Feedback & Reports

A Very tough day fishing. Wandered all over the beat and fished hard. The weather and moon phase made it obvious that this was going to be the case.
Saw plenty of king fishers, signs of an otter and beautiful surroundings as usual.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

High pressure, sun out all day. River low and clear, fished feeder and pellets very slow until the evening then it came alive. Not the best conditions for the fishing but the right conditions for spending a days fishing at a stunning location. Adam went out his way to help us and put us on the right track, we will be back.

4 Barbel, 1 Chub

First time on a new beat for us. Walked down to the river on arrival and decided to head upstream to try and find the first gully area. Found a swim which looked like it would hold a few fish in the searing sunshine and clear skies.
Had to wait till around mid afternoon for the first few fish, unfortunately I proceeded to loose 6 barbel to hook pulls early on (I don't think they were feeding properly at this stage) and later to a monstrous snag mid river and the rocks close in. The barbel were scrapping like demons and with a straight drop to 6-7 foot in the side, they were boring for the gaps in the rocks under our feet in the clear water. Worth noting for any anglers that braid hook-lengths and barbless hooks would be useful to avoid breaks and, if broken, avoid leaving barbed hooks in the fish. We eventually worked the swim out and the best way to play them which involved walking up the bank a little and getting out onto a submerged rock for a better angle.
Ended the day with a 9lb 6oz fish for me, and 2 7lbers for my fishing partner. The few that I saw close in before they cut me off were 7-8lbers.
Lovely beat, although I can imagine at weekends the opposite bank could get busy with other anglers. At the moment it's a must to stay until it gets dark, as we had pretty consistent action from around 6 o'clock onwards but very little before this as is usually the case on the Wye in summer on low levels.
As always, many thanks to WUF for letting the beat.

3 Barbel

1 small rainbow on black spinner. Many fish rising but not taking. An awful lot of rubbish left by other anglers.

1 Trout

Use the farmers lift, it's a very long walk. All fish caught on small pellets.

7 Barbel, 10 Chub

Trout to half a pound rising to small CDC Emergers. River low.

2 Trout

This covers 4 days fishing on this beat the first week of September. All four days similar; fished approx 11am -3pm, hot sunny and blanks on first 3 days. Fourth day, a lovely 10 inch plump brownie - hope to see it again. Others about 5 inches. This was a rare opportunity for me to fish and am pretty inexperienced preferring to stick with dry fly for pleasure although a considerable distance of this small stream was only just fishable with waist waders. Clearly at times water level is much too high but for me. This was just right although perhaps less than normal. Wide variety of upwings of all sizes but hardly any fish rising. I used an elk hair caddis and black klinkhammer. I guess nymphing would be more productive in deeper stretches. Super wild stream and having lunch on a rocky bit I half expected to see the African Queen come round the bend together with a cigar playing Bogart magic. Meanwhile the world is in turmoil!

3 Trout

Water was very low and clear, and bright sunlight made conditions quite testing. Low water made wading relatively easy, enabling access to parts of the beat usually too deep to fish through. Most fish were caught on small nymph patterns, with black pennell and pheasant tails proving most attractive. Only one was caught on a dry pattern - a small elk hair fished through slower pocket water at the middle of the beat.
All fish were in great condition.

8 Trout

Very hot day just 1 barbel.

1 Barbel

Water Very low at .42m. Able to fish the top run completely at this height with some wading care required. Fished intermediate and size 10 Ally's Shrimp. Hooked two decent Chub but no salmon. Went through with a team of wet spiders but only succeeded in landing two 6 oz trout.
Fished a sparse rise from 7-8 with succession of dries with one fish of decent size taken on no14 tupps but came off before landing. Probably three quaters pound.
My guest had no takes at all, but he did spook a stale 5lb grilse at the rock opposite stairs.

2 Trout, 2 Other