Feedback & Reports

My first visit to the Wye, fished mid morning to mid afternoon, started at the top part of the beat in the morning and fished till about three, I had intended to fish the lower part but the swims were pretty high banked and precarious. Total catch was three chub to around 3lbs 10ozs and five eels, all taken on luncheon meat and pellet paste. No barbel, but lots of surface movement though, probably Salmon.

Following on from the previous day's efforts. Toni permitted 'Jilted John' to fish the 'Hot Spot' swim of the previous day. The remaining 3 rods slotted in at close quarters. The day proved much tougher than the previous albeit 3 rods did improve on their previous days catches. The weather deteriorated on the strong wind and heavy rain fell. The combination of these two elements took their toll on the two oldies of the group as they scuttled to the van. No complaints about the beat though! Final return for the 4 rods was 7 barbel between 5lb and 8lb mixed in with the odd chub here and there. Same tactics of halibut pellet, fished hair rigged over feeders was the successful method. How long will they keep getting caught in this manner to these tactics is anyones guess, but for me, a change will be made next visit. Finally, it was noce to see that 'Ton Up Toni' was human after all!!

Another very hard day, and floating weed + canoeists made keeping a rod in the water for more than a few minutes impossible, worked very hard to end with 8 Barbel and 6 Chub.

1 rod fished near the hut and only managed a small Chub, the other rod made the long walk to the bottom pegs to earn 6 Barbel and 6 Chub for his efforts.

14 barbel to 7lb+ and 5 chub between the two of us. Pleasing result on a very low river. As usual most canoeists very pleasant and friendly, though one gentleman chose to canoe up river with two very small children and then canoe back so incompetently that one of the children could easily have been injured.... It takes all sorts...

Blank. However, you should blame the angler for this, not the venue. There are some trout in the restored river Lwyd, and in fact I rose three at the bottom end and managed to become disconnected from each and every one of them - fish of 8-10 inches, I would guess. There does seem to be a reasonable amount of fly life, a few needle flies and pale wateries on the day, and plenty of caddis and shrimp among the stones - although not quite as many as in the Taf at Merthyr Tydfil, which has a remarkable abundance. It's post-industrial urban fishing, I suppose, and the bed of the stream is full of curiosities such as bits of furnace clinker and old tram-line rails, but for most of the beat the banks are part of a very pleasant and green rural park or playing fields. A nice experience, all in all.

The stream was EXTREMELY low, a mere hand's depth in most places. I was dropped off for the late morning/early afternoon, so didn't have much choice or chance to explore the water level of the other 2 Forest of Dean beats nearby. However, despite the incredibly skittish fish I was lucky enough to catch and release 4 beautifully marked brown trout in the 4 hours it took me to work my way through the thick vegetation to the top of the beat. The best fish somewhere between 9 and 10" and the other 3 in the 6 to 7" range, all caught on a small black Klinkhammer. Quite a bit of litter and garbage in the river, washed down from the nearby town of Blakeney, and Himalayan balsam the height of an elephant, so this beat does need a bit of work. Otherwise, I enjoyed the challenge - fishing can't get much smaller than this!

Fished an afternoon session. Started in the top field in deep water, caught two eels on pellet. Moved into new swim and my mate had a nice chub out the back on boilie.

Moved down stream into shallower water on croys and beyond with no action.

Finished at dusk back in the meadow, in the swim we wanted (new swim) there were two teenagers along with mates fishing. They stayed on night fishing as we left at dark (there two cars were parked by ours in the gateway of pump station). A little bit irritating, but I suppose kids will be kids!

We ducked in next swim up and I had a 9lb barbel on pellet and another large eel. Was chuffed. The river keeper is a sound guy, nice chatting, hope to meet again soon.

Arrived just before 8.00 to find the river low and clear. There was heavy cloud and it was very still with few signs of fish moving. The morning produced only 5 fish between us. The temperature seemed to drop around lunchtime and this livened things up in the afternoon, giving us a much better day than we feared. In total, we took 27 fish between us, mostly trout with about half a dozen grayling, the best of which was around 12oz. One more substantial trout of well over a pound was hooked and lost. The early evening rain which we thought might end fishing for the day just seemed to freshen things up even more. Most fish were taken on small, weighted nymphs.
This is a really good beat for two anglers and we have fished it a number of times before. There is plenty of room and plenty of variety.

Conditions: 16 degrees, overcast, showery and blustery. Time: from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Virtually no fly life observed and consequently very little sign of rising fish. I managed one beautiful grayling of around 16 inches on a parachute emerger. In the end hard going, albeit on a very lovely stretch of water.