Feedback & Reports

An improved river faced us on arrival after the huge disappointment of opening day. We arrived at dawn and decided on trying the meadow stretch first as had heard good reports through the week. We went to the pipe swim and it looked perfect. We fished for an hour and no bites were forthcoming. So, as many say, if you don't catch in the first hour, move on. So we decided to move to the woods section. We saw a car there so decided to go to the bottom end of the fishery and fished approximately 50 yards downstream from the steps near the willow tree. This proved to be a good move as we got in to Barbel straight away with a few chub in between. The good fishing continued for a few hours. We also lost a few large fish to snags. Biggest landed was just over 8lbs.
Unfortunately the fishing slowed up with the arrival of the Kayaks. Normally you put up with them and expect many on a weekend, but long story short, today's bunch were by far the worst I have ever witnessed ever. Rude, ignorant, total disregard for anglers, capsizing kayaks in front of us, water fights in front of us and one guy shouting very serious threatening profanities at me (In front of my son) when I asked his wife politely to watch out for our lines. In all honesty this lot put us off fishing the wye again, but I'm sure we'll return. The kayak hire companies should give out far better advice. Respect everyone on the river please.
After they were all gone, and amazingly we stuck it out, the Barbel came back on the feed and we landed another one and lost a couple. Unfortunately the heavens well and truly opened and the extremity of the rain forced us to retire with the evening approaching.
Great fishing at times spoilt by some true idiots (And the good old British weather)

9 Barbel, 6 Chub

No barbel, just a small chub and an eel from the woods, couldn't access the swims downstream due to fallen trees. Not much choice of swims now that 6 anglers can fish, and got threatened to be "shut up" when a canoe thought that capsizing in my swim would be fun... Not a good day for us.
Owner Note: The whole top length of Legg meadow has been opened up providing a good dozen swims, they have been strimmed out and below the wood at the metal steps there are another 12 or more swims and through the wood, half a dozen more.

1 Chub, 1 Other

First time at Courtfield and had high hopes for this venue after reading some of the reports. The fish were hard to find despite the nice conditions and after trying hard all day at a variety of swims we ended up with 3 barbel and a few chub. There were two other anglers there who had little to show.
A couple of points to note for other anglers who have not been here before:
Despite a few areas having been strimmed the number of "safe" swims were limited and after the heavy showers we experienced, proved seriously dangerous. It would not hurt to have some small flat areas made without damaging the natural environment.
The canoe situation was absolutely ridiculous with a continual procession all day from 9.00 until heavy rain at 17.00 brought an end to the spectacle. We had wild hen parties, stag do's, pirates chinese tourists all ploughing through the swims in and out of their canoes. The fish are probably used to it but we were not, so will not choose this venue again at a weekend.

3 Barbel

River well coloured and first time on the beat. Two large barbel over 7lbs and five small males, with some still producing milt. Not bad for a short day session!

7 Barbel

River running above summer level and chocolate brown in colour, managed one decent Barbel also caught a stonking great eel must have been 3lb+

1 Barbel, 4 Chub, 1 Other

The river had dropped a little but was still a foot or so up and coloured. This is one of our favourite stretches of the Wye and it seems to produce more than its fair share of big barbel. This proved to be the case today with the best barbel of 7 being 10lb 7oz. All the fish came from the slower water at the top of the length .

7 Barbel, 2 Chub

Dead baits + lures. First time fishing the river but appeared too fast for some of the methods that produce on other slower rivers. Saw 3 large 70cm + salmon jump while fishing.

River was still fairly high but the colour was good. Fished at the metal steps at the lower end of the section. Fished pellet in a large open end feeder answer 12 mm halibut pellet on hook. After couple of hours had a few good bites but sure they were chub, did not connect with anything. Then a classic tap and rod bent round and soon a barbel of around 8 lbs was in the net. Fished on but strangely no further bites so moved up into the meadow just above the middle parking spot. Thanks to the appearance of very hot sun had no further bites so packed up an hour later. Th roughly enjoyed the day and will certainly be back.

1 Barbel

6 Barbel, 5 Chub

River still very coloured; fished top of Legg meadow caught 3 barbel 9lbs 8lbs and 6lbs 2 chub early evening

3 Barbel, 2 Chub