Feedback & Reports

As expected the river had risen overnight and was about 2 feet up from yesterday with a nice colour although it dropped around 12inches before the heavy rain put a lot of colour in the river late afternoon. A better day, 4 barbel smallest 4lb 8oz and the largest 8lb, a chub of around 3lb 8oz and an eel of around a 1lb made for an enjoyable days fishing. All came to feeder and pellet. As other people have said before, the banks are extremely slippery when wet as it was in the morning rendering some swims too dangerous to venture down without a rope. Be careful if its rained or raining.

9 x brown trout, two to about 3/4lb. Beautifully conditioned, fishing was challenging but highly enjoyable, most of the fish took Copper johns fished about 4ft down, but also large white adams dry flies. The larger fish came from the mouth of the river.

A tricky day with the river high and coloured following heavy rain the previous day. In the circumstances, a catch of 7 barbel to 6lbs and 2 chub was a good return for a day under the brolley.

A very diffcult day in attrocious conditions with rain,hail,thunderstorms and gusting winds making the fishing testing,so not a day for roving.We fished the "comfortable" middle swims and shared a catch of 10 barbel to 8lbs and 1 chub.

River already up a few feet but started to drop soon after arrival. One rod fished Wharfe pool and other Wyebank Pool. 3 barbel landed between 5lb and 8lb. A beautiful stretch with easy access to the local pub if a temporary retreat/regroup is required. Will definitely be back.

Cancelled our trip having looked at web cam for middle monnow, (almost 2 ft and rising) and weather forcast, which showed continuing rain. Will re-book Skinfrith for a later date.

The river was so high that fishing was very difficult. However, 2 brown trout caught with flies and released as they were too small. Thanks.

2 chub.

Blank. Well, this didn't pan out. Abernant usually stands up well to high water and, whether there are salmon about or not, has some glorious fly water to fish down. Cunningly, as I thought, I booked myself on late the night before when the rain had finished and the gauge showed just a very modest rise. But I arrived in the early morning to find the water up another 18 inches and the colour of Bourneville cocoa. Persevered with the spinning rod until lunchtime.

First time on this beat and what a beat! The weather was looking good which in itself is unusual this year. The river was in perfect condition with a good flow and plenty of colour. I had a brief walk up from the lower end to the tree line and decided that I would have a roaming day. I picked my first swim and had a 6lbs 3oz Barbel within the first 10 minutes. I don't know what they have been feeding on but wow they can pull, took me over 10 minutes to get the fish into the net! This was followed shortly by another Barbel, and another and another. My roaming idea had gone out the window now and I settled into the swim. The fish kept coming, apart from a gap between 11am – 2pm when it went quite quiet, I am guessing the summer sun had a part to play here. I was kept entertained watching a group of 30+ swans moving up and down the river, they kept me company all day. From 2pm things picked up again until 7pm when the river was starting to rise quiet quickly. I finished the day with 16 Barbel and a very welcome Chub. I couldn’t believe the pulling power of the Barbel in the river, the fish in this stretch have to be some of the toughest fighting fish I’ve come across. They all fell to running ledger and pellet bait. Of course no report is complete without a "one that got away" story. My biggest fish today was a lovely 8lbs specimen, I did strike into what I can only guess as being one of the Wye monsters. It stripped a good 50 yards of line from the reel in its first slow powerful run. When I did manage to stop it I can only describe it as trying to pull a Thames barge! Annoyingly fish bounced the hook after about 5 minutes into the battle in which time I had made zero line on it. Shame as I would have liked to have seen what I had hooked, but it’s a dam good reason to go back! On the very last cast of the day I even connected with one of the famous large Wye Pike. Ok it hit my swimfeeder as I was reeling in so was only one for a couple of minutes but it managed a bit of tail-walking in that time before it released the swimfeeder.
All in all a fantastic day, the place is just amazing, quiet with lots of wildlife to watch when the fishing is slow. The only piece of advice is the car parking place on the road near the field parking is only any good if you have a 4WD type car as any normal car will bottom out. The bottom car park is a better bet and with some careful parking should be room for a couple of cars.
Excellent beat, I look forward to visiting again very soon!