Feedback & Reports

Very low water, hot and really bright conditions. Ashamed to say hooked and lost a salmon on a tiny stoat's tail. Having come unstuck the fish did an ariel dance all over the pool, to the victor the spoils. Plenty of fish showing including three bright newcomers. Venue terrific, angler failed, must try harder.

19 barbel to 8lb caught on pellet, 2 chub to pellet, numerous dace on float fished sweetcorn during the quiet afternoon. All in all a great days fishing and great service as usual by the staff at the foundation.

River very low and exceptionally clear. Cloudy, warm with upstream breeeze. Fished 2pm until 7pm and caught 9 grayling and 7 WBT to various small dry flies/CDC's. Targeting fish more successful than fishing 'blind'. Some fly in evidence and odd sipping fish.
Lovely day and a pleasure to fish this most attractive beat

I saw my first otter - paddled across right in front of my feet, gave me a look of total disdain and carried on past as if I wasn't even there.

Although I was only planning a short session and expectations were not too unrealistic, I struggled to find the fish and finished with a couple of nice chub and three eels - all a decent size. Lovely stretch of water, easy access and stacks of features to give you confidence. Probably best fished early morning or late afternoon in these weather and water conditions.

Continuous boat traffic, swimmers, water fights and three guys without a boat at all, just larking about in the water with a football. Too much for me, I'm afraid. Could I suggest that the website carry a symbol against each beat to indicate the amount of boat traffic that can be expected, like chillies on a takeaway menu so that those with a low tolerance for noise can avoid the risk.

Thanks WUF - Even a bad day on the river is better than a good day at work.

Fished the 2nd and 3rd. Water low and clear so could see barbel, fished lower part first day took 4 barbel all in the 6/7 lb range & 6 good chub in the morning and one chub later in day all on meat. Fished same swim erley next day and took 14 good size Barbel & 3 chub, fished middle part in the afternoon took one large barbel 12lb.

2 x 9/10" Trout - blue klinkammer - a few fish rising after 6.30pm.

Two of us fished for 12 hours. Result: 2 Chub on meat to one rod and the other didn't have a single bite! This section of the river suffers severely from low flow levels. Fished it last year in heavy floods and caught loads.

4 x trout 6-7 inches, dry Klinkhammer. In the heat-wave, the level of this little brook dropped surprisingly quickly - I guess all the trees are sucking up the water. Very difficult fishing with tiny fish lying on the very lowest part of pool tails, from where they spook up into the pool very quickly, scaring everything as they go, when you move within 20 feet of them The (slightly) larger trout didn't seem to want to play at all. Still, a nice way to spend a hot evening followed by a pint in a Blakeney pub.

Another bright day combined with low water made the fishing a struggle. First time on the stretch and should have done more exploring but having stupidly cooked myself at Whitehouse the day before, was feeling a tad lethargic!

My brother and I had a few chub to about 3lb between us and I managed a solitary Barbel.

A big thank you to Tony, whio I believe is the ghillie on the stretch. When we arrived on Sunday morning he was waiting for us by the hut - the farmer had put a combination lock on the gate that takes you to where you can park the car by the river and he had kindly come down and undone the lock so we could get in. Much appreciated!

I fished The Dukes Water and Coleman' s beats; 0530 to 1945hrs with a break for a good lunch at the Redbrook Bell Inn. I saw about a dozen fish on the Colemans morning beat but none showed on the Dukes after 1300hrs.

High tide at Chepstow was 0847 and 2104hrs and folklore says the fresh fish arrive between 1 and 2 hours before the high tides, but this may be a rumour started by Offa. However some research undertaken in Scotland (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Uploads/Documents/No%2015.pdf) shows that often fish do move into a river about 2.5hrs before HT and swim up at between 2 and 5km/h. The speed of the river's flow will affect progress, so your arithmetic is as good as mine (or Offa's).

The water was low and clear, the weather hot, overcast and muggy. My small stoat and brighter red and orange offerings were not appreciated by any salmon, but three brilliantly coloured Kingfishers spotted in one day was a memorable first for me.