Feedback & Reports

Thank you Wye and Usk for the opportunity to fish this fabulous venue and to Colin for its immaculate presentation.
The journey from Windsor was made more difficult by road closures so arrived later than planned but still full of anticipation tinged with trepidation at the long walk not because of my age but the luggage I take in bait and food!
The weather was perfect warm, overcast with a light breeze so the fish might feed all day and so it proved.
After the walk to the favoured swims at the bottom end of the beat we baited the swims with ground bait and pellet and as soon as the pellet hook bait was attached it was the usual Chub took it on the drop followed by a Barbel then we caught steadily all day with both my friend Pete and I catching Chub on the float, me from the bank and my younger friend wading halfway across the river and feeding and catching Chub and Barbel with freelined rolling baits.
The bigger Barbel turned up late in the day including a really old looking black coloured fish with a lump below its dorsal fin how old it was we could only guess.
Another Red Letter day with Pete catching 15 Barbel and 22 Chub and I caught 10 Barbel and 37 Chub.

25 Barbel, 59 Chub

Caught plenty of chub but not so many barbel. All chub showed signs of being previously captured, some worse than others. Compliments to Colin as always.

We were only able to fish for a few hours in the morning. There were lots of young canoeists who were impeccably behaved. This was in marked contrast to the 50 year old we encountered the previous day, trailing a spinner through every salmon pool, who seemed determined to re-enact "Deliverance". If the canoe companies want to avoid unpleasant conflicts they should tell canoeists that they must not take fishing rods with them. The occasional EA checks on whether canoeists with fishing rods actually have licences wouldn't go amiss either.
WUF Note: If you encounter this type of activity, please report it immediately to EA's emergency line 0800 80 70 60. However frustrating reporting incidents can be, the more they are reported, the more likely the EA are to allocate their enforcement resources.

2 Barbel, 6 Chub

Great fishing like the day before.

9 Barbel, 29 Chub

River very low but fishing early and late still great.

20 Barbel, 37 Chub

Only fished a morning session and made for my favourite spot at the end of the fishery. This used to be Barbel alley but today it was Chub channel. I had a 3lb Chub 1st cast and many more followed with the Chub hitting the pellet as soon as the feeder hit the water. Great fishing if you were after Chub as they were of a good average size, mostly between 3 and 4lbs and I had two fish approaching 5lbs. Eventually two Barbel managed to move quick enough to grab my bait with the largest just over 7lbs. I only had my Barbel gear with me and was not able to make the best of the Chub fishing. A large waggler fished shallow down the far bank would have had a field day!

2 Barbel, 16 Chub

A relatively short session as my last day of 4 on the river and I needed to pack-up the tent and get home. Arrived at the river at 7am and fished until 1pm.
Slow start with a few chub, most barbel came in the period 10am - noon. Changed to meat and went back to a chub a cast, but changing back to pellet brought an instant bite and the fifth barbel.

5 Barbel, 15 Chub

Fished the full day, with fish coming fairly regularly. 6 barbel in the morning with a few chub, then a switch to meat brough a chub a cast and I lost count of the number. The afternoon was slow, but from around 6pm things picked up and particularly the last couple of hours of the day when the barbel realy appeared to move in.

15 Barbel, 25 Chub

First time on this fantastic looking fishery. Walked the beat first and chose two areas to try out. First one screamed barbel but after an hour nothing to show. Colin the bailiff turned up and advised us to move so it was in to our second choice area and what a difference. The feeders were bombarded by chub and decent sized ones to over five pounds. The barbel couldn't get a look in. Changed to bomb and pellet and that helped a little to lessen the chub bites. Four barbel came to pellet with two more on rolled meat.
Today's wildlife included mayflies hatching, kingfisher and a mink.

6 Barbel, 20 Chub

Probably the hottest day of the year so far and not conducive to good fishing but action from a dozen chub up to 4lbs and 3 small barbel. A nice brownie to finish off which took a liking to pellets.

1 Trout, 3 Barbel, 12 Chub