Feedback & Reports

Our group of 4 rods fished both Friday and Saturday as we were staying at Flanesford.
Friday we had the beat to ourselves. The river was exceptionally low and clear - "on its bones" as they say - and this made the fishing very hard indeed. One angler took two barbel from the lower end of the first beach, whilst the angler next to him tempted an eel and a chub. Two further rods engaged in some trotting and had a very enjoyable morning and early afternoon taking small dace, chub and the occasionally acrobatic brown trout. Come the later afternoon, all anglers fished the beach on feeder gear hoping for barbel, but only one chub put in an appearance. The magic "last hour" produced nothing (the two barbel being caught a 2pm and 3.30pm respectively).
On the Saturday, swim choice was limited due to the fact that we were sharing the beat with a number of other anglers staying at Flanesford. However, there's plenty to go round and all of the anglers wishing to fish managed to get into swims. Saturday was a tough day again, one angler managed two chub from a swim opposite the top boundary of The Kerne Bridge beat... the other 3 returned to the beach, where no barbel were caught. One rod had two chub at the end of the day, one being a rather impressive 5lb which was a personal best.
So overall the results of two days fishing were not so great. I put this down very much to the conditions, painfully low, clear water with little flow is never going to add up to bumper catches. One of the lads we talked to who was staying at Flanesford commented that in 8 years of coming to the Wye, he'd never seen conditions like it, thoughts echoed by the bailif Adam Fisher. We had the next day to look forward to at Wyatstone Leys, maybe our luck would change there.... maybe!
On a brighter note, the stay at Flanesford was great! We had the Walford appartment between four of us, a bit cosy but it had everything we needed. Highly reccomend the indian food from the Forgehammer in Lydbrook, we had a takeaway and it was very nice indeed.

3 Trout, 2 Barbel, 6 Chub, 1 Other

Mag, feeder, 4' fluorocarbon, small hook, river low, hot, cloudy spells. JB silvers on the mag feeder. Barbel 8lbs bracket.

1 Barbel

Tough day. Tried various baits and swims with not even a bite. Beautiful stretch of river that I would return to once we've had some rain.

Fishing poor, barbel nowhere to be seen, river very low with lots of weed coming through.

1 Chub

Six nice trout, all over 14 inches, best trout at least 2 1/2 lbs. Grayling c. 1lb. River low and clear, on a warm sunny day. All fish on small dries.

6 Trout, 2 Grayling

Grayling caught on orange and partridge, trout on nymphs.

11 Trout, 3 Grayling

River low, bright, sunny some cloud cover, brisk wind pm. Feeder, mag. Barbel 8lbs bracket. JB Silvers and bits.

1 Barbel

Great to be by the river for a day and a bit either side. Weather? Perfect! River? Low and clear! Two sightings of salmon; one by The Rock and one below The Cables. Trout rising all day. Catching them however, was very difficult. For someone looking from The Bridge, it must have appeared that I was herding trout upstream with a Kites Imperial, fished Rawhide style. After some tuition my co-fisher caught his first trout with a fly. He also caught and released a good trout whilst spinning for salmon, way below the bridge. We saw Kingfishers, Dippers, 3 Cormorants on the water and 13 flying overhead in a V formation(???).
Met with friends whom I only speak to on the phone normally. Banter, teas, coffees, beer by the river and all day breakfasts, more please!

4 Trout

No fish despite fishing for close to 10 hours each rod.

Plenty of fish rising all day particularly at the start of the beat. Beautiful day for it to boot.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling