Feedback & Reports

The day was dry warm and overcast and the river was still carrying a lot of colour when we arrived, the prospects were good. Cardiac hill gets no easier in our advancing years but it's a necessary evil to get downstream, and walking through someone's back garden just gets weirder every time... We decided to take on the woods as the river looked so inviting there, the chosen swim was only big enough for one rod but that was fine (there's an element of mountain goat needed so caution is advised on these swims.) Boating traffic was minimal and all were courteous and kept out of the way, to be honest if you're fishing from the woods they don't usually see you until the last moment.
Fishing feeders with pellet or boilie hook baits we finished the day with 13 fish, 12 good sized chub including a five pounder you could have put a saddle on and a beautiful eight and a half pound barbel as last fish of the day. We would have carried on but the Wye lived up to its reputation as a tackle killer, the sharp rocks and snags eventually robbing us of every feeder we owned..
A real red letter day for us, thanks again Wye and Usk, we'll be back as soon as we've restocked with feeders.

1 Barbel, 12 Chub

A difficult day on a new stretch for us involving a lot of walking some of it uphill. On arrival we met a river that had risen 2 or 3 feet overnight, so the trotting rods and centerpin stayed in the car. We walked the whole length without our gear and only found a few fishable spots. We settled on some swims at the end of the first field below the wood and managed to catch 2 barbel each to 7lb 10oz.

4 Barbel

The river was falling (0.88m on the gov Ross gauge) but still fairly heavily coloured, debris wasn't too evident. Not a bad day all in all, rain until lunchtime and bright hot sunshine in the afternoon. Barbel weren't feeding as hard as expected but still put in a creditable appearance, the fish ranging from about 5 to 8lbs, all the chub caught were between 2.5 and 4lb, pellet and feeder tactics caught all the fish. Thank you again to Wuf for an excellent day.

8 Barbel, 13 Chub

2 barbel, 20 chub and 1 eel on pellet and meat.

2 Barbel, 20 Chub, 1 Other

Nothing caught - river was running high and was coloured with lots of debris.

RAIN THUNDER LIGHTNING. Funny, because I thought it was supposed to be the GLOURIOUS 16th! Not a great start but it is a privilege to be here for the 1st day of the season.
Thanks to WUF.

1 Barbel

A wonderful afternoon to end the season! River in good condition, low enough to access most swims comfortably and still falling with a bit of colour. Weather fine and reasonably warm. The barbel were feeding throughout this session and I eventually finished with 11, nearly all in the 5-7 lb range on halibut pellet.

11 Barbel

River still quite cold but found a few feeding today, biggest 7.5lb.

3 Barbel

After a cold night, the day soon warmed up in the Spring sunshine, and we felt confident that some barbel would feed for a short period. We selected deep water swims at the top end, and we're not disappointed, with RW catching 4 barbel and 2 chub, and RB 1 barbel and 2 chub. A couple of barbel were also lost. The most productive time today was in the morning. Fish were caught on a mixture of halibut and spicy sausage pellets. Biggest barbel went 7lb and chub 4lb.

5 Barbel, 4 Chub

River too heavily coloured from run off after heavy rain two days previously and the river was up three foot on normal. We probably should have asked for a wash out but we decided to fish in the hope conditions would improve during the day which, unfortunately they didn't. We fished in the few slacks we could find, trying a variety of baits but we had no bites. After five hours and with the river, if anything, getting even dirtier, we decided to call it a day.