Feedback & Reports

This is an interesting beat with a wide smooth pool tail at the top followed by a a neck of lovely fast water at the head of Lady Alexanders catch then a long slow pool followed by a very rocky section with lots of pocket water. Had 1 small trout in the tail of Lady Alexanders pool then connected with a very decent sized fish ~3 lbs+ , under the trees using an Invicta which steamed off down the Stone Catch, jumped a couple of times and said good bye - behaved more like a sea trout than a brown trout. Then nothing until the evening when an Invicta fished down and across was hit by a really nice grayling of 1 1/2 lbs which was followed by another 6 all on a small brown czech nymph and of similar size before fading light stopped play. This was a shoal of hard fighting, quite substantial fish which were a lot bigger than the 8 oz ones Ive usually caught before. Nice to find such good quality fish on the Wye. Several salmon showed over the course of the day. Not much in the way of a hatch but it was the hottest day of the year so far. NB to fish the Stone Catch you need a wading staff as well as studs on your boots!

1 Trout, 7 Grayling

Beautiful location but unfortunately because of the intense heat we had to leave after the first day. Even though I had a brolly as shade fishing was only possible in the morning and evening. All three chub were caught on cut down Pukka Fish 14mm boilies from DT Baits. Hope to return when the weather is more conducive to Barbel fishing.

3 Chub

Short evening session. Water low and clear. Lost a fish on ledgered luncheon meat when it shed the hook in a snag. Finally saved the day with a good chub by free lining luncheon meat through the weedier section near top of the stretch.

1 Chub

Lots of swims cut out on this fishery so plenty to go at however we made our own after my professional barbel spotter took a wander and found some in a very inaccessible area where we have found them before. Our rope came in handy today.
We managed six barbel and two chub from late afternoon onwards on 10mm pellets. Started on a straight lead set up but kept snagging on rocks so changed to a maggot feeder with large pellets inside to leave a scent trail and that worked well with no snagging up either.
Today's wildlife included buzzard, cormorant, swans fighting, but the best was a sparrowhawk that missed its prey and ended up in the river looking rather embarrassed.

6 Barbel, 2 Chub

Nothing to report. Fished 2 swims in the wood section, the pump station swim and the drain cover. Not even a knock all day. Very hard going especially as it was the hottest day so far.

Arrived at the river at first light. Wasn't an obvious entrance into the wooded area from the car park side so I walked around the woods. Before entering there I walked the length of the beat and only found 2 spots where you can access the river. I would happily clear myself a swim but the river didn't look ideal for barbel anyway.
I entered the woods but left my gear outside and that was a wise move. The woods are very tricky to walk through even without your gear, and again very few places you can access the river, very steep banks which you have no chance of going down or up. As I made my way up river through the woods I could see what can only be described as the perfect low river level barbel swim, but getting down to it was far from perfect. I'm a fit young man and I struggled getting down to the river without my tackle. It was my only hope of a good day so I decided to go back and get my gear and do what I could to get down there.
It was very tricky getting to it with my gear, hit the deck a number of times, literally shed blood to get to it. I was sweating from the heat too so I was relived to get to my swim as I was pretty frustrated by this point and just wanted to sit down and relax, this wasn't to be the case though, started fishing at 7am and by 9am I had 10 barbel. The bait was never in the water more than 2 minutes, spent the whole 2 hours playing fish. After 9am the chub joined the party and they were taking it in turns with the barbel. Into the afternoon the barbel almost completely switched off but the chub clearly wanted to take advantage of that and went nuts. As I'd feel the feeder hit the riverbed on the cast they'd take the hookbait on the drop. Had 3 hours of it.
The barbel moved back in and the chub finally cleared off. Steadily caught barbel after that until I packed up with lots of light to spare to ensure I could make it out of the woods before dark. The woods didn't frustrate me as much after having the best days fishing of my life. There is one bit though we're if you don't grab the rope you're going to tumble straight down into rocks from a very steep drop. You'd be lucky if you didn't bang your head and be the end of you. I just grabbed the rope in time, a real heart in your mouth moment. I not sure what I felt most happy about, an amazing day or managing to get back to the car with just cuts and bruises. The woods did provide good cover for the sun though.
The barbel were all 6-9lb and the chub 3-5lb. 2 of the barbel had other anglers hooks in their mouth, so nice to know I did them a favour by catching them and removing these. What a day in so many ways.

24 Barbel, 32 Chub

Upstream dry fly. All caught on elk hair caddis size 16 hook (red gold rib body). Great days fishing!!

11 Trout

9lbs hen fish to David Bennett spinning the Rapids pool on 1 July.

1 Salmon

Super day out on the hottest day of July ever recorded, supported by Chris Price of casting with style. Lots of fish about but none energetic enough to bite.

Fished the last 2 pegs in the morning. No barbell,water very, very low with little flow. One angler returned in the evening and managed 2 barbel and 1 chub. Good going under the circumstances. A lovely stretch to fish with easy access but would definitely benefit from a bit of extra water.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub