Feedback & Reports

The river was so high that fishing was very difficult. However, 2 brown trout caught with flies and released as they were too small. Thanks.

2 chub.

Blank. Well, this didn't pan out. Abernant usually stands up well to high water and, whether there are salmon about or not, has some glorious fly water to fish down. Cunningly, as I thought, I booked myself on late the night before when the rain had finished and the gauge showed just a very modest rise. But I arrived in the early morning to find the water up another 18 inches and the colour of Bourneville cocoa. Persevered with the spinning rod until lunchtime.

First time on this beat and what a beat! The weather was looking good which in itself is unusual this year. The river was in perfect condition with a good flow and plenty of colour. I had a brief walk up from the lower end to the tree line and decided that I would have a roaming day. I picked my first swim and had a 6lbs 3oz Barbel within the first 10 minutes. I don't know what they have been feeding on but wow they can pull, took me over 10 minutes to get the fish into the net! This was followed shortly by another Barbel, and another and another. My roaming idea had gone out the window now and I settled into the swim. The fish kept coming, apart from a gap between 11am – 2pm when it went quite quiet, I am guessing the summer sun had a part to play here. I was kept entertained watching a group of 30+ swans moving up and down the river, they kept me company all day. From 2pm things picked up again until 7pm when the river was starting to rise quiet quickly. I finished the day with 16 Barbel and a very welcome Chub. I couldn’t believe the pulling power of the Barbel in the river, the fish in this stretch have to be some of the toughest fighting fish I’ve come across. They all fell to running ledger and pellet bait. Of course no report is complete without a "one that got away" story. My biggest fish today was a lovely 8lbs specimen, I did strike into what I can only guess as being one of the Wye monsters. It stripped a good 50 yards of line from the reel in its first slow powerful run. When I did manage to stop it I can only describe it as trying to pull a Thames barge! Annoyingly fish bounced the hook after about 5 minutes into the battle in which time I had made zero line on it. Shame as I would have liked to have seen what I had hooked, but it’s a dam good reason to go back! On the very last cast of the day I even connected with one of the famous large Wye Pike. Ok it hit my swimfeeder as I was reeling in so was only one for a couple of minutes but it managed a bit of tail-walking in that time before it released the swimfeeder.
All in all a fantastic day, the place is just amazing, quiet with lots of wildlife to watch when the fishing is slow. The only piece of advice is the car parking place on the road near the field parking is only any good if you have a 4WD type car as any normal car will bottom out. The bottom car park is a better bet and with some careful parking should be room for a couple of cars.
Excellent beat, I look forward to visiting again very soon!

Level up a few inches with a tinge of colour, looked to be spot on. No fish seen along open stretches! Did see cormorant. Two bt from under trees on small ptn 9&11".

8 barbel, 2 at 6lb 14oz, 6lb 8oz, 6lb 1oz, and the other 4 inbetween 5 - 6lb. Had 2 bonus chub thrown in. River rising considerably and well coloured with weed and logs coming down. Love this beat and will return again. Thanks WUF.

Fished the meadow early afternoon without much luck, moved downstream trying a few swims and had 3 barbel to 7lb and a chub. Moved into the woods for the evening upto dusk. Produced 5 more barbel to 9lb and 3 more chub, biggest going 4lb 13oz. The 3 of us ended with 8 barbel and 4 chub! Fish came to a mixture of hook baits offered on straight lead/PVA bags and feeder tactics.

A slow start to the day with one barbel lost. The river was rising fast with logs and weed making some swims difficult, as did the group of 20 or so cygnets that insisted on going through my lines every five minutes or so. They were in front of me when I had a take, interesting to play a barbel with some irate birds playing knit one, pearl one around your line. I ended the day with 4 barbel to 6 lb 14 oz.

Aramstone on a sunshine and cloudy day. River was very coloured with mud and had a real floww. I started fishing 07:30 using luncheon meat on a hair rig fishing the lower peg from an old concrete groin near the old bridge. Straight into a couple of nice chub 2lb and 3lb after that no more fish gave up at 16:30. Guy on the other side pulled out 3 barbel.

This stretch needs some more pegs as access to the river following rain was lethal even with studded wellies however the instructions about parking at the top are a bit over cautious I drove my Saab on low profile tyres down to the lower parking area with no problems just a bit of care.

A peaceful spot.

A hard day’s fishing in the meadow all day. Only had 2 bites, hooking a decent barbel only to see the hook pull out under the rod before i could see it. I then managed to hook a nice chub only for that to find a snag and leaving me to lose all the terminal tackle, for once the only hook I lost all day! Both fish hooked on feeder and pellet. The river dropped a little through the day and became much clearer but late evening it began to rise again. Keep an eye out for the 2 young women in bikini`s having a wild swim, most distracting!