Friday August 14th 2026.

As most people already know, fishing is currently suspended across all H&DAA waters on the River Wye and on our pools. We have been able to re open our waters on the River Lugg as water temperatures have dropped, but why did we close them? With water  temperatures well  over 20C fish can become more stressed. Warm water holds less oxygen, and with very little water in the river the fish will be shoaled up in the faster gravel runs which are likely to hold more oxygen , but these gravel runs are becoming less and less as the water level continues to drop. With less water to warm up temperatures will increase quickly leasding to greater stress on the fish. It  is harder for fish to recover after being caught in these warm conditions as their energy will have been used up in the fight. This particularly applies  to barbel and the last thing we want to see as anglers is fish floating down the river belly up. We are constantly monitoring water temperatures and water levels and will re open our waters as soon as we are able, but until we get some appreciable rainfall the prospects for reopening soon are slim. Fish showing signs of stress may be seen gasping at the surface due to lack of oxygen  and if you see any unusual fish behavior report it immediately to the Environment Agency Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60.

The Angling Trust have produced  two articles giving guidence on fishing during the hot weather and how temperatures affect fish and fishing. They can be found by clicking on the following links https://anglingtrust.net/2025/07/16/fishing-during-hot-weather/
https://anglingtrust.net/2019/07/23/how-do-water-temperatures-affect-fish-and-fishing/