Feedback & Reports

Another tough day on the Wye today. The river was less chocolate coloured this far upstream and looked absolutely perfect but unfortunately the fish thought otherwise.
We roved around for the afternoon and picked off a few fish before settling into a couple of swims for the evening. The barbel seemed uninteresting in feeding even though we saw them numerous times jumping out of the water and breaching the surface. Fortunately a few obliged with the best going 7.9.
A highlight of the day was watching some big looking perch chasing dace right into the margins below my feet.

5 Barbel, 15 Chub, 1 Other

Second day, same weird brown water. I had one bite all day, 8lb 8oz barbel from leg meadow. Moved to woods and Geoff had the other fish, feeder and pellet.

4 Barbel, 3 Chub, 2 Other

Some 20 eel of various sizes. Barbel showing to 9lb, fewer chub than normal. Water colour was unusual like watery gravy, which we felt knocked the chub numbers down. Enjoyable day with plenty of fish.

9 Barbel, 3 Chub, 20 Other

Another trip to this beautiful beat. If you are considering booking for coarse fishing the following may come in useful:

This beat is more about quality of experience than huge bags. But there are plenty, plenty of fish.
The setting and river is beautiful, and most of the length is remote from traffic noise.
Good variety of water, from gravel shallows to fast riffles to slacks and deep bends. Plenty of room, plenty of swims, good access once you have found all the car park points and best bank to fish from on the various beats
Generally beats 4 to 6 , fish left hand bank, 1 and 2, right hand bank, and I think 3 is right hand as well.
This far up there is not the quantity of streamer weed as the lower wye. There is no cover for fish in the heat/ sun of summer in the mid stream.
Some really good trotting swims, especially beat 2.
Great contact, Terry , who will tell you all you need.
Some over friendly locals on beat 2. The ones with udders were merely obstructive and persistent. The one with a brass ring in his nose and impressive testicles was slightly intimidating, but we agreed to pretend to ignore each other.

3 Barbel, 3 Chub

7 Barbel, 3 Chub

4 Barbel, 8 Chub

We fished this stretch early morning with no bites, packed up around 11am and returned at 5pm. Fished cage feeders with banded 8 mm fish meal pellets on the hook, caught barbel to 10lb some chub and a very nice dace, river slightly high and some loose streamer weed which was a continual nuisance.

11 Barbel, 6 Chub, 1 Other

Well gave the Arrow a bash this morning , still up early bells , got all the jobs squared away , before heading off . . . . Nice to target the wild streams on days off work , spot on . . . . I knew the Arrow may be a tad bit low , so knew it may be tricky today . . . .

Parked up the usual place near the bridge at half nine , weather promising , overcast , muggy and reading sixteen degrees in my truck , so not bad at all . Tackled up with my trustee six foot two weight as always , and tied on a Parachute Pheasant Tail , for starters , see how it goes !!!

First pool under the bridge , classic rise , just to the left of the faster water , took lovely , and felt a good fish for here , stayed on a few seconds then off , dooooooh !!!! Oh well , a good start though . . .

Eventually had the third fish stay on a lovely typical Arrow beauty , about eight inches , slipped back in , cracking !!!!! Had another next pool , very low now , splashy take , tight in to the bank . . . Was a case of getting the dry exactly in the right place this morning , and the further up the beat you go , the more of an unkempt jungle it becomes , especially after Malhollam Bridge , some cutting back and major pruning me thinks , WUF take note , the upper stretch is in dire need of some attention !!!i would have done some pruning myself but folks can get arsey , so I did the decent thing , and relayed my findings !!!!

Had brownies in very different locations today , as the river is low , they are positioning themselves generally in difficult locations , that involves wading ever so carefully and presenting the fly bang on , or they're off in a flash !!!! Good fun , but tricky tricky today .

Ended up with five beauties today , some nice takes on the Parachute Pheasant Tail , and even with the river so low and clear , get the fly in the right place and they were having a pop at it . Hopefully some rain immenant , but looking last nights forecast , thought we may have had some decent rain , but only a bit of drizzle . . . . So a fun four and a half hours , fished just up passed Malhollam Bridge , had my fifth fish under the bridge , very excitable splash toy take , good fish of ten inches too . I then walked back down the road to the bottom bridge , and the local farmer from Bredward Farm pulled in on his quad bike for a natter . . . . Generally very interested on how it's fishing etc etc etc . . . . What was concerning is that the little Brook that is on his ground , and flows throughout the old industrial estate , is generally a nasty colour etc etc , he said even his sheep won't drink from it , and that Brook flows into the Arrow , just down stream from the Wild Streams beat start . Perhaps the LAFA and EA need to contact "Ian "the farmer there , and arrange a visit , too asses the water quality to their Brook . He referred to it locally as the Willy Brook !!!!!!

Anyway , a fun few hours as always on the Arrow , will give it a break now , as I feel some well earned rain is now needed to refresh it , and the trout !!!!! still good fun this morning , a lovely little gem , spot on !!!!!


Booking Office Note: Thanks for the update Joe, we'll see if we can't get the top section trimmed!

5 Trout

River in great condition biggest barbel to 9lbs8 all on pellets. No problem driving down - will be back soon!

5 Barbel, 5 Chub