Feedback & Reports

Another challenging but very enjoyable day on Whitney Court. Very low, clear and cold is always going to make things a little tricky. Fortunately the pike were game during the day and I managed a couple of low doubles. The chub then came out to play in the last hour before dark. Saw a juvenile otter when we first arrived and had a large dog otter scare the living daylights out of me just as it was getting dark.

2 Chub, 3 Pike

Blank.

Weather sunny with slight breeze, water running fast and clear (and cold). No fly life about and nothing rising. One small Grayling and one salmon parr caught.
Footprints along the beat made it look as though its been recently fished but there have been no returns posted since Nov 13. Also what appear to be otter prints can be seen by railway bridge.

1 Grayling, 1 Other

Blank, except for accidental trout. I didn't have too much time on what was another very cold day, but I managed to fish down the section below the suspension bridge on the right bank, which is a nice bit of fly water. Otherwise, there is a lot to learn about salmon on this beat. I wonder where the expertise is; does anybody have any notes? As others have mentioned, it looks like there is some more fly fishing, in low water at least, at the bottom by the island. Roaming around with a spinning rod, getting a cast away where you can from the cribs, should be a useful tactic to try and cover the deeper water.
Many years ago, my son and I took coarse fishing tickets here on occasion. We used to catch mostly chub, and lots of eels, ledgering from various cribs. At that time, salmon fishing being truly in the doldrums, salmon boats and oars were lying rotting on the banks.
If you don't know this part of the valley, you should certainly come to see it. The river and its spectacular gorge have been a tourist spot since the likes of Wordsworth and Nelson visited and the river itself can still be quite busy on summer high days and holidays. The forest hanging from the gorge on either side, however, is very wild. The "seven sisters" from which the beat gets its name are sheer outcrops of rock. These tangled woods are also home to the small group of red deer which live in the Forest (most of the Forest of Dean deer are fallow of course) and a roaring stag during autumn rutting makes quite a sound in the gorge around Arthur's Cave. Apart from the remains of the railway line, the whole area used to be worked for iron, and in parts of the river you find yourself wading, not on gravel but on ancient furnace clinker. You can see the same in the bed of the river around Wyebank and Courtfield.

Very cold day. Unfortunately no fish Barbel or Pike.

Unfortuantely no fish caught this time but worth another try at some point during the summer.

Caught 1 small trout on red maggot feeder. Bloody freezing!

1 Trout

No fish but great beat and great service from Wye and Usk Foundation. will be back later in the season. Thanks.

River was spot on but the weather had been so changeable and freezing at night. Fished the whole stretch top to bottom on maggot feeder and float and didn't sniff a bite all day. Finally moved to Holme Lacey and blanked there too, that's fishing!!

Blank, except for a 29 inch kelt and a number of trout which wanted to grab a Black and Yellow tube. The water was on 1 foot 3 inches at Fownhope, some greyish colour to the water. And, oh boy, the weather was really something! The wind was a gift from Mother Russia, up to a gale force for much of the time, and mostly blowing straight downstream. So with a heavy tube, it was double Speys or "chuck and duck" if you wanted to chance it. Rod rings iced up continuously through the day, except for one hour after lunch. Wading jacket froze stiff as did wading trousers when out of the water and standing in the wind. Mini-blizzards of snow every half hour or so. I always thought Herefordshire a place with a moderate spring climate?