Feedback & Reports

15.30 to 18.00hrs. Overcast with sunny intervals and river level slowly rising but clear. Waded out to Island and used a heavy ledger to hold bottom solid as rolling ledger unusually produced no bites. Difficult cast 20yds downstream on edge of willows to deeper area but 3 prime barbel, 6 to 9lbish on large halibut pellet (again unusual no bites on luncheon meat) banded to 8 hook on 3ft hooklength. Used all the 2lb test curve to bring fish upstream through flow but all recovered quickly on return.
Saw a long furred jet black mink on far bank with what appeared to be an 18inch grass-snake dead in its mouth, hope its passing through!
Can anyone explain why nearly all barbel I catch are hooked in the fishes right side of lower lip??

Made it to the river 4.00pm 1'9" falling, coloured
Caught a very lively fish in the Rock pool, turned out to be a coloured cock fish, a little bigger than last weeks, of perhaps 15lb, again unhooked in the water with no fuss.
Leaves beginning to become a problem.
2 trout of about 1lb (in superb condition) also took the silver stoat.

What a splendid location; range of environments, utter peace and quiet, friendly welcome at the parking site and other rods.
Lovely day spent, a couple of early bites without any fish landed. We'll return in the next season.

14 x trout 6-7 inches, on a Klinkhammer. An afternoon session on this forest brook, having become quite bored during the morning by standing beside a coloured Usk working away at coffee-grinding. After lunch, I figured if I have to stand out in the rain, at least I'll go where I can catch something fairly regularly! And we do seem to have had enough rain at last to bring these little forest streams back into condition a bit. It carried on raining all afternoon, the brook coloured up a bit, but pugnacious little trout seemed quite keen to nail the fly.

Did a check on the beat on Sunday evening - it was low and gin clear. Spotted lots of fish before we left and got a good feeling about the day ahead.
Arrived at 6am, what a difference. Gone was the gin to be replaced by chocolate. My heart sank as we sat up our rods. A whole tree drifted past followed by clumps of weed and branches of all sizes. We started off next to the car park as it still looked fishy, but the debris being washed down made it almost impossible to keep a bait static. Plan B - we went past the orchard to the open field and tried to find slower stretches. 2 hours in Tom (river virgin) hooked into a barbel that got off but it lifted the mood. Half an hour later a shout from Tom - I helped him net his first ever barbel at 6 1/2lb, he was well chuffed. I found a gap between 2 overhanging trees and found chub and dace providing good sport. The largest chub was about 4lb and in good nick. It went dead about 3pm so we went back to the swim we tried in the morning and eventually Darren got a fish - a lovely chub of about 3 1/2lb but he was still mad about missing a brilliant bite that nearly pulled his rod in.
It was about 7.30 and on my last cast I hooked into a barbel. I called it a day after netting an 8 1/2lb fish which fought like mad in the fast water. Could have fished on but had a 4 hour drive back and we thought we'd finish on a high and build up the antisipation for next visit.
Great stretch of river. Will be back and Tom is now no longer a muddy puddle man - it's rivers all the way. Thanks WUF.

1st day of a weeks fishing on the Wye. River quite low and clear but managed 20 Barbel between 3 rods. Best fish around 7lb

3 brown trout, best 12 inches in length. Two caught on a grey mayfly on the point and 1 to a PTN dropper. Wet day and some difficult fishing conditions: terribly overgrown and I had decided not to return until access was improved but glad I went.

Started fishing at 8am (after watching wales beat samoa) with a sinking line and a heavy tube fly. Immediately into a fresh fish of around 8lb which was lost at the net after about 10mins fight in the rock pool. Many fish showing but all went quiet at around 10am. Had to wait until 5pm until the next contact. A good hen fish (returned) taken with a flying condom. A great day on good stretch of river. Thanks Gerry Evans for all the advice. It saved a lot of time and proved productive. I'll certainly fish this beat again

A scant dozen Grayling - mostly small fish but with a few better samples - from a very low and very clear river. The trick was to find the fish - and, with such clear water, they were easy to spot - and then find a fly that would get down to them.

Approx 22 fish between 2 rods mostly barbel to 8lb 4ozs.
The bulk were caught in the early part of the day but odd fish caught off and on all day including as the canoes passed. Canoe traffic lighter now and mostly well behaved with only the odd out of control one causing lines to be hastily retrieved.