Feedback & Reports

Beautiful sunny day but we thought the bright conditions & relatively low water levels would work against us but we fished beat 5 & had plenty of bites between us; The barbel were all of a good size between 7 and 9 pounds , the chub ranging from 1 to 3 pounds. Two other barbel were lost with barbless hooks & inexperience I guess.
As usual we were treated to a series of wildlife performances interspersed with swan flights & kingfisher darts up & down all day. As fishermen we are as interested in the surroundings & the 'social' as much as the catching; Perhaps the rods were in the water 50% of the time with the other 50% taken up with talking, eating and observing the wildlife.
Never seen so many fry in the shallower margins, espescially if some bait dropped out of a feeder. The sand martins were flocked up & very busy making an appearance every hour or so, skimming the water to drink, sometimes 60 or 70 at a time. There were eight red kites riding a thermal above our heads at one point and a peregrine falcon chased a flock of feeding pigeons on the opposite bank then flew up the river infront of us.
As we walked back at dusk there was a mist over the field ,hovering a foot above the grass & the tawny owls were calling to each other. A perfect end.
Thanks to all who make this possible.

4 Barbel, 6 Chub

Another great (but rather wet) day. Had to move around a bit to find the barbel but connected with them late afternoon. Again they were caught on feeder tactics. Looking forward to coming back next year.

7 Barbel, 4 Chub

Another lovely day catching barbel agin today. However, as we were packing up at around 8pm we were approached by a rather hostile lady shining a very bright torch at us from the other bank. She stated that we should already have packed up and asked whether we knew the rules. We explained that we were packing up but she continued to illuminate us until we had finished. When we politely asked who she was, she said it didn't matter who she was as we are not from round here and weren't the landowners. She then said "off you go" and said we must remove our cars from by the lodge. As far as we are aware, the rules allow access to the water for 1 hour after sunset, which was at 7.33pm today.

6 Barbel, 2 Chub

Good day for all 4 anglers. We fished several beat areas of the river both using float and feeder tactics.

12 Barbel, 24 Chub, 10 Other

Great day at Whitney Court. All fish were caught using feeder tactics. River was slightly up on previous week after some recent rain.

6 Barbel, 6 Chub

We fished beats 4 and 5 on the left hand bank. The river looked in good condition and rose slightly during the day. Both rods fished pellet feeder. Fishing was slow through the day with just two bites for two fish coming from mid stream on the first bend on beat five. Barbel was around eight pounds and chub about four. Both came to luncheon meat.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

Last day of our trip to Whitney Court and fished beat 2 again in the hope we would gat at least 6 hours fishing in before travelling home. Again weather very hot and the water gin clear but we managed to winkle out 3 Barbel to 5lb and many small chub plus a cookie of roach. With buzzards circling above and 6 sightings of one or 2 resident Kingfishers the day was not to disappoint. It needs to be noted that the walk to this beat is very long but accessible for those of a certain age and minor disabilities like me. The Agents house, guest house/B&B was a massive bonus and highly recommended.

3 Barbel, 20 Chub, 5 Other

We fished beat 2 on the beach and caught 3 barbel to 5lb and 15-20 chub to 2lb on pellet and meat. Very hot day so happy with what we managed to land. A lot of canoe traffic from 11 am throughout the day.

3 Barbel, 16 Chub

as this was day 3 of our trip to Whitney Court we arrived a lot earlier on beat 2 (the beach) 2 anglers fishing shallow water in very hot conditions with over 75 canoes and paddle boards passing through our swims. However even with these problems we both caught 3 Barbel between us first thing and 16 chub to 2LB, alas even the sight of 4 Buzzards and a regular fly-by a beautiful Kingfisher could not make up for the loss of the first 2 days fishing.

3 Barbel, 16 Chub

Nightmare to start the day as we were thrown off the beat by a woman stating that they had to set up for a wedding for 250 guests and the designated parking area for anglers was not convenient for the land owner with large vehicles turning up.
We had already got all our tackle to the river and set up so this was yet another delay to our fishing holiday. We don't know the area and we were lucky enough to see the 2 anglers leaving beat 2 at the nearby lay-by and so we fished there for the remainder of the day (41/2 hours as it was 32 degrees. Again hot conditions and only 1 chub and a couple of roach caught. We aimed to return to the same beat the next day early as we were going home in the afternoon.

1 Chub, 3 Other