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First time on the Wye

Gavin Burt

Gavin Burt

Senior Member
Just come back from four days on the Wye with a mixture of the Fishing Passport and HDAA day ticket.

The Creel - Had my first Barbel of the season on my second cast in the middle of the day, then another one about an hour later. I also lost one which was a frustration. My mate also lost one but had about half a dozen 4lb+ chub. We also fished this on day two but only had chub between us. Lots of great wildlife though with kites, woodpeckers, buzzards and owls.

Foy Bridge - We mainly spent time wading / trotting with the pin and picked up a stack of chub. Weather was great too and was surprised how quickly the water temp increased even towards the end of the day. Mate lost an absolute clonker (back on the feeder) just after sunset which almost pulled him into the river.

I was amazed at how little the rain effected the river, we had a torrential downpour Saturday evening and it rose about 2” !!!

Final day we went into Hereford and got some £10 HDAA day tickets from Woody. A wealth of knowledge and he put us on the fish and associated bait / tactics.

We arrived on the river at 11:30 and by 15:00 my mate had had x4 barbel and lost one !!! I had one late evening but ran out of ground bait so couldn’t get much more attraction in the water and after four days fishing I was ready for the sofa anyway.

This is definitely the place to go fishing on the Wye as there such more choice in terms of swims and you can get some good local knowledge.

IMO the Fishing Passport really isn’t worth the money they charge for a day ticket (£25 per person + booking fee). Whilst the “Catch Report” is good and the exclusivity a bonus there just isn’t enough bankworks carried out to make it a comfortable and safe place to fish. Recent comments from other angling look to echo this.

The Creel has approx 3/4’s of a mile of water but there were only about three pegs that could be fished from. These involved clambering down the bank and if we would have had anymore rain they would have been treacherous to fish from. Landing fish wasn’t fun either. Foy Bridge wasn’t much better with only two pegs (and a gravel patch) to fish from but at least they call that out on the website. We doubled-up on the one peg towards the end of the day.
 
I also find that is the trouble with with some of the exclusive stretches of the Wye. While I do not expect cut out pegs with platforms, access is often a problem when the water is low. A couple of years back I booked a stretch and after walking the whole length could not find any swims I could safely access apart from two which had other anglers already fishing in. I left without even getting my tackle out of the car.
 
Same here John, visited Woody's, and he gave me and a pal a little map. I think his granddaughter must have drawn it, it was so vague. We eventually found the stretch, fine if your a billygoat getting down, but the thought of getting back up, we thought naaagh. Think we ended up somewhere on the Severn.
 
Derek Funcks said:
Same here John, visited Woody's, and he gave me and a pal a little map. I think his granddaughter must have drawn it, it was so vague. We eventually found the stretch, fine if your a billygoat getting down, but the thought of getting back up, we thought naaagh. Think we ended up somewhere on the Severn.
Click to expand...
Yeah some of the swims are a bit dodgy.

I thought Woody was super helpful. He got my phone, opened up Google maps and “pinned” exactly where to park and which swims to try and how far out to cast.
 
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