Feedback & Reports

Fished from 2pm till 8pm, Very disappointing day, not a single bite. Will be back.

2 eels caught river very low & slow.

2 Other

Guided R on the beat last year and he caught some huge barbel and he wanted a repeat session this year. I also guided him on Wyebank last year where he caught 32 barbel in a day!

He brought along his young lad Dominic for the day. Richard caught a good few chub and barbel. He even allowed his lad to land his first barbel of 6lbs 9oz. Richard landed a beautiful 8lbs 12oz barbel. Plenty of chub to 3lbs 12oz were landed. A few fish were lost due to the hook links being parted on sharp rocks.

As normal the fish came early in the morning and late in the afternoon. A great days fishing.

4 Barbel, 8 Chub

River low, 5 barbel( 6-8lbs), 5 chub(3-5.8lbs), 2eels(3lbs) all caught on ledger, boilie was best for barbel.

5 Barbel, 5 Chub, 2 Other

After guiding S and N yesterday they tried on their own. They said the canoe traffic was even worst during the day. Again the fish were caught early and late. At one point during the day they had 5 people diving in and swimming around in the swim. To be fair one chap had lost his camera over the side. They didn't find it! I suggested they asked the divers to bring back a few feeders. There must be 100's down there. No wonder they didn't catch for a while after this. Still 9 barbel a couple of 8lbs and a beauty of 10lbs 4oz all weighed of course. Not sure how many chub they caught but there must have been some. Nothing like the beauty of 5lbs 12oz the previous day.
Over the 2 day period they only lost 3 feeders. I know when I first fished the swim I lost 10 in one day. Thats why local knowledge is helpful. This was their first visit to the Wye and certainly not the last.

9 Barbel

Guided N and S and what a fantastic day they had. The fish fed at intervals during the day. Being Bank Holiday weekend meant the canoe traffic was busy. Several fell out of the canoes into our swim. At times it seemed more like a public swimming pool rather than a fast flowing river.
The fish came on the feed towards late afternoon and evening. The largest chub was one of 5lbs 12oz and best barbel was 9lbs 3oz. Several 8lbers were caught. All the larger fish were weighed and not guessed. They were smiling just a little! Thanks W&UF and Don.

14 Barbel, 18 Chub

A good day had in beautiful surroundings.

Having read the description on the website of the detailed peg information we arrived at the fishery excited, optimistic and expecting to find at least 3 nice pegs reasonably comfortable and safe to fish from. Unfortunately this was not the case. The access route to the river between the Pumping Station fence up to the WUF fence end at the 2nd parking area was quite overgrown and almost impossible to pull a trolley or fishing barrow through.
The river was quite low and in most of the pegs 6ft below the edge of the bank making it almost impossible to net fish from. The other pegs remaining were quite steep to get down into and clearly no provision or attempt had been made to provide safe access, either through cutting steps into the bank or to even provide a level area at the bottom to even position a fishing chair.
Due to the fact that we had some rain over night the banks were extremely slippy and dangerous, even the fittest and most agile of anglers would think twice about taking a chance on approaching some of these pegs.
We took a look on foot without our gear at the area below the fence into the wood stretch which to be honest looked fantastic. The only problem was the tracks and pathways leading down to the river were treacherously steep and again very slippy. Even the fittest of people would find these tracks a challenge, my father in law actually stated "It doesn't mention on the website that you have to possess the ability of a mountain goat to fish this stretch"!. Never a truer word spoken. For anyone who who is thinking about booking onto the Courtfield stretch they should seriously consider travelling extremely light and be prepared for the worst!
As regarding the fishing, it was a very hot day, bright and sunny and we experienced " armada's of canoes every 5 minutes throughout the day. To be fair most were courteous and tried to get past creating a minimum of disturbance but it became very annoying having to constantly bring in your lines. My Father in law 75 years of age fished the first accessible peg from the Pumping Station due it being the safest of them all.
Even this caused us all some concern and we took the precaution of fastening a rope on the top of the bank to assist him in getting down into it. He caught a 7lb Barbel on a 8mm Halibut pellet which he was delighted with, unfortunately he had no other bites. My mate fished the peg next to this and had two nice Barbel up to 7lb and lost a nice fish due to line rubbing on rocks. I fished the Bay peg which states on the website can be fished by 2 Anglers, I would disagree with this. Access down into the peg isn't too bad but again once you get to the bottom there is no safe place to position a chair and it is very precarious to fish from due to the slippy banks.
I had two nice Barbel up to 7lb again and a nice Chub about 3lb. I hooked two others but again parted company with them as my 10lb hooklink was rubbed against rocks.
All in all a lovely day in stunning scenery but there are far better more comfortable places to fish than this, particularly where safety is concerned. We all enjoyed it but for £20 per day we felt that we didn't receive value for our money it is highly unlikely we would return to this venue.

5 Barbel, 1 Chub

Fished from 6.30am till 5pm, barbel to 10lb, chub to 7lb then ran out of bait! Bites all day! Incredible days fishing!

11 Barbel, 8 Chub

Very short morning session on a river in perfect condition. Canoe traffic heavy but snagged a barbel of exactly 10lb from between them.

1 Barbel