Feedback & Reports

Following on from the previous day's efforts. Toni permitted 'Jilted John' to fish the 'Hot Spot' swim of the previous day. The remaining 3 rods slotted in at close quarters. The day proved much tougher than the previous albeit 3 rods did improve on their previous days catches. The weather deteriorated on the strong wind and heavy rain fell. The combination of these two elements took their toll on the two oldies of the group as they scuttled to the van. No complaints about the beat though! Final return for the 4 rods was 7 barbel between 5lb and 8lb mixed in with the odd chub here and there. Same tactics of halibut pellet, fished hair rigged over feeders was the successful method. How long will they keep getting caught in this manner to these tactics is anyones guess, but for me, a change will be made next visit. Finally, it was noce to see that 'Ton Up Toni' was human after all!!

Well here we are back for the third consecutive year and on one of our top three beats for two days. Water was lower than in previous years and with much streamer weed finding its way downstream, we knew it was going to be difficult. All four dropped into their preferred swims, 'Bailif Russ' settling into the rocky swim alongside the dead fallen tree in the bottom third of the beat, 'Two Ton Trev' made use of the ample space provided in a swim 200 yds above, 'Jilted John' found comfort on the concrete bank under the large tree slightly up stream and 'Ton Up Toni' dropped into his hot spot in the middle third. Everything went according to the scripts written before us, with very little action (with the exception of Toni of course!). Nil returns from three trier's prompted movement of swims but Toni was wedged hard and fast and catching! Final returns: A collective total of 18 barbel to 9lb 12oz and a handful of chub. I pains me to state that 15 of the barbel (including the lunker) fell to the ever artful Toni. All fell to pellet over pellet and groundbait feeder tactics. Scenery as always is spectacular as is the wildlife, to be blessed to see a pair of darting Kingfishers but a few inches above your rod tip is enough to bring you back again. Ever humbled by Caradoc's beauty, if you will have us WUF, we'll be back!

Caught 3 chub, one of which pushing 6lbs caught on pellets in conjunction with pellet/grounbait feeder. Lots of weed coming down the river making fishing difficult and disappointed the barbel did not make an appearance anywhere on the stretch. Great service from Wye & Usk Foundation though. Will plan to return to the wye next year in early season and after more research.

Struggled today on what is normally a very good beat. Fished various swims throughout the day, but only managed 1 Barbel and a few Chub between 3 rods.

The last day of our 3 days on the wye, Caradoc is a beautiful part of the river with wonderful wildlife,and when we were not watching various hawks, kingfishers, and finches we found time to TRY and catch a barbel.
As we have fished the beat before we thought we knew where and how to catch them, but as with the 2 previous days locating the fish was the hard part. We started on the gravel beach at the bottom of the beat and only managed one chub,we then spent the rest of the day fishing every peg until we found some feeding fish in the middle of the beat, and we each had 4 good barbel all between 7&8lb and 9 Chub to 4lb.The river is very low and clear and every one we spoke to said the river is fishing hard, BUT in our 3 days fishing, by traveling light and roving about we have caught 61 barbel and 27 chub between 2 of us. What a great holiday and MANY thanks to W.U.F for a wonderful service

Weather was wet for most of the day. Fished luncheon meat at the far end of the beat for most of the afternoon without success. Ended up with 3 chub to 4 1/2lb on pellet after changing tact and moving. Lovely beat with good access to the water and plenty of swims to explore!

Fishing very slow due to the river being gin clear and very low. During the day best to keep moving and try to spot the fish (either that or go to the pub !) we saw them flashing in a nearside gulley between the weed and one of us had 3 barbel out during the day. Evening is when the fishing picks up with a total of 10 barbel to 4 rods.

Fished 2 days, 5 Barbel, 4 Chub.

River was very low, with quite a lot of weed coming through which made fishing difficult. Fished a number of swims from about 11am - 9pm, with a couple of good barbel (both over 8lb) coming in the final hour to pellet. Very nice beat, will hopefully be back when conditions are more favourable.

At last managed to get on this beat! River low and lots of floating weed coming downstream. We plumbed to fish the bottom end of the beat as the flow was faster, both rods using pellets. Jack kicked off with his first barbel after about 3/4 hour and continued to take a further 5 up to lunch time. I was in a perfect looking glide and managed to blank! My fault, not the river's. I must learn to sit on my hands for longer and let the rod pull round! We fished the middle slower sections 1-4.30pm with no takes so it was back downstream and oncve again Jack was into the barbel, taking a further 8 fish to just under 9lb. I managed to save the blank with 2 barbel and 1 chub. Thank god for that!

Canoeists were all good. 1 little tip - if you want them to go on the far side tell them near side bank and vice versa because none of them can paddle straight anyway!

Thanks to everyone at Wye & Usk.