One sunny day in late August I found myself standing in the lower Wye with two clients. The water temperature was 18 degrees, supposedly just about permissible for the capture of a salmon, but that was hardly the main purpose of this day. The clients were booked for a trip to Iceland, so casting practice was in order, plus the need to try out some new rods with different shooting head combinations. Between us we had no less than five rods set up with tufts of red wool adorning the practice tippets. What was memorable about the occasion was that never had I seen this part of the river so low. The Ross gauge was showing 0.053 metres and I found myself standing quite securely on the smooth worn rock which forms the floor of Dog Hole. I was in fact standing exactly where I have hooked fish in the past and could see clearly enough why they like to lie there, as they probably have done season after season for centuries. Across the shrunken river, broken rocks, blackened and uneven, showed well above the surface of the pool where at normal levels they would have been invisible and producing only a swirl in the flow. Further down a coloured salmon, a cock fish in the high teens weight, crashed out regularly, obviously hot and bothered and possibly disturbed by our casting. He clearly wasn’t a taker. Nobody had caught a Wye salmon for nearly 3 months now.
Meanwhile Martin Rejzek from Norwich took his young son fishing at Dufnant on the Usk: “An early start on the streamy water with barbless hooks brought plenty of takes and spirited battles. We lost most of the fish, but in the end my little boy landed a beautiful Usk brown trout. You can imagine the smile on his face.” At Symonds Yat, John Roe from Malvern, who is a warden at the Biblins campsite, reported catching a sickly barbel of about 8 pounds with fungus on its back. Simon Ball from Birmingham caught a barbel and 12 chub from How Caple Court. Gary Walker with two friends from Reigate fished up at Pant y Llyn and found it almost completely weeded over. They did manage a small carp from some clear water in the middle. I am reminded that almost all lakes in our area have experienced exceptional weed growth in the sunshine this year. I really don’t know how we will manage to clear our Forest Pool which has never grown weed across the middle before.
Lower Symonds Yat - Stuart Foskett 
Towy salmon Things were starting to change. The coloured trees would have been enough to give an early sense of autumn, but nights were cooler, daytime temperatures dropped to the high teens and cloudy days brought a few showers. Rivers rose slightly and coloured, so that on windy days the water became a soup of drifting leaves and dislodged clumps of algae. Cleaning up the tackle became quite a chore. Jeremy Morris from Northampton fished at Lower Carrots and Luggsmouth, catching 11 barbel and 25 chub: “Great day out. The river rose with heavy rain and the fish fed.” Philip Bullock with a friend from Churchdown fished the Towy at Llangadog and caught 30 trout to 19 inches using small dry flies while duns were hatching. On a wet afternoon, David Massey from Hereford fished the No 2 beat of the Tawe and caught 14 brown trout and 3 sewin, mostly on nymphs. SW from London fished the Usk Town Water on a day of clouds, sun and rain, catching 11 trout and 1 chub on size 16 dry flies with a long leader. In the North, Richard Hold from Penrith fished the Tees at Mickleton Island for 9 trout and 1 grayling. Gary Kearsley with two friends from Greater Manchester were very pleased with 2 barbel and 100 chub from Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley.
Mark Atherton and a companion from Worcester were also very pleased with an upper Wye day on the Rectory, catching 4 trout and 26 grayling: “Another superb day with my brother in law Richard Hunstone. We shared the tally equally, caught mainly to the dry (JG Emerger, simple version) and several to the Holy Grail nymph. Low water meant fish gathered in deeper and aerated runs. Nothing over 30cm, but what excellent sport!” CB from Crewkerne was much less complimentary about Sugwas Court, which he fished with a friend for 2 barbel and 10 chub. He had complaints about the access, fallen trees in swims, brambles etc, which left only 3 or 4 pegs to be fished. His criticism extended to other beats: “I must say I have been to a few Wye and Usk beats over the last year or so and never before have the beats been in such a state…” It is surprising to me that beats which appear again and again in the catch returns, presumably earning good income for their owners, are often the same ones criticised for lack of fairly basic maintenance such as clearing paths of brambles. David Talbott from New Milton reported 11 barbel to 5 pounds from the Home Fishery, while Carl D from Sutton Coldfield caught 5 barbel and 9 chub to 6 pounds from Foy Bridge. 6 pounds is a big chub anywhere. Paul Edmondson from Levens was another who reported 11 chub from Foy Bridge. Mark Harris from Swansea found the Wye up to 11 inches on the gauge and coloured while fishing at Gromaine and Upper Llanstephan. He caught 10 trout and 4 grayling. Ben Garnett from Exeter fished at Llanwysg, the new beat above Crickhowell, and caught 3 trout to 14 inches on Grey Dusters. He thought autumn duns might have been hatching; my guess is that indeed is what they were and this large late season fly does appear occasionally on the upper part of the Usk. Show feeding fish whatever pattern you use to imitate march browns in the spring and you should obtain the proper reaction. Ben also saw some large chub on this fishery, which is interesting.
Abercynrig - Andrew Arkell 
Middle Hill Court - Nicolas Freeland 
Bugeilyn trout - W from Ludlow With the showers, the rivers were up just a bit and this had to be good. However, the first rise after a long drought results in very dirty water as all the slime is washed off the bottom. Colin Mcsherry of Keynsham had this to report about Wyebank fishing below Lydbrook: “So much of successful fishing trips are about timing. Today was a classic example where the LONG AWAITED water influx meant that all the blanket weed that's covered the bottom for weeks seemed to come past me! This meant that the lead and bait were covered in 10 to 15 seconds with the rod tip ripping round. Gave 3 swims a go with the same result and didn't fare any better on the float. Packed up at lunchtime to retain the very little hair I have left.” All other anglers seemed to be struggling to avoid rolling clumps of blanket weed, but Mel Rumbles from Brixham managed 8 barbel and 2 chub at Lower Symonds Yat, Paul Edmondson from Levens scored 12 chub to 5 pounds 8 ounces trotting meat at Lower Carrots and Luggsmouth, while Chris Duller from Ystrad Meurig caught 4 barbel and 8 chub at Lower Carrots and Luggsmouth, but left early as the river rose.
