Feedback & Reports

Another outstanding beat.
Access to some of the swims was a bit steep but I would suggest if anyone struggles a bit getting up and down to the river take some rope with you. The swim just inside the wood is easily accessible though I managed to blank there !
Despite a rather rainy day it was still enjoyable.
The only down side was that I had to get my loppers out to cut back the brambles which would've put nasty scratches down our cars.
We have spent the week at The Falcon House B&B at How Caple
which I always recommend when we have our few days on the Wye. It's central to most parts of the middle Wye. It's very reasonably priced , very friendly hosts and best of all great breakfasts !!

8 Barbel, 4 Chub

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

River in good condition and fish obliging. Lots of weed floating down caused a few problems as did some snags. Sweet corn proved to be the best bait

12 Barbel, 2 Chub

Only fished for 4 hours, had to be someone else but had two small barbel.
Feeder and pellets caught the fish.
Very dodgey driving back up the field on the way out, wouldn’t want to do this in the rain.

2 Barbel

see my comments from the previous day .

caught 3 small pike unintentionally . river was a funny brown colour. didnt stay long.

3 Pike

Fished on the bottom crib , pinning hemp and caster I managed a dace a trot for around an hour from 0600 hrs and soon got bored with the minute size of the fish. Went on the method with just about everything legal on the hook till around 1300 and kept getting knocks from the same fish with no Chub let alone Barbel turning up for the show, wrapped up and went walkabout down the field swims and especially to espy the famous" fast flowing Swan Pool ", very strange --- couldn't really see it, definitely couldn't get down to it, I could hear the rowdy morons paddling through it though. Very peaceful and pleasant it was during the hours before the " common herd " arrived. A warning to those booked on tomorrow --- take your long handled shears and strimmers with you. My newish T6 came home with a full length scratch from brambles growing across the track down the last part of the hill, you might also want to cut your own swim out in one of those famous pools, if you fish where I was, you could "number 2" the overhead branches. It's well baited up though !!! I would seriously love to fish this beat under normal conditions, there was around a foot and a half fining down today with a strong flow and colour , I should have caught and no excuses, but without seeing it in its low state you really have no idea how to tackle the job in a non-normal situation. I won't be back here, the surroundings are magnificent , the maintenance is dire.

10 Other

River was up and coloured and had a decent flow . Had nothing in the morning other than a few unstrikeable plucks probably from small chub , but from 1 pm it kicked off with a violent wrench round on the rod tip signalling the barbel were on the feed. Caught chub and barbel steadily throughout the afternoon / early evening . meat seemed to be the tasty morsel of the day . The only negative for me on this fishery was the track getting to and from . steep barely describes the ascent/descent and I had a lot of wheel spin on the gravel track at the steepest parts and felt that this would be ok for 4WD but not a 2WD .but thats just my opinion. I didn't want to get stuck and find someone to tow me out so didnt go back the following day that I had booked. But I would add that the fishery is great and would ask if there was anywhere else to park and perhaps walk to get to the fishery ?

6 Barbel, 5 Chub

early start but didn't get first bite till 3.30 in afternoon after a lot of boat traffic and some deciding to swim the river instead of using boat then caught 2 barbell within an hour

2 Barbel

Lovely day fishing on the Thomas Wood beat, a couple of pristine, smallish barbel (but still hard fighters) and a rather rough looking 5lb 2oz chub that was gratefully received! A rather nice barbel managed to escape (estimated at about 7 or 8lb) which was a little frustrating, but I guess that's what you get for fishing close by a tree. A couple of dace and very small chub were caught on the float aswell. overall a very pleasant day and some rather fine fish!
As for bait I used pellets as loose feed and some homemade spicy spam as hook bait (put on the hook and hair rig).
Thanks Peter for being very helpful with parking and details on where to fish!

3 Barbel, 4 Chub, 1 Other