Feedback & Reports

2 Barbel, 5 Chub, 20 Other

4 Barbel, 20 Chub

River low, hot and bright through the day, fish first up and evening, hardly a touch through the day. Barbel to meat and pellet, Chub to meat and pellet, mainly meat. Best Barbel 8lb. the other was an Eel.

2 Barbel, 12 Chub, 1 Other

First time on this stunning beat, so gave it a good walk. There seemed to be a couple of nice swims at the top end as it steadied out after the shallow water, with a decent flow and foam line to the middle / far side. It looked shallower but decided to fish the pacier water anyway, the inside line looked v deep. My rod was almost pulled of the rest first cast with a barbel about 8lb and then my plan to explore the whole beat went out the window with plenty of chub (albeit some small around the pound mark, but most around 3/5lb) and another 2 barbel.

I decide to head downstream and my plan was to fish the fast water at the bottom of the beat where it tears through on the inside line in a very deep gulley for about 3 swims. I never got there however as i spotted a rather hard to access swim just after some shallow where again there was some broken water and pace towards middle and far side. After losing 3 barbel in first 3 chucks i found where the snag was and managed to avoid it, picking up 3 more barbel and some more chub till dusk. It was obviously where some fish were but was a bit hairy landing them... even with a five metre net you had to get them to with inches of the bank to reach down and net them, not the safest swim I've fished but there was obviously a nest of barbel sat there so it had to be done. I will definitely be back. but please put a rope in the aforementioned swim and cut some steps. ;-)

6 Barbel, 20 Chub, 1 Other

A low, green Wye proved to be as tough as it sounds. A barbel was taken first thing along with a decent chub on feeder tactics in the fastest water I could find. The canoes started at about 10am and were constant until about 4pm. All were on the near bank too to avoid the shingle beaches and shallows on the opposite side. However all were courteous and apologetic. However I was trotting by this time so they weren't an issue as I ran the float down between flotillas. I had plenty of chub on trotted meat (between a pound and 3lb) then had a break until early evening. I set up in the successful swim from the mornings feeder fishing and after hiding in the car as a thunder storm rolled over for an hour I started feeder fishing again about 7pm. In the next couple of hours I had 3 more barbel which fought like demons in the fast nearside gulley. Smallest was about 4lb and largest a good 7lber. Happy days and I didn't get struck by lightening which was a bonus.

4 Barbel, 11 Chub

Evening session

1 Barbel, 6 Chub

Very tough day with barbel coming out of the blue through the whole session. River was low but carrying colour. As always a beautiful stretch but the fish were not on today. We moved regularly all day and covered the whole stretch.

3 Barbel, 3 Chub

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

After downpour in the morning decided to start fishing at c15.00 (and finished at 20.00). The rain had made the banks treacherous. Getting to riverside being the issue. Having fallen twice safest option was to go down slope on backside.
Fished halfway along beat. in swim with large white stone on inside edge. swim had the oxygenated water and depth on the nearside, so no need to fish any further out than a couple of rod lengths.
First fish was a 2lb chub on sweetcorn, shortly followed by an eel that was perhaps slightly bigger and took a fancy to garlic meat. A change to paprika meat saw first barbel of about 8lb. not a bad start for first couple of hours.
At about 17.30 a switch to double 8mm halibut pellet started the barbel action with one of about 1lb. Constant taps and drop back bites resulted in further barbel of 7lb and 2 over 9lb, with a further 4 barbel lost to a variety of hook pulls and breaks - to both 8lb hook lengths and also 20lb braid mainline. The barbel were interspersed with a couple of 3lb chub. Bites were still coming when packed up at 8pm.
On packing up, the banks had dried out quite a bit, but still very tricky, so ended up trying to find a way through nettles etc, where it wasn't as slippy.

5 Barbel, 3 Chub, 1 Other

Our favourite venue came up trumps to save what has been a disappointing week so far. Most of the fish came in the magic spell between 5pm and 9pm. Best barbel 9.11 lbs, most fish on double 8mm pellets and feeder tactics.

9 Barbel, 7 Chub