Feedback & Reports

Arrived at 7.30am to find the river looking perfect and some realy stunning scenery and i have to say a very big thanks to the Wye and Usk Foundation for a super day. I finished with 4 barbel and 1 chub while my partner lost the 2 barbel he hooked. The barbel weighed 10lb 7oz 11lb 0oz
6lb+ and 5lb+. The chub was about 4lb, all caught on pellets. A really enjoyable day.

Best day since the last time I fished the WU foundation waters. 4 Grayling, one about 11 or 12oz one about 5oz and 2 about feather wieght, and one parr. All caught on 14 flash back PTN, (Thank you Seth for the advice).
The Arrow was a bit low but if you could find them they were taking but only gave me one chance and then went down. Best wishes to all at WUF

1 chub, 2lb 10ozs, rolling ledger with pork lunceon meat. Only bite of the day, hard going! I need a lot more practice!

I've now done the whole Lugg and Arrow system except for Hergest Court, where I'll catch up next season. The lower part of the river didn't disappoint, and you certainly bump into larger fish than we trout fishermen are generally used to. Dinmore - 5 x grayling 13 -16 inches; chub 2.5 and 4.5 pounds; numerous grayling, trout and (encouragingly) salmon parr. Luggsbridge 1 x grayling 12 inches; chub of 1, 1.5 and 3 pounds; numerous small dace and chub; much smaller numbers of parr this time. Grayling seem to be still holding their own at Dinmore to some extent, although the river has some huge chub, but by Luggsbridge, the coarse fish, again mainly chub, are predominating. Access at Dinmore initially seemed good - you can drive right down to the bank on the top field of the beat. Here there are at least 3 places where you can get down the 15 feet or so to the deep-sunk river, and even get back up if it's not too wet. But that's all I could manage to reach. The owner of the second field has very thoroughly wired off the access to the river and the adjoining fields with barbed wire entanglements, and the lower part of the beat, beyond the railway bridge, has no wire, but brambles thickets as high as an elephant's eye and no way down the steep banks into deep water. I would swear nobody has fished any of this lately. However, looking down, I spotted some really hefty chub, which would have dwarfed the one I caught higher up. Who knows what else is there? If somebody with bush knife and trenching tool were allowed to cut some steps here and there, some good results might follow. Meanwhile, the top field is still well worth fishing for a fiver. Luggsbridge, in contrast, has had some useful clearance work recently undertaken by the landowners, for which thanks.

Also, on reflection I think I was a bit irresponsible using my light grayling trotting gear suitable to the open river on lower Lugg beats with lots of snags, places where you encounter big chub and even barbel at close quarters. That irresistible force dragging my terminal tackle under tree roots happened a bit too often for my liking. I even had one big chub trying to take cover around my legs while wading - it would have served me right if he had managed to transfer the hook into the knee of my waders wouldn't it? Anyway, in that case I got the front half of the fish into the wooden net so that I could deal with him. But to be sensible, I would have thought an Avon style rod and about 5 pound line should be the minimum, even for float or light ledgering, or go with heavy barbel tackle ready for a real tussle. Plus a big net with long handle to reach down from the high banks. That's the view of a game fisher trying to learn more about coarse fishing, but I'm open to advice.

Lost count of the number of Grayling on this magic little stretch, including 2 fish that pushed the 2lb mark and several well over a lb. Weather was lovely, wading safe and easy, and using heavy red tag style nymphs and depth chargers we had a day to remember. We saw not a soul all day, and the only noise was from the falling leaves, a circling buzzard, or the splash of an out of season trout at the net. Thanks to the WUF for the tip on what beat to fish, and the ease of booking.

10 grayling to 38cm on a size 16 nymph. Good days fishing on a fine autumn day.

The Leen 25th October 2009: 15 Grayling to 40cm. A very pleasant stretch of river to fish and, although I had to contend with some strong gusts of wind, there were some good sheltered reaches. The grayling were active and responded well to a Copper Beaded PTN.

Mortimers Cross 26th October 2009: 3 Grayling, 2 Brown Trout. It took time to locate fish on this long beat but one deep pot in a meander surrendered two beautiful specimen grayling. Decided not to linger into the gloaming, having read that the vanquished Lancastrian army was mercilessly put to the sword by the river in 1461!

A fantastic day which included my first ever Barbel. Three fish in total and I am now completely hooked on Barbel fishing! Stunning looking and hard fighting fish. All fell to pellet and feeder tactics. Looking forward to returning very soon.

Sorry for the delay but just to let you know over the 2 days, 24th & 25th October 2009, we caught 9 [nine] barbel with the largest 10lb 7oz with another at 9lb 4oz. Great looking healthy fish that fought like demons, brilliant, All but the biggest 2 on 8 mill halibuts the other 2 on the new sbs bait from Des Taylor significant? My only qualm is that there are not many fishable swims over the whole length. We caught our fish from the vanstone pool and looking at the swim, most people fish there. But over all a memorable weekend many thanks.

The scenery and wildlife makes it a nice place to be and once settled in a swim an enjoyable day can be had. Between the two of us over the two days we caught a couple of chub and a few barbel with the barbel averaging 6lb, all falling to ledger tactics. I would say that an injection of mountain goat blood would be advisable for fellow anglers as the banks are step and care is needed when making your way down to the waters edge.

Thanks again to the Wye and Usk foundation.