Feedback & Reports

Fished from 4.30 in the afternoon at the 'new swim' in Legg Meadow, casting to the far bank by the hole in the willows. A fantastic late afternoon's fishing including 3 chub between 5lbs and 7lbs and 5 barbel of 8,9,11,12 and 12.5lbs.

Beautiful breezy day, Chough's and Lark's providing the background noise and a low flying Red Kite overlooking the proceedings. Not many fish on the rise but 10 trout taken. Stunning place.

Our eventful weekend followed on from our van puncture adventure yesterday with one of number crying "where's my seat?" as he was unloading his gear from the van! It soon dawned that the aforementioned seat had, in all probability, been left at Sugwas yesterday! After a short debate two thoroughly cheesed off anglers set off on the 30 minute drive back to Sugwas in the forlorn hope of recovering the seat. Amazingly the seat was exactly where it had been left - laying in the grass along with the rod, landing net and umberella that the silly b****r had also forgotten!!! Amazing as it was that the gear hadn't been nicked it was even more incredible that it hadn't been trampled to dust by the large herd of very inquisitive cattle in the field!

Unfortunately the "Carry On Up The River" performance above was the only significant event of the day as we had only a single chub between us despite our best efforts. I've never seen the river as clear at Whitehouse with large areas of the riverbed visible even at the top end of the beat. This coupled with the bright conditions sealed our fate I'm sure for the majority of the day but even when the clouds came over and it got later, nothing materialised. Again, one of those days!

3no in total all brown trout

I arrived at 2 pm and after stopping to chat to a fellow angler in the first field I headed all the way upstream to the Salmon croy only to find it had been taken over by a canoe stag party dressed as Bananas and using it as a dance floor/sun deck, pumping music, heavy drinking and diving into the river sent me back downstream and I settled into a swim to fish between swathes of weed, no bites for 2 hours had me reeling in and having a siesta.
I moved back to the deeper water around 6 pm and baited and waited and waited, action came at 8pm in the form an 8.6lb barbel and that was it, a few plucks and taps after that but nothing developed, first time home in daylight this week and a stunning sunset on the way back to Ross.
A tough day at the office.

A blustery day and water slightly coloured..........I'm trying to make excuses for my own failings, I caught one small 7inch WBT on an F fly, my friend blanked but we both enjoyed the day.

Fished Wyastone Leys for the first time. The tree coverage behind was very handy considering the conditions and recommended for south westerly wind. Caught 5 barbel the best being 8lb 3oz. No sign of any chub. Thoroughly enjoyable day considering river was clear and will be going back in the future.

Only a short beat with a few swims - good advice from the staff on the fishery who told me exactly where to fish - lots of canoe traffic during the day but things improve after about four in the afternoon - had five lovely barbel up to about seven pounds. Thanks again for a wonderful few days fishing.

After a half a days casting instruction followed by a full day's salmon fishing on Wyesham with John Symonds I arrived at Courtfield on the Friday anticipating my Barbel fix. I settled in at the croy where the river meets the road at the second parking spot on the beat. Lost a good fish almost straightaway that ran out a good length of line on the baitrunner and then kept going even though I had the clutch reasonably firm on account of using 12lb line. The power of these fish never fails to astonish. Then had an enjoyable chat with the owner who came down to introduce himself - a thoroughly decent chap. Picked up a stonking chub in this swim before moving into Meadow Pool to put some distance between myself and the half wits in their canoes. Actually not all of them were a nuisance, just the groups of young men for whom the river habitat/environment is purely incidental to the ridiculous posturing that constitutes a canoe trip. I had one of these idiots yell out that if I was not catching any fish this was likely due to 'us lot coming through' and to reinforce the point slapped the water with his paddle much to the amusement of his mates. Half wit does not do justice - if I had had my slingshot with me a I might have been tempted. 5 more chub in the Meadow Pool but, in spite of steadily feeding the swim, of Barbel there were no more signs. Some lovely water on this beat and when I come back I will explore the streamier sections downstream towards Wyebank. I believe the Barbel fishing would benefit from a good rise in water and a bit more colour. Also worthy of note: a number of Salmon were holding in this pool revealing themselves during the course of the day; entertained by a family buzzards in the opposite field following a tractor and picking off rodents flushed out by the thresher - a remarkable sight. Just a quick word about John Symonds - a real gentleman, with a scholarly appreciation of Wye salmon fishing - he is also an excellent instructor.

Thought we would have a go on the middle Wye. Arrived in heavy rain, so chose the easy walk to the right bank. Fished the large swim in the middle of the length, but after a couple of hours, we did not have any bites between us, so decided to fish the left hand bank. I eventually settled in the last swim, below the rapids. Fished halibut pellets on standard barbel rig, and although I had to share the swim with 23 juvenile swans!,had lots of bites from the off in the shallow water but only managed to hit 6 of them, 6 chub to 4 1/2lbs, and lost a fish that pulled the rod off the rest, and snapped the line. Tony fished the deepish swim below the bridge, and only had a dozen bites on luncheon meat but managed 7 chub and 2 barbel to 6lbs. Was nice and sunny in the evening.