Feedback & Reports

1 rod fished near the hut and only managed a small Chub, the other rod made the long walk to the bottom pegs to earn 6 Barbel and 6 Chub for his efforts.

14 barbel to 7lb+ and 5 chub between the two of us. Pleasing result on a very low river. As usual most canoeists very pleasant and friendly, though one gentleman chose to canoe up river with two very small children and then canoe back so incompetently that one of the children could easily have been injured.... It takes all sorts...

Blank. However, you should blame the angler for this, not the venue. There are some trout in the restored river Lwyd, and in fact I rose three at the bottom end and managed to become disconnected from each and every one of them - fish of 8-10 inches, I would guess. There does seem to be a reasonable amount of fly life, a few needle flies and pale wateries on the day, and plenty of caddis and shrimp among the stones - although not quite as many as in the Taf at Merthyr Tydfil, which has a remarkable abundance. It's post-industrial urban fishing, I suppose, and the bed of the stream is full of curiosities such as bits of furnace clinker and old tram-line rails, but for most of the beat the banks are part of a very pleasant and green rural park or playing fields. A nice experience, all in all.

The stream was EXTREMELY low, a mere hand's depth in most places. I was dropped off for the late morning/early afternoon, so didn't have much choice or chance to explore the water level of the other 2 Forest of Dean beats nearby. However, despite the incredibly skittish fish I was lucky enough to catch and release 4 beautifully marked brown trout in the 4 hours it took me to work my way through the thick vegetation to the top of the beat. The best fish somewhere between 9 and 10" and the other 3 in the 6 to 7" range, all caught on a small black Klinkhammer. Quite a bit of litter and garbage in the river, washed down from the nearby town of Blakeney, and Himalayan balsam the height of an elephant, so this beat does need a bit of work. Otherwise, I enjoyed the challenge - fishing can't get much smaller than this!

Fished an afternoon session. Started in the top field in deep water, caught two eels on pellet. Moved into new swim and my mate had a nice chub out the back on boilie.

Moved down stream into shallower water on croys and beyond with no action.

Finished at dusk back in the meadow, in the swim we wanted (new swim) there were two teenagers along with mates fishing. They stayed on night fishing as we left at dark (there two cars were parked by ours in the gateway of pump station). A little bit irritating, but I suppose kids will be kids!

We ducked in next swim up and I had a 9lb barbel on pellet and another large eel. Was chuffed. The river keeper is a sound guy, nice chatting, hope to meet again soon.

Arrived just before 8.00 to find the river low and clear. There was heavy cloud and it was very still with few signs of fish moving. The morning produced only 5 fish between us. The temperature seemed to drop around lunchtime and this livened things up in the afternoon, giving us a much better day than we feared. In total, we took 27 fish between us, mostly trout with about half a dozen grayling, the best of which was around 12oz. One more substantial trout of well over a pound was hooked and lost. The early evening rain which we thought might end fishing for the day just seemed to freshen things up even more. Most fish were taken on small, weighted nymphs.
This is a really good beat for two anglers and we have fished it a number of times before. There is plenty of room and plenty of variety.

Conditions: 16 degrees, overcast, showery and blustery. Time: from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Virtually no fly life observed and consequently very little sign of rising fish. I managed one beautiful grayling of around 16 inches on a parachute emerger. In the end hard going, albeit on a very lovely stretch of water.

Rainbow Trout - 2 lb - Float
Rainbow Trout - 2 lb - Float
Rainbow Trout - 1 3/4 lb - Float
Rainbow Trout - 1 3/4 lb - Float
Perch - 1 3/4 lb - worm
Perch - 1 lb

Well here we are back for the third consecutive year and on one of our top three beats for two days. Water was lower than in previous years and with much streamer weed finding its way downstream, we knew it was going to be difficult. All four dropped into their preferred swims, 'Bailif Russ' settling into the rocky swim alongside the dead fallen tree in the bottom third of the beat, 'Two Ton Trev' made use of the ample space provided in a swim 200 yds above, 'Jilted John' found comfort on the concrete bank under the large tree slightly up stream and 'Ton Up Toni' dropped into his hot spot in the middle third. Everything went according to the scripts written before us, with very little action (with the exception of Toni of course!). Nil returns from three trier's prompted movement of swims but Toni was wedged hard and fast and catching! Final returns: A collective total of 18 barbel to 9lb 12oz and a handful of chub. I pains me to state that 15 of the barbel (including the lunker) fell to the ever artful Toni. All fell to pellet over pellet and groundbait feeder tactics. Scenery as always is spectacular as is the wildlife, to be blessed to see a pair of darting Kingfishers but a few inches above your rod tip is enough to bring you back again. Ever humbled by Caradoc's beauty, if you will have us WUF, we'll be back!

Enjoyed a better day today, and the beat has so much to offer that we were spoilt for choice. Spotted dozens of Barbel in a shallow part but they all spooked when some pellets were fed via a catapult, so moved and caught 18 from another swim further up the beat, the other lads with me managed to catch 10 between them as the afternoon wore on. Lots of little Barbel jumping on the lower part of the beat, thinking they were Salmon it seemed?????