Feedback & Reports

Very hard fishing on my favourite beat of the irfon. Gin clear and no flow on several parts didn't help, but did manage to catch 4 trout, biggest 16 inch and 1 grayling 10 inch and lost another. French nymphing caught all the fish, never saw a rise all day! It seems to me the results of other anglers over the past year or so have gone down drastically, this is sure to be down to the otters! living in Norfolk as I do, I know only too well how they can destroy small rivers!

4 Trout, 1 Grayling

1 barbel of 11lbs caught from the upper section of the beat, broke my landing net returning the fish to the river from the high bank. Didn't fish on.

1 Barbel

Same conditions, but better results. 4 barbel taken in the woods, 5lbs 11ozs, 6lbs 7ozs, 8lbs 4ozs and 9lbs 6ozs. 1 barbel, 9lbs 8ozs and a chub of 5lbs 4ozs caught near the top of Legg Meadow.

5 Barbel, 1 Chub

Water very low and clear made fishing difficult. Chub caught in shallow water around dusk. No sign of barbel despite trying several of the deeper swims in the cattle-grazed field. Made the mistake of carrying my tackle through the wood at the top end of the beat. The path through the wood was hazardous and after a long walk without finding any swims, I gave up. I still do not know if there are any fishable swims in the wooded section, but if there are they are a VERY long walk along trecherous terrain. This could be made clearer on the beat description.

3 Chub

Tried to fish by the pump, impossible due to heavy weed. Tried to fish down river but water too low.

A dark, misty and quite breezy day and cooler than of late, at 15 degrees. Very little fly apart from a few small afternoon olives and consequently, with little leaf litter and associated bugs, very few rising fish. Fished duo most of the day and did a bit of bugging as well (but to no avail). Two grayling and one trout (12") taken on small tung-head GRHE and PT nymphs and the rest of the fish, bar one, taken on HE emergers - the other on a small dark olive Duck's Dun. Most of the fish taken on the emergers were non-risers. Two grayling of 14" but the rest mainly around 10". Very hard fishing for sure. Bring on the rain and leaf fall to liven things up a bit!

3 Trout, 11 Grayling

The river was clear and a bit slow but you can find a few runs. We fished pellet over a 8 hour session, drove up from Devon for the day. Caught 2 Chub, 6 Barbel. Best fish 7lb.
Most fish came late afternoon.

6 Barbel, 2 Chub

1 chub 2lbs.

1 Chub

Had a great day on this beat. The fishing was very challenging. Water levels were very low and any fish that were in the main river were very spooky. No shock though as I spotted two otters on this beat! All fish were taken in or around the main pools. Lots of insect life but very few rises so opted for nymphs which accounted for a few small wbt and salmon parr. Switched back on to drys in the afternoon after seeing a couple of rises and had two stunning wbt in the two pound bracket. And one fish around a pound that looked remarkably like a seatrout. All in a great day. I will be back.

5 Trout

Back on Holme Lacey for a second day and pleasantly surprised to find a bit more flow than yesterday. There must have been a bit of rain on the hills which arrived here late morning. Fished the same areas as the day before, this time catching 8 barbel up to 8lb and 14 big chub, all of which again were over 4lb. It was chub fishing like I've never experienced before in terms of average size. So ended two marvelous days on the mighty Wye fishing a lovely beat beautifully kept by Colin. A big thanks to him and the Wye and usk Foundation, keep up the great work.

8 Barbel, 14 Chub