Feedback & Reports

Just a note re the fishing at Winforton and Middle Hill Court on 13th, 14th Sept. Winforton was tough going, could have done with a bit more water but managed a good chub of about 5lb and a couple of small brownies on the fly.

Met up with Adam Fisher at Middle Hill Court who gave us a really useful and detailed intro to the water. Fishing and surroundings were stunning. Both the fly fishing barbel virgins I had with me caught good fish and absolutely loved it. I?ve attached a couple of pics which I think sum the day up better than words can. 10 in total without really trying too hard including 3, 9lbers. All absolute mint condition. On an interesting note the barbel were jumping out of the water around us throughout the day ? never seen that before.

Thanks for the recommendation for Kilsby house. The wife and I stayed at the house for a few days last week and had a great time. I fished their beat optimistically as the water was really low from the lack of rain but still took some small brownies on a dry. The river and setting is beautiful and I bet the fishing would have been great if the river had been at normal level.

By way of a catch return, I managed 5 trout, the best going just over a pound. The fishing was a bit tough with some fish taking tiny flies in the day time (caenis?) and a reasonable rise in the evening, but trout difficult to tempt. I missed a couple on a sedge but couldn't get them to take my flies that easily. Still, very enjoyable.

40+ chub, 20+ trout to 1lb, 7 grayling to over 1lb.
We all blanked on the top beat, both the pair that fished in the am and those there in the PM. When the shadows lengthened a particularly tricky rise began - complex multiple species hatch and similarly complex rise forms. Managed too hook three fish at this stage, all came off. Two were risen to size 22 dries, and one to a size 8 Royal Wulff! (we were getting slightly deranged by the frustration at that stage). Three of us saw an absolutely monstrous brown halfway along the top beat... it was not too far from the hut on the far bank. Big enough to have been a salmon, but consistently head and tail rising to what looked to be sherry spinners. A truly awesome brown, dubbed the "beast of Gromain." The salmon fisher in the party was adamant it was not one - that it was certainly a brown. I sincerely hope he was right, and I'll be booking early next season to prove the point!
Thanks for a wonderful, if somewhat testing, day. Would be grateful if you could train the fish to ignore disgusting large flies next season.

We found in the main on this trip that all the canoeists were very mindful of us as soon as they saw us, when we were fishing. In fact it was nice to hear them call to each other when in a group of 2 or more, to be aware of fishermen ahead and to steer to the far side of the river whenever possible.

On some stretches that was not always possible with the low water conditions, and in the main they were very considerate in passing slowly and with as little disturbance as possible. In fact it was a pleasure to see the "professional" for want of a better word, canoeists, who were extremely mindful of our activities and did their utmost not to disturb the river any more than was absolutely necessary as they passed by, gliding most of the way when possible.

On this trip we only experienced real conflict with our activities by a couple of canoes paddled by school children in a group of about 6-10 canoes. These 2 were sadly lacking way behind the others and were not paying attention to their instructor/guide who steered all the others away from us to the far side of the river. These 2 canoes came right in under our rods, much to their instructors displeasure. Although the disturbance was avoidable, it did not affect us to much and the children looked very sheepish for what they had done, & when shouted at by their leader, they looked very embarrassed, although no apologies were given to us. As they were just children we accepted that this sort of thing will happen from time to time and just smiled at them.

We do appreciate that they have as much right on the river as we have and so did not complain in any way. In fact the only disturbance really caused to us was by these school parties who tended to be more excitable and noisy. That's the way children are and it was a pleasure to see them enjoying their day as much as we were. In fact we were only jealous that we did not get that sort of opportunity and activity when we were at school.

On another 2 occasions, canoeists were actually very helpful. Two separate sets were close by when I was playing a barbel, both of them stopped some way upstream whilst I played the fish, once the fish was landed, they approached & were interested in what I had caught. On both occasions one of the party got out of their canoes to take a photo of me and the fish, for which I was very grateful.

It was interesting that on both occasions they asked if I intended killing and eating the fish. When I explained that I only fished for pleasure, & that in my opinion it would be a crime to kill such magnificent creatures they were very obviously pleased with that reply and stayed to see me holding the fish in the water to allow recovery before releasing each fish so that it swam away successfully and unharmed. One young lady asked if she could touch the fish, and was pleasantly surprised at how smooth and clean it felt. I'm not sure what she expected, but she did say how beautiful she thought that it was. I could not agree more.

On another occasion, whilst walking up river with Terry,surveying the river for likely looking deeper runs, we asked an American couple( maybe Canadian I can never tell the difference) if they had passed over any deeper places. They replied that they had but much further upstream. As we were walking back to the car, the guy parked his canoe and called to us to show us where they had spotted a deeper run in the river that was not visible from the bank due to the river side growth. Terry caught many trout from there later that day. Real co-operation between us and them.

The only problems we had were unfortunately unavoidable due to the low water conditions, where the canoeists had to come closer than we would have liked but they had no choice. They did try to keep as far away as possible though. At one point it gave us some amusement and plenty of laughs. What was happening was, just upstream from us were some rapids which brought the canoes across the river from our side and into some bushes on the far side, despite their efforts to steer clear. They laughed as much as we did. Each time a set of canoes were seen to approach this rapid we waited for the fun to begin and were not disappointed on any occasion during that day.

The Hindwell is officially driving me to distraction ! It is heaving with trout that I can't catch. I fished it last Sunday and had one and lost another. C and C.T. blanked. As you may know I love tiny streams (I now have a 4' 9" rod for the really little ones !) and I have never seen so many trout as there are in the Hindwell, at one stage fish were even moving around my feet, but nothing was rising and there was hardly any fly life. I couldn't move them to nymphs or wet flies let alone a dry. Have I just caught it on off days on the times I have fished it ? Or is there a knack to the place I haven't sussed out yet? What have the returns been like for the stretch? I have a nasty feeling I could become obsessed with it as it is absolutely beautiful.

Only sporadic fish rising through day. My first ever barbel on the fly - fantastic!

A lovely stretch of river and plenty of water for two anglers. The grayling appeared to outnumber the trout which is not surprising given how much good gravel there is in the river. The best days fishing this summer by a mile. Saw some small paw prints in the sand which looked too large for mink and could possibly be otter??

Cracking day on a lovely beat - esp the Island stream (just as Simon said it would be!). Good that N enjoyed success - I think he was beginning to doubt whether fish couuld be caught in rivers!
Seemed to be nowhere in Builth to get breakfast beefore 9.00am - it would have been most welcome after a 5.30 set off! Is someone missing an opportunity here, or are we the only ones daft enough to want a cafe at that time in the morning?
Thanks to all

I fished Middle Hill Court at the weekend (Sunday) with my Fishing Pal.......We booked this trip 3 months ago and due to this years horrible weather conditions we have been washed off twice. We have both always wanted to catch Barbel with no luck, so the Wye seemed the answer.
We finally met Adam Fisher at 6.30am on Sunday and he was a very informative and really nice chap with some great tips.
We ended up catching 21 Barbel with the best being 9.6Lbs! plus 3 chub, a common carp and an eel. The day was an absolute dream and we cannot wait to come back in the very near future to try out another venue. Thankyou very much, and thankyou to Adam Fisher.