Feedback & Reports

Just returned from a great three days on the Wye at Goodrich.

The fishing was great. The river absolutely spot on - nice height and flow - clearing but with just enough colour to ansure that the fish were ot too "spooky". Fishing was a bit slow in the heat of the day on Friday and Saturday, (only to be expected), but early and late it fished very well. 8 Barbel betwen 5lb and just under 10 pounds plus a number of chub and a few eels. All on either luncheon meat or halibut pellet. (Hope that suffices as a catch return).

Got up early this morning and fished the Vanstone Pool from 5.30am to about 9.00am. Three Barbel plus two that slipped the hook. However Barbel of 9lb 10oz and 9lb 14oz within half an hour of each other rounded off a great weekend. Went back to the hotel for breakfast and decided to "enjoy the moment" rather than go back to the fishing.

The Salmon anglers on Friday and today were good company, the chap who has the beat today arrived just as I was landing the 9lb 10oz fish this morning and kindly took a photograph - which I attach just in case you are interested - although you probably receive too many anglers photographs and are probably fed up receiving them, so don't feel obliged to look at it.

Saw several salmon "moving" over the weekend in different spots along the beat.

Incidentally I stayed at the Pencraig Court Hotel - which is on the Monmouth to Ross road only a few minutes drive from the beat. Indeed it is possible to access part of the right hand bank from the hotel itself which sits immediately above the run from the Corner tree to Vanstone Pool, (although moving downstream is tricky on that bank so I fished from the left hand bank). It is a good spot to stay though - and I hope you don't mind - but I mentioned the Foundation - I was singing your praises - and got the impression that they would be in touch with you to see if they can organises mutual web site links. They have my recommendation. Friendly and relaxed family run hotel - excellent food - good value for money.

I'll be in touch to book up again before too long. Might even try another beat - they all sound enticing!

Thanks very much - the foundation is doing an excellent job - keep up the good work.

This is was my second visit to the beat and I was rewarded with 12 fish on both occasions (as always all returned safely) although most fish were caught in the first few hours of daylight, again the wildlife you get to see along these stretches of river when quietly walking upstream is amazing, I've been graced with Deer, Kingfishers, Dippers, a family of Buzzards and even a Barn Owl as I arrived, can't get much better than that!

Caught more in my last 3 trips to the Wye than ever on the Bristol Avon.

I have just had a pleasant afternoon catching 3 Chub to 4-1/2lb and 5 barbel between 5 & 9 lbs. I also saw salmon jumping, kingfishers, buzzards, and deer and in fact it was a very pleasant afternoon!!

Just to inform you of our catch returns for our day at Cefnllysgwynne yesterday. We arrived at 7.30am under a blanket of cold fog which soon lifted to reveal clear blue skies. The river was slightly up but running clear which for this time of the year was ideal.

The day started well with the 2nd cast producing a 16" brownie falling to a heavy olive bug, this was later followed by a similar sized grayling which was in perfect condition, although things slowed down during the day the pure beauty and wildlife of this river in the summer is more than enough to overwhelm any angler.

During the late afternoon we were fortunate enough to witness a rise on one of the slower stretches, the likes of which I have personally never witnessed before. The whole of the 200+ yard glide suddenly erupted with rising fish and once we had found the right fly (brown or orange bodied klinkhammer) the sport was tremendous, although as with all rises, short lived. Most of these fish were grayling of a size in excess of 12" and its hard to believe when you wade through a pool that you think has few fish in it that there could be so much surface activity.

At the end of the day we totalled 34 fish between the 2 of us, caught on both nymphs and dry flies, but more amazing was the quality of the fish, the majority of both the trout and grayling were exceeding 12". All fish were carefully returned back to the water to fight another day.

We can't wait to return again soon and thank you for the ease of which it is to book these waters it means we can all get on and enjoy the fishing!

Thank you for the up dates on the rivers, please keep them coming. I'm in the forces and I'm away a lot, but it is nice to come home and see how the foundations doing. Haven't had much time to fish at all lately, but when I do I would love to fish the wye and usk. I'm based in Scotland at the moment, and I think the fishing is overpriced and over rated. Good luck with your excellent work and hopefully when I'm based back in the west country I can support you more.

Fishing in the wooded section and starting fishing at first
light I can only describe this as a real red letter day on this fantastic stretch of Wye using a pellet feeder with elipse pellet and paste on the hook. Within the first hour 2 barbel and 2 chub came to the net finishing the day 15.30 with a total 10 barbel with wieghts between 7 and 8 pounds and 15 chub between 3lb with the largest going 5lb 1oz.
After 37 years of barbel fishing this ranks up there with the best and one other great part of the day was meeting Don a real good guy.
who realy cares about the fish and this river.

Thanks for your help and advice for our first visit to the River Wye which turned into one of our best fishing trips ever! The countryside and river was beautiful and the wildlife was amazing Owls, Hawks, Falcons, Kingfishers and a Otter to top it all (Heaven). We caught 36 Barbel to just under 9lbs and numeus Chub to nearly 5lbs over three days between the two of us, all returned safely. Also being keen on photography it was great to be able to take a break from the fishing and photograph the natural surroundings. It was such a pleasure to be able to spend some time on a river that is not over fished and in such good condition, your work is greatly appreciated.

I tried to access fishing on Llyn Bugeilyn, but with the recent rains found that the track wasn't suitable for normal road vehicles, there were lots of large pools and water running off across the track. I went quite a way down then chickened out as I was afraid that if it rained again that it would make the return journey even more hazardous. Not having local knowledge I didn't know how deep the pools were, and although I tested some by walking in, I wasn't sure if they would become impassable.You might like to point out the difficulties of negotiating the track in a mail or in the next booklet, although you say the track is rutted I didn't expect it to be that bad.

I was a bit disappointed as I had travelled from Northampton early that morning, but the beauty of the passport system means there is usually a viable backup and all was saved by a good day on Rhyader AA Craig Goch where I caught six brownies, all around/over 10" and one to 1.5 lb on Bibio and Olive Bumble.

Keep up the good work, will be back soon.

Numerous small brown trout and one grayling at Gofynne on the 11th July 2007.

One hen salmon approx 9 lbs and one cock salmon approx 13 lbs caught on a rapala in the gullies at The Rocks on the 12th July 2007. Both fish returned safely to the water.

Many thanks for a great time.

Hope to come back soon.