Feedback & Reports

First time for me on this beat therefore spent more time walking than fishing to begin with. First swim was running a bit too fast for comfort and I quickly moved to a swim just downstream of the tree line which offered the luxury of steps and a nice flat area to sit and huddle under a brolly when the rain set in. The bonus was that I had a 7lb Barbel on the bank within 15 minutes. The rain and wind duly arrived but despite this I finished with 7 barbel with two over 7lbs and a small chub, all on pellets.
The weather conditions did not encourage much moving between swims but from what I saw there were at least half a dozen good swims cut out with steps and posts and I look forward to returning to try some of them out in better conditions.
I was also grateful for the relatively snag free river bed in this swim which was a welcome change.

Nice section 1 chub & 8 barbel. On meat, bread & pellet.
Field only good for 4 x 4 but parking at bottom of section is fine. First swims fished best.

This is a great stretch of river and had a really enjoyable morning Session with all 4 of us catching 2 Barbel, one of which was close to double figures. Once we had walked down to the river we turned left at first but halfway down the track the nettles and undergrowth stopped us from getting to the end of the stretch. These were above head height in places I would strongly advise good heavy duty clothing is worn if you want to attempt to get past this. All in all another beautiful stretch of The River Wye. Would Fish the stretch again.

A lovely day out on a beautiful length of river. Middle section very overgrown but more than enough swims to choose from. Banks are very slippery so take care, managed quite a few fish to around 8lbs. Great day out.

24 Barbel on pellet. Caught fish from several swim.

Rising and cloured river with floating debris made fishing difficult but two rods caught 12 barbel to 8lbs on pellet baits.

6 Barbel all in evening session. Spent 2 hours in the morning trotting with the pin but should have known better as normal summer levels starting to rise and colour tinge getting in and no bites from anything. Adjourned for lunch and siesta.
I needed the recharge as the evening was eventful. A 7lbs 11oz barbel fought so long and hard (amazing power-to-weight ratio of 7lb'ers generally) with barbel rod bent full 180 degree arc under a bush right in the flow, it widened the gape on a strong size 8. I used a big bait. Another huge and overlong effort required with what I believed to be a VERY big fish on had me in bits as I had, unnoticed from the 7lbs 11oz battle, frayed line grinding in the rings. It was a sack-of-potatoes in fast flow and no wonder, 9lb7oz hooked in the belly. Barbless size 8 so no significant damage except to my nerves. Then an 8lbs 5oz bent off the landing net head though fortunatley I could get down to water level and use the net. Had a spare in the vehicle.
In between all this were 3 5-6lb'ers.
It was hard work!

Poured with rain from early morning until about 3pm. Almost didn't bother to make the journey. Arrived about 12.30pm and managed to climb down bank to swim to be greeted by the river pushing through and chocolate in colour for the first third of the way across.
Tried fishing beyond this to no avail then decided to fish close in, which produced barbel about 6lbs in the first 5 minutes in the pouring rain. Ten minutes later second bite and fish took off like a train eventually brought to the net about five minutes later. Opening the net looked like a double so unhooked it and took quick picture with my forceps beside the fish to give me some idea of scale of fish. As it was pouring with rain at the time I quickly weighed fish and was disappointed to see it go to 6lbs 12oz on scales, then returned fish. It was then when I was ready to start fishing again I noticed the scales were set on kgs, so it was 13lbs plus! Caught 3 more barbel to 7lb+ all on halibut pellets. Later scaling of photo showed fish to be at least 32" long.

6 barbel to 7lb 8oz and a 4lb+ chub. Nice warm evening promised more; what's to be dissappointed with in this lovely setting?
Should have got there earlier and had fun with trotting gear in an ideal swim in the middle of the beat.

First time on this beat. I can't say I was impressed as the access to swims was very poor. If the ground was wet it would have been necessary to drop in on sky hooks! There were two which you could access but the levels were quite low and there was a great deal of weed which ended up with tackle losses and only a few fish. 1 Barbel, 1 Chub and strangely 1 eel on a huge lump of luncheon meat.