Feedback & Reports

After another enjoyable visit to the Bateman Arms in Shobdon, we arrived at Lyepole about 9.30. The rain overnight had increased the speed of the river somewhat and made life very difficult for our inexperience. No bites but a glorious beat with pairs of dippers a and a mother otter and 2 cubs spotted on the island at the upstream limit. Will try again next autumn.

Managed a chub (4lb) on my first cast of the day, on luncheon meat, and then not another bite till late afternoon when a smaller chub was had. The track up to the upper part of the river is only accessable by 4x4. It's not a hard track. The access to the lower section is only a very short walk.

Tough day, couldn't find any fish with the float rod but did have two chub on stewing steak and a couple of other bites while roving about. River was coloured and up a foot or two.

Very dull and windy with persistent rain. Fished from 9am to 4pm had the one Grayling 15" safely returned at around 2pm on an olive czech nymph and that was it. Only fished the beat from the top weir down, too many snags and obstructions in the top half through the wood, may be fishable if some of the debris was removed. Also had the pleasure of two sets of canoesist pass through (one party several strong).

Lyepole has always been a favourite venue of mine for a good days winter fishing. However on this day it was not to be, I caught just three fish, two tiddlers and one good grayling of around 2lb. This fish had half of its tail bitten off and scars caused by a beak on its back. Hard to believe the fishing was this bad on a perfect river, with mild sunny conditions. It has been a poor winter for grayling fishing, roll on the trout season and some warm weather.

Eight chub on a thoroughly miserable day, seven to my companion. Thoroughly miserable! We booked on the Friday when the forecast was better with a hopeful desire to catch a last barbel before heading off to the himalayas to circumvent another member of the family (may he be as heavy as Sir Roger). It wasn't to be, but we fished hard all day and found the chub shoals in the gullies mentioned in the description. We'll be back later in the year as this beat looks excellent for a summer barbel or two, or maybe three...

A lovely warm day with the river at a good height and with slight colour. The fishing though was very slow. Even the dace were elusive and I only saw one fish rise all day. Just one bite all day despite trying all the likely spots - this resulted in an out of season brownie about a pound.

4 Barbel to 6lb 15oz and 2 Chub to 4lb 13oz. Three fish taken early on with a chub early afternoon, then a long wait until 4pm when I had the final two barbel which were both over 6lb. All fish accepted ledgered Halibut Pellets.

2 x grayling 7 and 15 inches, 2 x out of season trout 10 and 11 inches, bugging with braid. I lost a good grayling at the top end at dusk. Very hard work to get those, although the Monnow looked in just about perfect condition, which is rather surprising with the high water elsewhere.

Second day on this lovely stretch. I cut down on the gear and walked down to Quarry pool I think. Rather expensive on the gear, 6 casts resulted in 4 complete sets of end gear lost, 3 with fish on! I cast shorter each time but still it all went solid. The last fish was 100 yds upriver because I moved away from the area. Snaggy area was in the middle of the river just upriver of the green shed thats on the other side, beware. Today I moved around more as the weather was very pleasant. 4 barbel and 3 chub plus the lost fish means that today was far more productive. Same tactics as yesterday.