Feedback & Reports

River critically low especially from accessible swims, fished all morning without a single bite on all baits and methods, so gave up and went home. Word of caution this beat with the river so low has limited safe accessibilty especially for septuagenarians !!

- Good directions, and easy parking in the layby right next to the beat.
- Very easy walking access on both banks of the short beat. Steep banks to get up and down to the spots, but (somewhat broken) steps on one spot and steps cut into the grass on the other, so no real problem.
- Very low, clear water. This is a shallow stretch, so on arrival we were very doubtful we would catch anything given the conditions, but we persevered and fished the left hand bank at the downstream end. Trotted meat down on a loafer.
- For two rods (packing up early afternoon when the rain set in): 17 chub all 3lb to 5lb. 1 eel.
- Lovely days fishing with not too many canoes, Would certainly return. Waders would have made life an awful lot easier rather than casting for miles.

17 Chub, 1 Other

4 Barbel, 5 Chub

Other ...small Dace...Chub to one pound...River very low trotting

1 Chub, 5 Other

A beautiful stretch of the Wye. Hot and sunny - water low. Had great fun trotting for chub on light gear. Biggest was upwards of 3lb caught on a halibut pellet casting back towards the bridge. Caught another decent one around 2.5lb trotting in the fast flow at the bottom of the stretch. Really good fun. Caught four more much smaller fish on a mix of trotting from various swims and feeder fishing. Trotting by far the more successful method. Didn’t seem like the barbel were about. Shared the stretch with a nice fella (Bill) who targeted barbel in the deep pool downstream but no bite and by the time we left (around 5pm) he’d switched to attempting to avoid a blank further up stream. Lovely way to spend a day.

6 Chub

Great day fishing on this stretch despite river being very low. Started by freelining floating breadcrust in the peg by the bridge on the RHS of the river facing downstream. Spotted some big chub under the bushes. First cast got a chub about 5lb a rod length out. Great fight on a 14ft float rod.

Then moved to the pool before the rapids 200m downstream from the bridge. Swimfeeder and halibut pellet produced 3 barbel averaging 5lb with a futher 3 fish lost and numerous small barbel and chub to 4lb. Finished the day with an hour of stick float and caster and got a small chub and some roach per cast.

3 barbel average 5lb
3 chub average 4lb
5 small barbel to about 1lb
10 chub between 1/2 and 2lb
Loads of small chub and roach

6 Barbel, 30 Chub, 3 Other

River painfully low. So much so that 95% of the bottom is visible here. I was greeted by two otters fighting/arguing half way down the stretch at dawn.
Not the start to fill me with confidence as I'd not been here before but unphased, and taking into account the river level, I decided to spend the day trotting with meat and cheese. Took chub all day (albeit sporadically) from many swims but best results were from the middle of the stretch (left bank steps/right bank reeds swim which cover the same water and about the only part where the bottom was not visible). Also had a couple from the middle of the fast run at the lower end. Great stretch to do some wading which I thoroughly enjoyed (I don't do it very often).
Met office forecast of overcast conditions was incorrect (what a shock!) and I was "treated" to a mostly sunny day which did not help sport at all in the shallow water (max depth I found was 3 1/2 foot) and made fishing in the day very hard work although I did continue to catch (but we are talking 1 fish per hour).
As usual, evening kick-started the fish into feeding and I continued to catch chub regularly until I could no longer see the float in the gloom. Biggest 5lb, smallest 1/2lb.
No sign of Mr Whiskers but not really surprised given the conditions and desperately low water. Having fished The Creel (immediately downstream) I would imagine they have dropped down there into the deeper water for some cover.
A word of warning. This is a double bank stretch which is fantastic but means you have to cross the Foy footbridge to access the right bank. If you don't like heights I suggest you stick to the left bank. I've never crossed this bridge before but it reminded me of a rope bridge over a gorge you might see in something like an Indiana Jones film (although it is wood/steel). There are 1" gaps between the treads and the whole bridge rocks and sways with each step you take. Rather unnerving at first!
I will definitely be back to this lovely short stretch but will wait until there's a foot more water on as I bet it would be cracking.

30 Chub

This was our first visit to Foy Bridge and although the river was running low we had an excellent day at a lovely spot. We started around 9am and fished the 2 swims at the end of the left hand bank. 1 of us trotted pellets and caught 8 chub of varying size and the other feeder with meat, catching 4 small barbel and 6 chub. About mid morning my friend hooked into a good fish which after a long fight snapped his rod and eventually his line (10lb).
As the day went on we moved up towards the bridge and the action quietened down. I moved to the right hand bank and the fish came back as the evening arrived, bringing 2 barbel (7lb 4oz and 7lb) along with a couple of chub around 4/5lb.
Would certainly look to return.

7 Barbel, 22 Chub

Fished at foy bridge for the first time today. Whilst the weather wasn’t great me and my father managed to have a good bit of sport resulting in 27 fish between us with barbel up to 7lb and a nice 5lb chub my dad had later on in the day. Also he managed to catch 2 eels

8 Barbel, 17 Chub, 2 Other

5 Chub, 2 Other