Feedback & Reports

Nice day, river at an awkward height for the beat, but still caught some nice barbel to 9lbs.

4 Barbel, 5 Chub

The river was just about right for the fly when I arrived at 10.30am. Clear and a reasonable height and I did get a pull as well as knocks from the odd brownie.
Unfortunately there must have been a heavy shower further up the valley and by 2pm there was a lot of silt from somewhere (farm run-off?) that must have reduced the chance of getting a salmon - the friendly trout fisherman who I was sharing the beat with was just as frustrated.
Hopefully the efforts by the Foundation in reducing this annoying feature of the Wye will eventually pay off.

Sunny day with patchy high cloud, river at good height following rain earlier in the week but with colour hiding the streamer weed. Chub caught on sweetcorn, switched to pellet and had a barbel at the end. Didnt fish all day. Great to meet Tony the ghillie, a lovely man with lots of useful info.

1 Barbel, 5 Chub

4 Barbel, 7 Chub

Good conditions with the river falling and clearing after a large spate but no sign of any salmon. Some wondeful trout fishing below the bridge in the evening.

3 Trout

1'8" falling some colour, fished 6 am to 10am.
Had high hopes and fished steadily through the lower pools,
a salmon showed at the tail of Rectory and as the fly came round to cover it there was a take but sadly it turned out to be a trout of about a pound. Looks good for a fish sometime soon.

1 Trout

Arrived at 7am to fish this iconic beat full of optimism which sadly was not fulfilled as we never saw a fish move. The conditions appeared to be perfect and was as good a days fishing as you could ever wish for but not a tug. Oh well there's always next week. WUF's service, it's usual exemplary self, including a lunch time injection of tactical honing from Stephen Marsh-Smith today. Thank you all.

3 Trout, 1 Chub

It was a beautiful day in Hay on Wye so, courtesy of my Wild Streams permit, I decided to spend the evening on the Monnow at Longtown. Sadly the clouds had settled there and rain began to splatter down. The river was still colored after the rain of the last few days. No flies around, no rising fish either. However my small Elk Hair Caddis did the trick and three 8/9 inch trout came up to the fly. All returned.

3 Trout

1 x coloured hen salmon, 37 inches, from Boat Pool on Rapala. I was under orders to rest a twisted ankle this week, but not to fish water like this, just for a little while, would be criminal...

1 Salmon, 1 Chub

An early start as we wanted to be on river for 1st light. the beat could benefit with some signs for anglers as even when following beat directions, not too clear on parking spaces. Once all parked up, off to the river. Water was very coloured and obviously much higher than has been from previous reports and the flow was extremely fast. Not to be put off we set up and tried our luck. Firstly fishing from swim under Vaga Cottage. Between the 2 of us we had quite a few knocks, lost fish but none landed. We then moved down the beat and tried a couple of different swims. Again plenty of knocks, and a lot of lost fish. Finally success was had and I landed my first ever river barbel on first ever barbel fishing trip and after a good fight landed a nice 7lb 2oz wye barbel. More knocks followed and then landed an eel at approx 1.5lb. We had plenty of action but unfortunately the fish got the better of us as we continually lost them or they snagged us by bolting straight to the fast flow. The majority of our action came as the river level started to decrease and by the time we left the level had dropped by 12 - 18 inches easily. Very hard and trying conditions due to the swell and colour of the river and as it being our first ever barbel venture but a great day. Unable to see runs due to colour and flow but still managed to get plenty of knocks even though it was hard to stay on the bottom due to flow, even with a 3oz cage feeder. Method used all day was alternating cage feeder/straight ledger, with hair rigged baits. Tried different types of pellets but the bait set up giving us our knocks was spicy sausage with corn cage feeder with halibut method mix and halibut pellets. Strange combination but this gave us all our action. The cage feeder created a cloud with a burst of 4mm feed pellets and whether it was the visual of the corn in the conditions or the smell of the sausage we dont know but probably a combination as individually those baits got no action. Late afternoon early evening tried Vaga again as water level had dropped and action started. Firstly with an eel of around 2lb, then missed barbel bites. Would loved to have stayed just a little longer as the area downstream of the island was coming alive. Take plenty of end tackle as all swims we fished were very snaggy and fish were breaking us up on 10lb hook lengths when they bolted for the fast water. The beat would benefit from the swims possibly being made a little more fishermen friendly but saying that we had a cracking day which tested our abilities on something we never done before.

1 Barbel, 2 Other