Feedback & Reports

We saw no salmon. We saw good sized trout, but failed to tempt them. The water level seemed low and the river was very clear. We left at latish tea time after the rain set in.

Between showers, Fishing the afternoon, only one risings with dry fly, 10 fish. Biggest grayling 48cm, trout 40cm.

4 Trout, 6 Grayling

First time on Aramstone. Fished the 2 pegs next to the pillars & caught 1 barbel & 1 pike. A lot of weed coming down stream. After advice from Stan we fished behind the bottom island & landed 12 barbel & 1 chub. All fish in great condition & between 6-8lbs. All fish taken on pellet & groundbait feeder. River was low and clear & fish were shoaled up in deeper water. Please be aware this is a very long walk from the new car park (especially on return uphill) and many pegs unfishable due to poor access.

13 Barbel, 1 Chub, 1 Pike

First visit to the Wye, fished at the end of the beat in the faster water. Large open end feeder and double pellet. Barbel all between 4-7lbs, Chub all over 4lbs. Several fish came within seconds of the feeder landing on the water, almost on the drop. Pretty hectic and a great days fishing. Colin very friendly, helpful chap.

20 Barbel, 4 Chub

Another day without any fish. Sunny and hot with the water low and crystal clear.

9 stock rainbow and a really nice wild brown trout.

10 Trout

Stunning day at Pwll y Ffaedda. Blazing sun. Fished hard from Jackpot down and was privalidged to catch a 12" graying at 2.30pm on gold head. P had monster. Hour break, on spinner then and a salmon jumped in front of me on Isacon, no luck but greedy wbt. T had wbt out of gully tail off house pool. Too hot wheelies beckoned.

2 Trout, 1 Grayling

The work done to provide platforms has been eroded and needs redoing unfortunately. The gradients down from the bank are quite precipitous .... And as always ... On the most promising swims. Met chap who owned fishing rights who encouraged us to fish below cottage. Appears to be a dispute going on with owners of cottage. We would have had more success if we had fished later on both evenings. We enjoyed it all the same as we did the excellent Saracens Head.

4 Barbel

Having read the description on the website of the detailed peg information we arrived at the fishery excited, optimistic and expecting to find at least 3 nice pegs reasonably comfortable and safe to fish from. Unfortunately this was not the case. The access route to the river between the Pumping Station fence up to the WUF fence end at the 2nd parking area was quite overgrown and almost impossible to pull a trolley or fishing barrow through.
The river was quite low and in most of the pegs 6ft below the edge of the bank making it almost impossible to net fish from. The other pegs remaining were quite steep to get down into and clearly no provision or attempt had been made to provide safe access, either through cutting steps into the bank or to even provide a level area at the bottom to even position a fishing chair.
Due to the fact that we had some rain over night the banks were extremely slippy and dangerous, even the fittest and most agile of anglers would think twice about taking a chance on approaching some of these pegs.
We took a look on foot without our gear at the area below the fence into the wood stretch which to be honest looked fantastic. The only problem was the tracks and pathways leading down to the river were treacherously steep and again very slippy. Even the fittest of people would find these tracks a challenge, my father in law actually stated "It doesn't mention on the website that you have to possess the ability of a mountain goat to fish this stretch"!. Never a truer word spoken. For anyone who who is thinking about booking onto the Courtfield stretch they should seriously consider travelling extremely light and be prepared for the worst!
As regarding the fishing, it was a very hot day, bright and sunny and we experienced " armada's of canoes every 5 minutes throughout the day. To be fair most were courteous and tried to get past creating a minimum of disturbance but it became very annoying having to constantly bring in your lines. My Father in law 75 years of age fished the first accessible peg from the Pumping Station due it being the safest of them all.
Even this caused us all some concern and we took the precaution of fastening a rope on the top of the bank to assist him in getting down into it. He caught a 7lb Barbel on a 8mm Halibut pellet which he was delighted with, unfortunately he had no other bites. My mate fished the peg next to this and had two nice Barbel up to 7lb and lost a nice fish due to line rubbing on rocks. I fished the Bay peg which states on the website can be fished by 2 Anglers, I would disagree with this. Access down into the peg isn't too bad but again once you get to the bottom there is no safe place to position a chair and it is very precarious to fish from due to the slippy banks.
I had two nice Barbel up to 7lb again and a nice Chub about 3lb. I hooked two others but again parted company with them as my 10lb hooklink was rubbed against rocks.
All in all a lovely day in stunning scenery but there are far better more comfortable places to fish than this, particularly where safety is concerned. We all enjoyed it but for £20 per day we felt that we didn't receive value for our money it is highly unlikely we would return to this venue.

5 Barbel, 1 Chub

4 Barbel, 3 Chub