Prospects & General Comments:
If we get a good flush through in October, then November can be a very productive time for coarse fishing on the Wye. The barbel feed on through the autumn, the small fish get shoaled up making the trotting good and the pike that prey on them are not far behind. If, however, you get what we just had - low, clear, cold, and in need of that flush through - then the river can appear pretty lifeless. This was one of the most spectacular autumns I can remember, but the fishing didn't follow suit. A theory behind that is the sheer quantity of leaves and twigs in the water - surely a variety of bugs and insects come with this so providing the fish with a decent larder to feed on?

Contrary to this there are those notable days when the river comes "alive." Deer may pay a visit while you're on the riverbank or you may come across them en route to your venue. Pike attack bait fish, owls hoot in broad daylight, salmon crash and kingfishers flash past. On these days the fishing anticipation is heightened and why shouldn't it? It makes perfect sense. All of nature is "having a go". We had a few days like that this month and I should take more notice of them. I remember saying many times in the past that it's as if we've got some cold weather on the way and all of nature is getting prepared - and what happened a few days later? Minus 6 for several days, hale showers, snow, frosts etc.

Chub fishing did pick up for a short time and I experienced a particularly good session on the float. Back in the summer I spotted a shoal of big chub under a rather large bush. Hoping they were still there, I fed maggots mid river for over an hour expecting to pull them from their cover and to trip them up on a double maggot or piece of flake. One fish later and another bumped and it was clear something wasn't right. To cut a long story short I had to cast upstream of the bush and literally allow the float to clip the branches on its way through the swim. But the results were pretty awesome - half a dozen fish later I'd banked a chub that was an ounce short of my p.b. and in the most fantastic condition. Bronze as a bronze thing, shiny and bright. "Fresh" I think is a good description. The cold weather does lead to fish moving around less and with it sometimes more finicky bites, but when you work it out it's so much more rewarding!

So, the catch reports for November were predictably a bit quiet. The Creel fished well (as always this year), as did Backney, but otherwise the river generally slowed down. We had a huge flood at the end of the month (there's a graph below of one of those spikes) but it was all a bit late and combined with snow melt, all but killed the fishing off. If we'd had it in October then I think it would have been an awesome November. Instead it's left us all a bit deflated and winter is here all of a sudden.

There's been a notable increase in bankside trees falling in. I think this is just coincidental and what we really need is a good hard winter flood to flush all the half broken willow out. I think this is cyclical and just like the weed, which I hope will come back in full bloom next year. What the lack of weed in the last couple of seasons has meant is the fish have pushed into the margins more and catch returns back this up - perhaps something to think about next time you get out on the bank? Combined with a few more fallen trees there's a whole rake of marginal swims that have perhaps previously been overlooked. The Wye has never really been a marginal river when it comes to barbel, but I think this has changed for now. Another recent change we've noticed is that grayling have started showing up in catch reports further down river - I've always caught one or two but there's definitely an increase this year. Don't get me wrong, they're not prolific and it's not reasonable to target them specifically yet, but they are on the increase and this is good to see.

It was the Wye Champs at the start of the month and although "peggy", there were some pretty impressive catches, the winning weight being 125lbs 6oz to Peter Goulding. This competition is always an interesting measure of how the coarse fish stocks are and perch make up a lot of the weights in matches these days. There's also some decent roach showing up and this is exciting for the trotting angler. Perch in the reaches outside of the towns are harder to come by, but they are there and a recommended method is to rove and rove with a tub of lobworms. The problem with perch is they're either really on or really off, so just because you don’t catch behind a fishy looking bush doesn't mean they're not there. It's something I plan on doing more of this winter so hopefully there'll be some pics for you in the New Year. Dawn and dusk are the best times for perch and fishing at this time of year in general is great because the two witching hours are far more sociable than during the rest of the year. Although the days are shorter, you get to fish the two best times of the day, which you may not be able to do in the summer. Yes, the cost of the day ticket is the same for a shorter day but it's relatively as good value in my opinion.

Nearly all WUF beats are now open for bookings for 2017 and the beats I look after are too, so please check your diary and start getting those dates in. The popularity of the booking system and the Wye is going from strength to strength and dates are booking up quickly, especially in the summer. One exciting new fishery to explore is Marsh Court, a few miles upstream of Hereford. This one has huge potential and I look forward to reporting on my and others' experiences from there over next year.

I expect my next report will be after January now as December and January will combine. There will then be an end of season report in April and a pre-season one in June. On that note I'll say good luck if you do manage to get out over the festive period. Watch out for slippery banks following any flooding and please keep the feedback coming in.