Feedback & Reports

Three days spent on this wonderful fishery. 1 Barbel, 4 to 5 pounds, 3 chub at 2,3 and 4 pounds, all caught on ledgered meat in the bottom pools of the fishery. Plenty of dace caught on maggots also. Exellent natural fishery well worth a visit. Big thanks to Don for making us feel so welcome. Planning next visit asap.....

THE VENUE;
I initially fished the upper area of this beat; as per many of the other comments I would suggest that this area is avoided. I struggled to find a suitable area to fish, even when I finally found a small flat area the drop to the water was still around 3 feet and the over-hanging trees made it very difficult to cast. However, I have noted that work is planned by the foundation so I will be interested to see what the fishing is like once the improvements have been made. There are no apparent signs that indicate the start and end of the foundation's fishing area (hopefully this will be part of the improvements).

TACKLE;
I would suggest that you keep the tackle to the minimum; wherever you park you will have to walk across fields or on tracks. Take boots with grip as the banks are steep, muddy and slippery.

COST;
I was also approached by an angler from the Monmouthshire club who fish the same stretch of water on the opposite side. It was interesting to hear that for £35 I could have become a member of the club and fished as many times as I wanted over the year. Hopefully the cost of day tickets soon reflects this price as I will struggle to afford the £16 every week-for the time being I don't mind paying if it eventually helps to improve the fishing venue and experience etc!

CATCH;
I initially fished the feeder method and did not have a single bite (this was in the upper stretch). When I moved to the lower part I witched to float and caught around ten small Silvers.

Washed off the Wye so headed to the Cammarch Hotel where the Irfon, unlike the Wye, was gin clear and appeared in places to have dropped by about 9 inches over the previous 12 hours, but still quite high. What with that cold water shock, as well as a 4 degree early morning compared with a 12 degree one just two days ago at Abernant, the grayling were probably a little out of sorts! We fished the downstream beat below and above the railway bridge. Saw hardly a rise all day in spite of a few afternoon olives. To get them going, surprisingly little leaf fall to drop in some aphids and other bugs either. We had nothing apart from tidders on the nymph and only one fish on the spiders. However, a lovely 20" fish (estimated as at least 2.5lb) on a small olive Klink, a 12" fish on a Red Tag spider and a sporadically rising fish of just under 2 pounds on a hare's ear emerger, provided a sparse but very welcome reward for our labours. Apart from those fish, we drew a blank and by 4.30 pm the river was rising and colouring up again. We saw a couple bow waves as salmon moved through, so the rains forecast over the next three days should keep 'em coming!

Just popped in at Brecon on the way to an evening's sewin fishing and during the last hour of the last day of the season...1 x 17 inch brownie on a Tungsten Hare's Ear. A very nice looking wild fish to finish the season.

Forecast was good, river a bit coloured by nice flow.
Started at lunchtime with dippers and a kingfisher for company. Nothing until mid afternoon, then 1/2 hour of torrential rain. Switched from ptn to dry fly and caught 2 X wbt 8 inches on coch-y-bondhu, missed a few more.
Next challenge - finding the grayling.

The water levels were a little high and was running clear. Fishing was best in the morning with D.C. and D.B. catching four grayling and two brownies each on the middle section, ranging from tiddlers to 12". D.B. also added two salmon parr to his total. Nymphs and dries were all happily accepted throughout the morning.
G.C. fished the deep pool and above. Had a couple of rises to nymphs in the morning, and a rise from a grayling in the afternoon to a grey duster.
Overall, the day was most enjoyable on a lovely stretch of water.

Following on from Backney the previous day, we found Middle Hill Court even harder going. Total fish caught was 8 Barbel to 9 1/2 lbs, 6 Chub up to 3 lbs. Pellets very unproductive, with corn doing better producing the most bites, and paste capturing the largest fish. River in need of some rain.

Final day of a 3 day Wye holiday break and after wishing for some rain the previous day, had steady rain for most of the day, but not enough to put some much needed colour in the river. Total fish landed between 4 rods (one angler not wanting to get wet), 14 barbel to 8 lbs and 2 chub. A thoroughly enjoyable day, and end to our mini break despite the weather. Only downside was cleaning up the litter left in the fishing hut by some previous visitors. How is it that people can take full bottles etc down to the river side, yet cannot be bothered to take away the empties? Disgusting, disgraceful and most annoying. Otherwise a great time was enjoyed by all, many thanks to the WUF.

Not the best day weather wise, and a bit hung over from a night out in Ross. Managed 2, 8 inch brownies and a small grayling. Beautiful spot will be back.

Mild weather but drizzle all morning meant I stayed put after walking most of the beat. River coloured but walking pace. Quite a open wide section of river with the fish holding features seeming to be more about the depth than bank side vegetation.

Some serious numbers of chub present, Fished below Carey brook area baiting with seed,corn and hemp fished pellet and meat over the top. 1-2 rod lengths, 4 barbel 7-8lb
Plenty of chub to 4lb. Hard to fight through the chub to find barbel and altered the rig to deter the chub. Plus one pike 5lb ish. Then fished an hour 200 meters up stream and blanked fishing above some bushes. Finally spent a few hours in the lower bridge pool fishing the obvious crease. Fish responded the same and took another barbel and several chub.

Summary:

Whatever you put in here seems to get whoofed down quickly by the chub. Next time the stick float and a chub session will be worth a go. A few snags as expected but nothing that lost me a fish. Lost end tackle on rocks etc 7 or 8 times but was able to avoid the snaggy spots once I found them. I am used to small rivers and this is completely different, fishing the deeper pools on the map seemed to work as in places the river was a foot or so deep. I would imagine it is possible to pull in a big number of fish.
Daunting amount of river for two anglers. I could spend a season on this beat!

Beautiful area and I look forward to trying other sections.