Feedback & Reports

A rainy morning gave way to a windy but dry afternoon and the river was up less than a foot with some colour. A slowish start with no chub showing to trotted bread led to the inevitable ledgered pellet with amazing results. Nine barbel and a small chub for me and five barbel for my father in law (I allowed him into my swim to maintain cordial relations!). He had the largest barbel at a smidge under seven pounds with only a couple of them under five. At one point we were both playing large fish at the same time in an inspired extreme fishing type moment! A fantastic day on our first visit to this stretch - we didn't want to go home. Thank you Wye and Usk.

3 barbel to 6-10 and 1 mirror carp of 13-12. floating weed a problem. Swim feeder and elips pellets as bait.

Our eventful weekend followed on from our van puncture adventure yesterday with one of number crying "where's my seat?" as he was unloading his gear from the van! It soon dawned that the aforementioned seat had, in all probability, been left at Sugwas yesterday! After a short debate two thoroughly cheesed off anglers set off on the 30 minute drive back to Sugwas in the forlorn hope of recovering the seat. Amazingly the seat was exactly where it had been left - laying in the grass along with the rod, landing net and umberella that the silly b****r had also forgotten!!! Amazing as it was that the gear hadn't been nicked it was even more incredible that it hadn't been trampled to dust by the large herd of very inquisitive cattle in the field!

Unfortunately the "Carry On Up The River" performance above was the only significant event of the day as we had only a single chub between us despite our best efforts. I've never seen the river as clear at Whitehouse with large areas of the riverbed visible even at the top end of the beat. This coupled with the bright conditions sealed our fate I'm sure for the majority of the day but even when the clouds came over and it got later, nothing materialised. Again, one of those days!

5 Barbel to 7lb

7 Barbel up to 7lb

River up six feet over night and rising. Having never visited this stretch before it made swim selection diffficult as they were all under water. Tons of weed and rubbish coming down. Settled on the only slackwater available. One Barbel of 7lb caught on pellet and one lost.

2 barbel and a few chub. Strong windy conditions made fishing a little difficult. Bites were few.

A lovely sunny day, where 4 of us were after both barbel and pike. 2 Pike caught one 10lb one 6lb, one on a lure and one on a deadbait, one below the croy and one above it. Had 3 or 4 other takes in the morning. Afternoon one nice 5lb chub on corn up by the posts. Great day, but the barbel eluded the 2 trying for them. (they are novices though)

Excellent day, thank you! Weather was pleasant and river up a little with a brown tinge but nothing dramatic. Tried lots of spots from the water pump to the top of the fishery. Found fish in several places and finished up with a fin-perfect barbel and some cracking chub including a 'dodgy' (exactly on the scales) 6lb beauty. Pellet probably accounted for most bites but rotating meat and corn livened things up when needed. Bites came on and off all day. The area where the bank has been marked with poles was the most productive. (Last Summer we were so grateful when the farmer strimmed sections of the tall balsam and nettles to make access easier and marked where he'd done it with the poles. Now the spate has wiped away all the bankside weed, the poles look redundant). Echoing a previous contributor, in wet weather the track from the farm-yard to the river can be slippery on the way down and tricky on the way up. Also, don't wear your best shoes for driving as to open the farm-yard gate you have to paddle through considerable M&S. You can park in the farm-yard if you don't fancy the track. Failing that, take the wife's car.

We arrived at 8.30am to find the river high enough to cover a lot of the concrete path by the parking area. We went up river some 500 yds and set up and stayed in one place as the weather was very windy and not the sort of day to be moving swims. One rod had a barbel of about 4lb within half an hour of starting which was very pleasing, shortly after the other rod had a chub of about the same weight. By the end of the day the other rod had caught just the one barbel and I managed a barbel and 3 chub. Barbel came out on pellet and the chub came to sweetcorn. Nice and mild but less wind would have been so much nicer.