Feedback & Reports

A very difficult day. 1 wbt 6" on ptn. River Arrow more like a tench pond - in serious need of some water. Struggled to find anything with any depth and flow.

Fished the section above the bridge in reasonable weather conditions from 9.30 until about 3 p.m. when it got very windy. Some pale wateries around and, with some fish rising above the bridge, I had some trout and grayling on a hare's ear emerger and on a couple of PW emergers. Then fished up to the top of the beat with the HE emerger, part of the time NZ-style with a PW nymph on the point. Had more, mainly non-rising, fish on the emerger and a couple on the nymph - even had two grayling on at the same time and dropped both! Ended up with 13 grayling, all 8-10", and six trout, the best a lean 12", and the others about 8". After a stroll to the downstream section and wetting a line in a few places, but to no effect, the attraction of the last few hours of the 4th Test Match seemed like the better option!

250 mile journey to get there meant that I didn't start until 10am. First barbel at around 12.15, then bites for 45 mins, then swim died. Topped up feed and stopped fishing for an hour. More bites and fish from 3pm to 4pm then died again. Topped up but this time nothing. Bites again around 7pm.

6 barbel all around 3lbs - 4lbs all perfect condition. Lost three what appeared to be larger fish in a big snag mid river (also lost 3 rigs in same snag).

Great day will be back as soon as possible.

Canoes most of the day but only those on "corporate team days" really caused any problems!

None salmon caught or seen. Disappointed as previous anglers caught fish here. Low water and hot day with clear sky in my defence. Beautiful beat though. Will be back when conditions are more suitable to get catch return right.

2 WBT to 10" (returned) klinkhammer #14. No hatch 12.30 to 16.30.

Lost one fish around 12lbs, it took two jumps to get off the hook. Other pools empty so kept myself busy with trout rod for rest of the day. 15 or so WBT up to 13", 6 grayling 9-13". Dry sedge #18 for grayling and klink #16 for trout. Finished at 7pm what was a very good day for fishing.

Fished the top beat. Used swim-feedered halibut pellets 4 hours, hoping to attract some barbel, but did not have a bite! Changed over to sweetcorn, on the float and leger, and had some grayling, dace and a couple of trout.

River was low and clear as expected. Fished upstream of the orchard and remained biteless until 3.00pm when we had seven barbel between us in the next two hours. All on pellet. Then it died again. Best barbel was an estimated near double. All the others were beteen 5 - 8 lbs.
Must echo the previous comments regarding the difficult access to the limited number of swims available in this top stretch. We weren't able to explore the whole length but from what we could see there were only three accessible swims. Two of those had to be waded to and would be difficult to access when the river was carrying extra water. The area next to the parking area seemed better suited to mountain goats rather than anglers!
WUF directions etc were spot on. Thank you.

My first time here and what a wonderful, varied and challenging stretch of water it is and, given the lowish water, so much of it accessible - so I wetted a line whereever I could! Blessedly it was a lovely day with no wind but being August, there was little emerging fly apart from a few pale wateries throughout most of the day, and consequently not too many rising fish - as usual the returning late-afternoon and evening sedges elicited no response either. Starting above the car park, I worked my way up, fishing the foam lanes, creases and likely holding spots and had a few non-rising fish on a small hare's ear emerger. I tried spiders as well but to no avail. By the time I got up to the first big pool some PWs were around and also some rising fish. I had a few more fish here including a 17", one and threequarter pounder. Having worked my way to the top of the beat and as there was no evening rise, I headed home having caught twenty classic Usk browns all of which, apart from the fish noted above, were of 8-10 inches and all in mint condition. All were taken on a couple of HE emerger patterns and on one of my pale watery emergers.

It is a lovely and challenging beat and I shall certainly come back next spring to fish it when the spring bugs are around.

Two discourteous anglers intruded on my morning on and off for an hour or so, fishing opposite me on the far bank and then, without a "by your leave" and showing zero etiquette, pitched in above me in a spot where I had been watching a few rising fish and planning my tactics to get to them. No manners at all - two young otters!

Warm overcast day with little breeze. Very little surface activity so Czech nymphed in faster water. Used a combination of caddis nynphs and GBPTN. Caught 7 WBT 8" to 12" and lost as many again. Fab day, had the beat to myself.