Feedback & Reports

Another great day on the majestic River Wye.

8 Barbel, 4 Chub

Fished the whole beat from 10 until dusk. A few fish rising to olives but only one landed. Lovely beat with a great variety of water.

1 Trout

Ray Oakley had a 10 lb salmon on a thunder lighning at Eardislry on the 2 oct

1 Salmon

River low and clear but enjoyable day as always. Fished the far bank a little more on this visit and LD had success rolling meat for the Chub. Tried float rod for couple of hours in afternoon plenty of Chublets and Dace to maggot along with a lovely Brownie of around 1lb. Fair amount of Salmon activity along beat. Barbel was only a small fish and fell to pellet halfway along roadside bank.

1 Trout, 1 Barbel, 6 Chub, 30 Other

Turned out to be a very warm, sunny day after a foggy cold morning. Most of the action after lunch on the usual feeder and pellet method.

7 Barbel, 1 Chub

First time at Wyebank. Had a fairly tough day, water very shallow near side and flying through across, 5oz held bottom but best angle was to fish from the cross to reduce line curve. No tiny fish, all over 4lb best 6lb. Stunning day as the sun cleared the mist. Will be back having worked a few things out. Thanks to Don for advice.

6 Barbel

Final day and, as forecast, no change in the weather! 2 opted for the lower section and caught 1 barbel of 7.13 on pellet (also lost 2) and a chub of 3.8. The other 2 were at the top of Legg Meadow and landed 1 barbel of around 3lbs.
This is our 4th annual visit to Courtfield and it's always a pleasure just to be there.
Our catches haven't been prolific, but except for one "old bruiser" the barbel have been in superb condition and included 3 doubles. As always, thank you Don-it was good to have a chat and catch up on your news.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

Sept 30th : Caught one small wbt on the Cothi Crugybar beat in the daytime. Very bright, sunny day, not ideal. Night time went to Towy Llanwrda for sea trout - clear and moonlit, very little sign of fish movement, nothing caught.
Oct 1st: Pipe Pool in evening for sea trout and caught nothing. Chap on the other side was clearly fishing for brown trout - interesting on first day of close season!
Tried for sea trout on Towy Wenallt at night - clear, moonlit night with very high tide, nothing caught.

1 Trout

Caught lots of very small grayling on tiny grey duster but nothing to bend the rod. I will be returning soon to try the nymphs. Lane is very narrow I had to reverse twice on the way down & three times on the way up. The locals treat it like a race track.

Blank. First time for me on this beat which has re-opened for the last few days of the Severn season after being closed due to low water during the summer. I had been meaning to get up here for years. Obviously I had been briefed to expect low water, but the section of the Teme I came down to was the ghost of a stream. Many yards of flat gravel shallows are only a few inches deep, and the occasional deep hole has water so clear you could see every stone on the bottom. The valley is quite delightful, particularly the cricket bat willow plantation. Lots of birdlife, I started a hare across the stubble and, without wishing to seem misanthropic, I didn't see another soul. We don't have another stream like this, except perhaps some sections of the Ithon. It's all quite open, except for the very top end where an 8 or even 7 foot rod would have been handier than the 9 footer I had brought. This is not a winterbourne where the upper waters of a brook only flow during winter months, but a mid stream section where low summer flows just disappear below porous ground. This is not unique either: part of our own Blackpool Brook has a habit of disappearing into old mine workings during a dry summer, the Surrey Mole famously gets a bit lost between Caterham and Dorking in a dry year and Yugoslavia is full of limestone streams which disappear down sinkholes and pop up again miles away and a thousand feet lower.
Anyway, during a delightful walk, enjoying myself taking photographs, the only thing missing from the equation was a trout, although I know trout of 2 or 3 pounds are occasionally taken. I tried walking down to the bottom of the beat and working up, looking for a rising fish and searching with a dry fly in the runs and deep holes. Some of these holes do look good. But despite a warm day with willow flies and pale wateries hatching, I didn't see a natural rise. I did raise a small fish from a deep hole to a Grey Duster and failed to hook it, and another turned out to be a tiny chub. I came to the conclusion that the best thing to do would be to let the winter floods repopulate the stretch and come back to try it in the spring. At the same time, there are very few absolutes in angling, so if somebody comes along and gets a dozen from it tomorrow, I'm standing by ready to eat my hat!