Feedback & Reports

This being my third visit to beat in 3 years and receiving a ‘beating’ from it last time out with only a handful of Chublets , today How Caple was back to its best!
Having chose to start in a favourite swim of mine at bottom of track I cast in at first light and within 30 seconds tip wrapped around and 4lb 4oz Chub hit the net ! Another small chub of about a pound over the next hour and it was time to move on (feeder/meat).
Moving and searching around the faster more bubbly flow I banked first 2 Barbel the biggest being about 6 (on pellet) .
Having pre baiting a few more swims I moved on and settled in one which I was advised to by Surrey father, son and family combo who kindly chatted and advised me on visit the night before .
After a very naughty two and a half hour cat nap due to ridiculous levels of excitement the night before and waking every hour to look at clock in fear it won’t go off at 4am , I finally awoke at 0312 but by lunchtime was shattered !
After a dozen canoes and sun dropped a bit I got bites regular and banked the rest of my fish , the biggest Barbel being 8lb 8oz, all on meat.
If you lightened up your approach ( not advised ) and used smaller baits I would hate to think how many chub you could catch , the beat really is thick with them and great fun they are too !
Stunning beat , one of the best , water levels not bad for time of year , thank you Wye and Usk for ANOTHER memorable day and fully expect to be back here again in 2022!

6 Barbel, 7 Chub

5 Barbel, 20 Chub, 15 Other

2 Barbel, 5 Chub, 20 Other

4 Barbel, 20 Chub

River low, hot and bright through the day, fish first up and evening, hardly a touch through the day. Barbel to meat and pellet, Chub to meat and pellet, mainly meat. Best Barbel 8lb. the other was an Eel.

2 Barbel, 12 Chub, 1 Other

First time on this stunning beat, so gave it a good walk. There seemed to be a couple of nice swims at the top end as it steadied out after the shallow water, with a decent flow and foam line to the middle / far side. It looked shallower but decided to fish the pacier water anyway, the inside line looked v deep. My rod was almost pulled of the rest first cast with a barbel about 8lb and then my plan to explore the whole beat went out the window with plenty of chub (albeit some small around the pound mark, but most around 3/5lb) and another 2 barbel.

I decide to head downstream and my plan was to fish the fast water at the bottom of the beat where it tears through on the inside line in a very deep gulley for about 3 swims. I never got there however as i spotted a rather hard to access swim just after some shallow where again there was some broken water and pace towards middle and far side. After losing 3 barbel in first 3 chucks i found where the snag was and managed to avoid it, picking up 3 more barbel and some more chub till dusk. It was obviously where some fish were but was a bit hairy landing them... even with a five metre net you had to get them to with inches of the bank to reach down and net them, not the safest swim I've fished but there was obviously a nest of barbel sat there so it had to be done. I will definitely be back. but please put a rope in the aforementioned swim and cut some steps. ;-)

6 Barbel, 20 Chub, 1 Other

A low, green Wye proved to be as tough as it sounds. A barbel was taken first thing along with a decent chub on feeder tactics in the fastest water I could find. The canoes started at about 10am and were constant until about 4pm. All were on the near bank too to avoid the shingle beaches and shallows on the opposite side. However all were courteous and apologetic. However I was trotting by this time so they weren't an issue as I ran the float down between flotillas. I had plenty of chub on trotted meat (between a pound and 3lb) then had a break until early evening. I set up in the successful swim from the mornings feeder fishing and after hiding in the car as a thunder storm rolled over for an hour I started feeder fishing again about 7pm. In the next couple of hours I had 3 more barbel which fought like demons in the fast nearside gulley. Smallest was about 4lb and largest a good 7lber. Happy days and I didn't get struck by lightening which was a bonus.

4 Barbel, 11 Chub

Evening session

1 Barbel, 6 Chub

Very tough day with barbel coming out of the blue through the whole session. River was low but carrying colour. As always a beautiful stretch but the fish were not on today. We moved regularly all day and covered the whole stretch.

3 Barbel, 3 Chub

1 Barbel, 1 Chub