Feedback & Reports

3 Wild Brown Trout 6" to 10". Missed others and saw a kingfisher, a fox, yellow wagtail and a dipper. Great day!

2 x browns approx 9" caught on small gold head hare's ear.
Water very clear lots of fry, trout parr & small grayling.
Large male otter seen approx 60-80 yards North of the footbridge. Lower Southern wooded area very weedy unable to fish. Between Southern wooded area and close to footbridge, bullocks in the water feeding on the river vegetation unable to fish most of this area. Wooded area above the North weir too deep to wade unable to fish.

6 WBT up to 10inches taken on klinkhammer and PTN's. Some fish showing in the slower sections but spooked as soon as a cast goes over them. Several small fish showing in the riffles but no signs of the bigger fish.

We met Ian Boney's friend Mark at The Boat Inn who took us down to the beat. He didn't rate our chances as the river was the lowest he'd ever seen it. With neither of us having fished a river at all for well over 15 years, it's safe to say confidence was low.
We were very pleasantly surprised to catch 19 chub between us ranging between 2.5lb and 5lb in a six hour session. Pity we couldn't find an elusive barbel but we'll be back to try again for sure.

40 Barbel over 2 days from the bottom of the beat. Colin made us feel most welcome and was very helpful with swim choice.

40 Barbel over 2 days from the bottom of the beat. Colin made us feel most welcome and was very helpful with swim choice.

2 x Barbel caught and 2 x big fish lost. The angler sharing the beat with me that day also caught barbel. Cracking day, will definitely return.

5 trout 7oz. 20+ grayling ½ to 2½lb.

Other commitments meant I didn't have as much time as I would have liked so only fished from 17.30 to 20.30. Managed 3 barbel from 2 - 6lb and one very hard fighting chub of 4lb 10oz. Infuriatingly I missed at least a dozen unmissable bites!

As I am the world's biggest sissy when it comes to being in the same field as anything bigger than a sheep, it was with some trepidation that I booked a day on Sugwas. Naturally, the first animal I saw on arrival at the orchard was the bull, who lived up to all previous reports. A chat with John, the keeper, "assured" me that the cattle would be no problem, so I spent the first few hours trying the obvious bankside swim and the gravel island in front of the cattle drink. Caught 2 chub and hooked 2 barbel, only to have the line cut on a rock or some other snag.
Other anglers fishing below me from the opposite bank were catching regularly - so there's a damn good swim begging to be opened up under the bank in the orchard woods.
Moved down to investigate the lower section. More cows, but no bull this time. (John told me he [the bull, not John], had made it across the river, broken down a fence, and was currently engaged in pestering the neighbouring farmer's milking herd - so I'm glad I didn't meet him!) Some lovely looking water here. Spotted a number of barbel holding in the current and occasionally flashing, so tried a swim upstream from them. 4 barbel came to the net in the next 50 minutes until they had enough and the swim died. Biggest perhaps 7lb and smallest a little gem of perhaps 1lb!
Had a few casts in a couple more swims with a decent chub as result. As the evening wore on I had a couple more supercharged chub which convinced me they were barbel, and lost what would have been the biggest barbel of the day when it pretended to be a chub and snagged me in sunken branches.
This stretch has some very nice looking swims, all of which I expect will fish well on their day.
And of course, the cattle just ignored me.