 1 chub.
Great end to a very hard day.

3 Barbel, 1 Chub, 1 Pike, 1 Other

2 chubb to 5lb from Pump Pool. Barbel to 9lb upstream of Mill Pool on pellet and corn.

3 Barbel, 2 Chub

A 2lb 4oz chub and a 2lb 4oz barbel is all we caught. River very low and very clear. If you fish here, stay at The Greenman in Fownhope. The rooms are top quality and the food is exquisite - easily the best in Herefordshire!

1 Barbel, 1 Chub