Feedback & Reports

8 Barbel

Very nippy start 6 degrees C , but some nice autumn sun warm things up. Water levels just right but not a sign of a fish all day.
Nice pint of Wye Valley HPA in The Bell to finish the day in the sunshine.

Four anglers travelled up from Oxfordshire, two of whom were looking to catch a barbel for the first time. Arriving just before lunchtime, river conditions were excellent, coloured and flowing following significant rain in the week before. Early signs were good for two of the group, settled in the first swim to the left of the tree line in the middle of the beat... they had a few fish immediately. The other two rods picked a swim further upstream, which despite looking promising delivered nothing. So around 3pm, they moved downstream below the other two where a few bites were to be had. All in all, 15 barbel were caught between four rods, along with a solitary modest chub. I was a little surprised by the lack of chub, I've also seen more eels on this beat when fishing it before (and I even tried luncheon meat on a number of casts, without a nibble!). However, all in all this will go down as a very good day's fishing as both of the newcomers were relieved of their barbel virginity. All fish fell to pellets below groundbait/pellet feeders. Surprisingly, given the excellent river conditions, there were no anglers on the far bank? So we had the stretch to ourselves which suited us just fine. Thanks to WUF, beat directions were great, we parked through the gate in the sweetcorn field, and subsequent access to the river was easy. I'm sure I said this the last time, but I can certainly see us coming back here in the future.

15 Barbel, 1 Chub

1 fish taken, 2lb brown trout, other fish were small

9 Trout

3 Trout

I have fished this beat on many occasions so know it well. But it was a very different proposition with high water levels. Some of the usual pools and lies off limits but still plenty to cast at. As ever, a steady trickle of LDO's which had one or two fish moving.

14 wbt caught and released. Best 12", plump and ready for winter spawning. All took a dry fly. In fact I stayed on an f-fly all day as it kept working. Rain stopped play at about 4pm so headed back to our base in Hay for a pint of Butty Bach!

14 Trout

River quite high, 1' on the Brecon gauge, made wading difficult and the fish were making themselves scarce. Rose two fish but did not manage to set the hook. Nil return today.
Note the field alongside the hut has been ploughed and is no longer accessible with a vehicle. There is no headland along part of the river bank so wading through the mud is necessary to access the weir area. The parking space by the canal remains accessible.

Too much water. Took a look and then decamped to a wild stream on my season ticket.

1 Barbel

Overcast conditions in the morning that cleared around mid-day to reveal a sunny afternoon.
Fished from the confluence with the Lugg nearly up to the bridge. Despite it being overgrown in places there was enough fishable water fro the six hour session. No fish seen rising but one grayling came to a dry fly (Pink-winged BSF) in the afternoon, the other grayling and the trout fell to a Pearly PTN fished duo style.

1 Trout, 2 Grayling