Feedback & Reports

Fished the previous two days on another stretch of the Wye and found it hard going - this stretch also difficult. I landed one barbel around 5 pounds (not weighed), one of the other guys blanked fishing for barbel and another fishing for pike had one fish around 11 pounds. Fishing with meat or pellet produced no bites a change to red maggot on a hair rig clip started to produce bites and subsequently the one barbel of the day. A beautiful stretch of the Wye and despite the lack of fish a most enjoyable day

4 Barbel to 8lb all on pellets, and one small pike of 7lb.

Heavy rain overnight put 18" of dirty water into the river. Despite a valiant effort by all, we couldn't muster a bite between us.

5 Grayling and 2 Brownies, plus the leviathan that "got away" - great day, even though the weather was grey and wet. Falch i ddweud bod tim Cymru wedi ennill cystadleuaeth "The Grayling Cup" - better luck next year to my fellow anglers who came all the way from Derbyshire and The Scottish Borders today. We will be back next year. Yn y cyfamser mae'r cwpan grayling yn sefyll ar fy silff tan y flwyddyn hon...ie ie ie!

Having had some great sport at Backney the previous day, my companion Gavin and I arrived at Holme Lacy with high expectation. The weather conditions looked ideal, overcast and 12c with the river carrying just a little colour. After walking the section we settled into swims on the downstream end of the stretch. Gavin was very soon into a 6 lb plus barbel whilst I was finding all the snags in front of me with every cast so moved into cable crib. Once again I found the snags with increasing regularity which wasn't helped by weed dislodging the feeder and pulling the hook into various nooks and crannys. As the morning wore on the debris coming downstream decreased and presenting a bait became easier although 4 oz was needed to hold bottom in many areas. I managed two barbel, a chub and lost a barbel and Gav too had another barbel. At lunch time I had a rove around with a deadbait in various swims looking for pike but to no avail. We then met Colin the Ghillie who was very helpful and interesting to talk to, and on his advice decided to move to swims at the top end of the section for the afternoon. I caught a succession of barbel and chub from my new swim, as did Gav from his. The way these barbel fight has to be experienced to be believed! Amazing battle every time and what stunning specimens to boot.
We finished the day with 10 barbel between us from 4 1/4 lb to 6 3/4 lb and 7 small chub. All caught on a variety of baits.
A great days sport in stunning surroundings. Can't wait to go back.

First time on the beat. Water low with some areas very slow moving.
Very very windy, when I turned my back on the wind I thought my landing net might throttle me as it spun in the air.The good thing about this beat is that it has many bends and it is possible to get out of the wind.
I only manage half a dozen small Grayling and out of season BT although missed a very good fish in a very brief fight. In fact if it had not turn over on the surface I would have thought I had simply snagged on a rock, which is where the rest of my setup ended.
A good call for anyone traveling some distance to these 'Marcher' beats is breakfast at Morrisons in Leominster which opens at 8am. This is located on the A40 on the way to Brecon/Builth, Going to this beat might entail a little detour of five minutes to the other side of this town, but a breakfast like this keeps one going all day, especially when daylight fishing time is so precious at this time of year.

Two barbel up to 8.5 lbs - one small chub about 3 lbs.

Caught 2 barbel diectly after arriving - 12 o clock but that was it for the day despite trying several swims. Opposite bank was busy with anglers.

River low but still lightly coloured. Weather relatively mild for the time of year - on the whole things looked promising. In spite of moving about and trying boilies, pellets and meat, only 1 barbel caught of about 8lbs, plus 7 or 8 chub up to maybe 3.5lbs. Looks like the barbel have shut up shop for the winter, but still a lovely place to spend a day.

1x 16" Grayling, 3x 12" Grayling, 2x 9" Brown trout all on czech nymph.
2X large cock salmon spotted.