Feedback & Reports

The work done to provide platforms has been eroded and needs redoing unfortunately. The gradients down from the bank are quite precipitous .... And as always ... On the most promising swims. Met chap who owned fishing rights who encouraged us to fish below cottage. Appears to be a dispute going on with owners of cottage. We would have had more success if we had fished later on both evenings. We enjoyed it all the same as we did the excellent Saracens Head.

4 Barbel

Having read the description on the website of the detailed peg information we arrived at the fishery excited, optimistic and expecting to find at least 3 nice pegs reasonably comfortable and safe to fish from. Unfortunately this was not the case. The access route to the river between the Pumping Station fence up to the WUF fence end at the 2nd parking area was quite overgrown and almost impossible to pull a trolley or fishing barrow through.
The river was quite low and in most of the pegs 6ft below the edge of the bank making it almost impossible to net fish from. The other pegs remaining were quite steep to get down into and clearly no provision or attempt had been made to provide safe access, either through cutting steps into the bank or to even provide a level area at the bottom to even position a fishing chair.
Due to the fact that we had some rain over night the banks were extremely slippy and dangerous, even the fittest and most agile of anglers would think twice about taking a chance on approaching some of these pegs.
We took a look on foot without our gear at the area below the fence into the wood stretch which to be honest looked fantastic. The only problem was the tracks and pathways leading down to the river were treacherously steep and again very slippy. Even the fittest of people would find these tracks a challenge, my father in law actually stated "It doesn't mention on the website that you have to possess the ability of a mountain goat to fish this stretch"!. Never a truer word spoken. For anyone who who is thinking about booking onto the Courtfield stretch they should seriously consider travelling extremely light and be prepared for the worst!
As regarding the fishing, it was a very hot day, bright and sunny and we experienced " armada's of canoes every 5 minutes throughout the day. To be fair most were courteous and tried to get past creating a minimum of disturbance but it became very annoying having to constantly bring in your lines. My Father in law 75 years of age fished the first accessible peg from the Pumping Station due it being the safest of them all.
Even this caused us all some concern and we took the precaution of fastening a rope on the top of the bank to assist him in getting down into it. He caught a 7lb Barbel on a 8mm Halibut pellet which he was delighted with, unfortunately he had no other bites. My mate fished the peg next to this and had two nice Barbel up to 7lb and lost a nice fish due to line rubbing on rocks. I fished the Bay peg which states on the website can be fished by 2 Anglers, I would disagree with this. Access down into the peg isn't too bad but again once you get to the bottom there is no safe place to position a chair and it is very precarious to fish from due to the slippy banks.
I had two nice Barbel up to 7lb again and a nice Chub about 3lb. I hooked two others but again parted company with them as my 10lb hooklink was rubbed against rocks.
All in all a lovely day in stunning scenery but there are far better more comfortable places to fish than this, particularly where safety is concerned. We all enjoyed it but for £20 per day we felt that we didn't receive value for our money it is highly unlikely we would return to this venue.

5 Barbel, 1 Chub

4 Barbel, 3 Chub

First visit to this beat or any WUF stretch for that matter. Found the booking procedure simple and received clear directions to the fishery. Bright sunny day and river running clear. Bailiff Stanley Turner suggested a spot on the bottom island. Surprised to start catching straight away and finished with 8 barbel and a chub. All taken on pellets. Very nice fishing in a lovely setting. A cracking day in all. Hope to return and try some of the other pegs along this stretch.

8 Barbel, 1 Chub

Only fished from 5pm til 9pm. River was low and clear and seemed dead until 8pm or thereabouts when a change of swim gave me a barbel of around 6lbs and a few missed bites before switching off again. Unfortunately my companion didn't have a touch despite moving swims 3 times, but that's fishing!
The salmon were active in the evening, in particular 2 very large ones above and below the croy, along with the trout which were rising freely and made me wish I had my fly rod. Nice beat, faster than average in the lower section for this part of the Wye although it is very shallow below the croy pool as per the description.
As always the directions were spot on, and so thank you again to WUF for a lovely evening.

1 Barbel

Trout caught on dry fly, each approx 10" long, returned alive. River crystal clear, very enjoyable fishing. Will fish this beat again.

2 Trout

6 WBT caught - biggest 9". Plenty of fish in lower section of beat, but easily spooked! Upper section overgrown and needing tidying up.

6 Trout

1 fish only, on Hare's Ear Nymph. Far too much water given over to Wormers in my opinion. They seem to hogg the same spot all day.

1 Trout

Fished the bottom half of the beat. Fish showed in The Vanstone, Corner Tree and Maddox but none could be tempted by my flies.

Nothing caught.