Feedback & Reports

This beat is fast and shallow. Tried all fishable spots and managed to find one barbel about 7lb at the end of the day from the last swim on the L/H bank. It put up a great fight in the fast swirling water.

1 Barbel

Got to the river around 12.30pm and looked ok but still pulling through hard. Phoned in the booking - £20.75! Bit heavy for 1/2 a day. Anyway, fed a few swims over the bridge with bread mash and 10+ elips pellets in each. Set up just the 1 feeder rod and opted to fish off the fast water rolling the bait through! Nothing 1 1/2 hrs later. Put a 4oz lead on and fished static for another hour! Blank. This was repeated on the 3 lower swims. 4hrs, not a touch so decided to up sticks and move to the bottom swim road side (normally a banker) never fed anything! Fished with bread, meat and pellet, not a sniff! On a poor day like this watching the black vultures work the river you really do wonder "what are they, what are they feeding on and what is their presence doing to the winter fishing" here on the Wye. Hope it picks up by the 16th June.

Fished the first 2 pegs on the right bank, used a wide range of baits (from maggots to pellets). Only caught 2 chub on maggots. River was low and clear.

2 Chub

Got on bank around 12-30, river still high but the muddy colour had eased and you could see vegetation 2ft down. Chose first swim over bridge, pellet/feeder fishing on a hair rig was a real pain to get back, because the flow pushed feeder and hook deep into bank side snags!! Opted for straight lead (4oz) and a paste of ground Elips pellets and a binding agent.

I used a big heavy bait dropper to put in regular small numbers of 10mm pellets, nothing for the first 4hrs !!!
then 2 reasonable Barbel all in the last hour. Quite happy with that bearing in mind it was very cold last night and the barometer was well over 1012. Think I will give the maggot a go next time, may induce a few silver fish to feed ?

2 Barbel

Arrived about 11am and fished the right hand bank having fished the left yesterday.
Catch: 3 Barbel, 7lb 12oz, 6lb 13oz, 8lb 4oz (all from the first swim) using pellet and feeder to 10lb line.

3 Barbel

Arrived around 11am to find the river high, coloured and racing through after a week of heavy showers. With two days booked I decided to fish the inside line on the left hand bank and do the other bank tomorrow.
Catch: 4lb 3oz Chub using pellet and feeder to 10lb line (caught from the far end of the beat).

1 Chub

River very high and ripping through but I have always fancied trying the eddy created by the willow first swim over the bridge, when the river is this state. So armed with my 2lbs test curve carp rod, bait runner loaded with 20lbs braid and 12lbs flouro hook link. Well my thoughts were if you do hook anything in that flow I would have a chance of banking it? My bait was a cheese paste with several add in's molded round a size 4 strong wide gape hook with the barb pinched down. 4oz of lead kept me on or near the edge of the flow, expecting chub was surprised that a steady bouncing bite produce a rather tatty looking Barbel, very pale in colour around 6lbs but it led me a right dance through weeds and bank vegetation (now under the water near the bank) several surging runs later it was netted. I had started fishing around 1pm and left just after 6pm. Same bait and rig saw me land a further 2 (good conditioned Barbel) and one lost fish in the submerged bank side weeds. Conclusion they are there and will feed in these high water conditions, but be prepared for a serious scrap if you hook Birty Barbel, all 3 fish required 10+ mins to recover in the landing net prior to release? Maybe pellet would have found a few chub but as always here, had a great afternoon.

3 Barbel

Fished for a couple of hours with the fly rod, no fish seen. Also coarse fished for a few hours with my son who lost one Barbel. No contact with any other fish.

Fished 3 swims on roadside. Barbel of 8.02 & 7.10, along with 12 Chub to 3.5lb. Both Barbel came to pellet in last hour.

2 Barbel, 12 Chub

Fished on a falling coloured river I think another 24 hours would have be spot on.

Managed a 7.5lb barbel from the first swim over the bridge, another smaller fish taken from the next peg down stream.
Spent some time trotting a stick float for a mixed bag including some good dace and small chub. A pleasant day.

1 Trout, 2 Barbel, 2 Chub