Feedback & Reports

A very frustrating day on a normally very productive beat. 6 barbel between the 3 of us all from the Vanstone pool. WE had at least 5 salmon in the pool, including an enormous orange coloured one which i guess had been in the river some time. We speculated the prescence on the salmon may have contributed to the lack of barbel, as conditions were perfect.

There are not many swims on this beat, and most are centered on the Vanstone pool, so ok if the beat is booked by a party of anglers, but less so otherwise.

Salmon everywhere, jumping over the line 2 feet from the bank! All sightings were of coloured fish. Later on we caught 5 barbel and 2 chub from a really comfy swim down at the Rope Pool. Had an hour in the Vanstone but no joy. There really are a lot of options on this beat if you look around. Surprised to read negative reports of lack of swims - I counted at least 14 good ones from the top to the bottom of the stretch, not to mention the roving opportunities. I'll be back! Thanks WUF - lovely day out.

Quite a slow day compared to previous experience on this stretch. 9 barbel, and 4 chub between us. A beautiful stretch but with relatively few places where you can access the river bank. The greasy banks meant that even some of those were unsafe to fish. I'm sure we will be back.

Arrived to find the river up about 3ft very coloured and knew we were in for a hard day. We fished all sorts of pegs with every conceivable method and bait combination and managed 3 eels up to 3 and a half pounds on meat until 7 oclock when we finally managed to contact a few barbel. We then had 7 in the next hour up to about 8lb before having to leave for home.

Nil return. High water and very muddy - just my luck!

During 3 hours we caught 8 barbel to just over 9lb and a couple of chub. Hemp feeders and long hook lengths worked well. River up about 6 inches - lovely.

Caught 3 barbel and 6 chub for 4 rods, very hard fishing and disapointing return from a normally good beat.

Thankfully after our pantomimes of the last two days we arrived at the beat with no mishaps other than the self-harm caused by our lack of restraint the previous evening.

The river was two feet up and tanking through carrying plenty of colour so our hopes were high although we knew it wouldn't be easy as in our experience MHC is quite difficult to fish due to the proliferation of snags in many areas, it's a real tackle eater. However, whilst the numbers of barbel caught here are often lower than other beats, the average size seems to be high with plenty of clonkers being regularly reported so it's well worth persevering with.

We weren't to be disappointed and although we had only 4 barbel and 5 chub between us (and lost loads of terminal tackle) 2 of the barbel were over 9lbs with the best going 9-11, a thoroughly deserved p.b. for TC!

It could and probably should have been better given the conditions and the effort we put in but it would be churlish to moan after 2 such fantastic, fin perfect fish!

Just a couple of other things of note.

The canoe flotillas were out in force and the number of d***heads that pilot them never ceases to amaze me and is getting progressively worse as every season goes by! I've no issue with the folks who do it properly, they've as much right as me to be on the river and I've found them universally polite and considerate but words fail me on some of the rest!

We observed a large amount of fish activity at MHC with numbers of large salmon AND barbel crashing out of the water at regular intervals throughout the day. One of the barbel that leapt out directly in front of me positively dwarfed the 9-11 I'd just seen, it was huge!

A totally different day to monday, found some decent swims at the very top of the beat, casting over the main flow amongst the streamer weed caught 2 very nice barbel 7lb 6 oz and my new p.b dead on 10lb, very happy!

Fishing for Barbel & Chub in inclement weather, only took the one Barbel of about 8lb early eveing fishing at the far end of the beat (the Vanstone). Walk most of the beat couldn't find any outher swims outher than up river from parsons tree stream.