Feedback & Reports

Arrived to find river fairly low and clear despite the recent rain, but this was soon to change. I decided to fish a swim in the middle section from which i had caught barbel previously. To begin with the flow was so slow that my swimfeeder feeder was barely emptying, but within three hours the flow was such that i was stuggling to hold bottom with 5oz of lead. At one point the river was rising by around a foot every 15 minutes. I did manage 1 barbel of 5lb on pellet before the river became unfishable due to the amount of suspended debris, even in the slacker water. I was not dispondent however, as i had the next 4 days booked on diffrent beats and felt conditions would then be perfect for barbel.

Unusually we all struggled today on Whitehouse. We have fished this beat lots of times before and always managed to catch barbel. The rain further up the river the day before put the fish right off the feed, even though the river didn't start rising till late afternoon we only had 1 small barbel and a few chub between our 4 rods. But it's still a pleasure to fish this wonderful river even in the harder times. Thanks W & U Foundation.

2 grayling on nymph and one on dry. All returned, size 10-12 in. I then tripped and fell in the river so fishing ceased abruptly. On the bright side - the water was lovely in!

No salmon seen or caught despite nice looking water height and clarity until late afternoon, by which time the river had come up to cover "the boards" by several inches - was at 1' 11" by the time I left around 7.00pm - and coloured. Five brown trout caught (by accident) and returned - three of them around the 1 lb mark. Big dog otter playing opposite the hut when I arrived. Water temp 58F, air temp 64F. Lots of opportunities to fall in - one of which I took.

I had one bite during our session on meat, lost it in weed. My mate landed 2 barbel at 7lb each. Lost another 2 to same weed. Enjoyed our time on the Wye. Hope the guys in the blue van did better! Many thanks to the Foundation.

2 Barbel to 6lbs, water had a slight tinge, weather warm and very wet. Swims very slippery, easy going down, not so easy coming up the bank.

Fished from about 8.30am to about 4pm when the days rain finally started to quickly swell the river, making it necessary to leave quickly. Fished the lower half only, mainly the `gutter' section. Probably had about a dozen in the end. All grayling except 2 small parr. On a tan klinkhammer and grhe bead nymph, NZ style. Most taken on nymph. Biggest a lovely 16-17 inch (1lb 3/4?) with a couple around 14 inch. Rest 7-9 inch. Plenty of missed bobs and pulls and lost fish early on until I got `my eye in'. A great day to christen my new rod. This is the first time I have used booking system and found service very good and efficient.

Summary of a fairly dire weekend's fishing as follows:

Caradoc Fri 10th Sept - 5 barbel (best 7.2)& 2 chub.
Foy Bridge Sat 11th Sept - 3 chub.
Whitehouse Sun 12th Sept - 1 barbel.

It was our first time at Caradoc and we'll definitely return.

It was also our first time at Foy Bridge but we won't be returning! It was very disapointing, this is a single angler beat and we finished up huddled together in the one likely looking swim on the left hand bank. That said I'm sure that we would have had a few more chub if the river hadn't risen and turned the swim into a washing machine as well as making the rest of the stretch virtually unfishable. It was interesting barbel feeding and watching from the right hand end of the bridge before the flood waters came.

We arrived at Whitehouse on Sunday to find the river circa 8ft up and despite fishing hard and adopting a mobile approach we could manage only one fish between us! The two other (very friendly) guys who were on the beat did manage to find the fish though and did very well indeed

No salmon caught although there were several in the beat and some of them appeared larger fish. Just not interested in what I had to offer. This angler is heading in the direction of a salmon blank this season although I'm sure I will not be alone, unfortunately.

Much nicer and quieter beat to be on during a weekday, far too many noisy motorbikes on the Wye Valley road at the W/E.

Our 1st session on Holme Lacy. The beat has good access and with the river being at summer level, there are lots of swims that are comfortable to fish from. I spoke to Colin the bailiff during the week previous to our visit and he was very helpful. We ignored the popular swims at the bottom of the beat and fished the swims over the 1st style.
We finished with 12 Barbel between the 2 rods, to a best of 9lb 4oz, along with dozens of chub and dace (even on the pellet). Thanks again to the Foundation for a superb fishery.