Feedback & Reports

Beat 5 River Cothi. A lovely stretch of water but very low and clear.

Clear water and fish easily spooked, so nil caught. Good to see a few scurrying away though.

The river was very low this time round, and being a Saturday the canoe traffic throughout the day was very heavy. Both of these things made the fishing difficult, but we managed to find a few fish throughout the day.
Caught early on with around 6 chub coming to the float and coarse pellets, eventually moved to the feeder by mid afternoon after a bitelss hour. Plenty more chub fell to the feeder throughout the day, but a lot were in the 1/2lb to 1 1/2lb category, with a few better fish between 3-4lb. Had to wait until dark started to fall before finding the barbel, clearly spooking off the low water at the moment during daytime. 3 barbel from 3lb - 7lb 4oz.
On another note, we had three smaller chub taken by a seriously big pike hanging around the swim, which may have been causing the chub to spook (very finicky bites). The fish was well into double figures and almost unmovable for the few minutes we had it on each time.
Great beat, as always, but perhaps the conditions and the pressure on it at the moment are causing it to slow down a little of late.

3 Barbel, 17 Chub, 2 Other

Highlight was a 9.12lbs barbel to my colleague SC, a new personal best so well done mate. It looked like it should have weighed a pound or so more and probably will in a few months. A good feeding spell from about 4pm - 7pm, during which time we caught most of the barbel and a couple of inconvenient eels. River low with a little bit of colour.

8 Barbel, 1 Chub, 2 Other

4 Barbel, 5 Chub

Very small grilse - about 4lbs, taken spinning. Water still affected by algae but clearing slowly.

1 Salmon

What a difference a few weeks makes. From having an awesome day to a major struggle today. Probably the hardest day I've had in a few years on the Wye. Started at 5.30am. We chucked everything at it today. All different baits both legered and trotting but what a struggle to even get bites. Mainly fished the bottom pool. By 2pm we had 2 small barbel and a chub. Suffice to say we had enough by then and decided to call it a day. Rarely give up and could have stayed till the evening but given how hard it had been we decided to right this one off and will be back soon.
The river is very low at the moment and I reckon it needs a good flush through. Wyebank has been fished daily for weeks now. Maybe there is a bit of pressure on the fish to at the moment. Who knows.
But this is an amazing beat and we will be back very soon.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

Hot and sunny all day - maybe something to do with our nil return? Spent most of our time at the south end of the reservoir on the mud flats and in the mouth of the currently dry river. Very few signs of fish; one or two rises seen and also watched a good size fish in the near stagnant pool in the 'river'. Lots of damsels and tried variations of nymph representations, all to no avail. Great place for a relaxing day and picnic.

I had a good evening and spent about 2 hours on the water. The trout were rising well. There is one important point which should be noted, the wading can be very challenging. The stream is quite deep in places and there is a lot of rubbish on the bottom as well as the bottom being mainly a soft substrate. This makes wading difficult. The banks are also steep so access can be difficult.

3 Trout

No salmon seen or caught, but the trout fishing was fantastic. Even in the boiling hot weather, the trout were more than willing to take a dry fly. At One point in the afternoon we had 3 grass snakes in the water with us. Lovely beat, well worth a visit. And thanks to the owner for the offer of help, we did need it!