Barely a week into September and changes were really apparent. Pastures were turning green again and yet leaves on many drought-affected trees were already colouring and some were actually falling. Driving down to the Wye one morning, I saw that Forest hollows had filled with mist. In a few more weeks, we would be expecting frosts in the same places. Showers kept coming; would the rivers actually flood or was the ground still too dry? Some of the rain was very intense; a 30 minute shower raised the level of my vertical sided garden pond by a good inch. The Usk was up and down quickly and pretty dirty while it lasted. Then on 4th September the Wye at Erwood spiked, but quickly dropped back to run at normal autumn level with a certain amount of colour. The web gauges told the tale: the upper Wye around Rhayader had not moved and nor had the Ithon despite showers, but the Irfon had briefly shot up to 1.2 metres at Cilmery. Clearly heavy rain on the Cambrian Mountains to the west had been the cause and affected everything below Builth Wells. We had some good fishing on the back of this brief 18 inch rise, catching mainly trout in peat tinted water using some old grayling fancy flies such as Red Tag and Sturdy’s Fancy. The trout were noticeably thin, as they might well be after a summer of drought. I visited the Bideford Brook, the first time for many months, and found it as low as ever, although a surprising number of trees had been taken down by Storm Floris. We now have a couple of clumps of ranunculus growing in the middle of the beat, which is certainly a change for the better. Rob Cooksley from Bristol found plenty of flow on the Usk at Cwmwysg Ganol. Fishing in between showers he took 8 trout to 11 inches using a French leader. Further west on the border of Carmarthenshire the little Loughor was properly in flood and members were out by day with spinning rods for salmon and sewin. I read that John Dixon from Chippenham with a friend had caught trout at Llyn Bugeilyn using something called Muskinsbibliographybumble. Is that one pattern or three I wonder? Bristol Water Company reinstated their predator fishing, so autumn fishing for pike is on again.
As the river came up, barbel and chub fishers were really gathering speed. Leigh Sutton with a friend caught 6 barbel to 9 pounds 2 ounces at How Caple Court. On the following day at the Creel they caught 2 barbel and 35 chub. RC from Heathfield with a friend had 4 barbel and 24 chub at Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley. Andrew Edwards with a companion from Lancaster caught 1 barbel and 50 chub at Middle Hill Court. David Talbott from New Milton was alone at the Home Fishery, where he caught 10 barbel and 3 chub. Gary Ingldew from Neots with a friend reported an enormous eel of 6 pounds. I imagine that must have been fun to unhook. Finally BG from Exeter who caught 14 trout at Dinas on the Usk wrote in his subsequent report a lot of information about a poaching incident he observed near the dual carriageway bridge on the Brecon by-pass. However the most important piece of information about this offence under the 1968 Theft Act seems to be missing, so I will ask the question. Did BG call the police and how did they react?
Keith Marsh from Caerphilly with a friend fished at Llwyn On and caught 6 trout: “2 anglers, 3 trout each, nice day, nice weather, 2 happy fishermen.” Jaroslav Lipinski from Merthyr Tydfil also had 4 trout from the same reservoir. Up North Gary Franklin from Staindrop, Darlington, was fishing the Eggleston Hall beat of the Tees, taking 8 trout and 2 grayling: “…good to see the river coming down from the Pennines after the recent rain.” Andrew Arkell from Norwich caught 11 trout from the Usk at Abercynrig, mostly on nymphs. Dan Cristian Oprea from Redditch struggled a little with coloured water on the upper Wye at the Rectory, but used nymphs to catch 2 trout, 7 grayling and 3 chub.
Rising river at Wyastone Leys - Gary Goosey from Gloucester 
Lower Canon Bridge - James Shepherd from Worcester Dilwyn Davies from Ross on Wye recorded 20 barbel from the Home Fishery while Mark Holsten from Chatham with a friend had 4 barbel to 10 pounds 4 ounces and 17 chub at Foy Bridge: “…amazing day.” Allan Trevett of Basingstoke reported 2 barbel to 7 pounds 2 ounces and no less than 49 chub to 5 pounds 10 ounces from Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley. George Mcmenemy from Southampton arrived on the 6th with his two sons to fish Fownhope 5, caught 4 chub and 6 dace, but pronounced themselves very disappointed by the lack of maintenance on this beat. Mike Askew from Oundle fished Fownhope 5 the following day and caught 2 barbel and 12 chub. Robert Evans from Cwmbran fished at Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley, reporting 5 barbel and 30 chub: “…best day of the season for me…incredible sport…” Chris Hinton from Bridport fished at Middle Hill Court and recorded 7 barbel to 7 pounds 8 ounces and 14 chub to 4 pounds: “…a brilliant day’s fishing.” Allan Trevett of Basingstoke was also there on the same day and caught 22 chub to 4 pounds. Kelvin Wood from Bromsgrove had an interesting day on Redbank No1, reporting 2 barbel, 35 chub plus perch, bleak and dace. Henry Staff with a friend from Rochester was very unhappy with access to Upper Hill Court: “…walked entire length of upper hill court but finding only 1 swim possible to fish as bank completely overgrown.” After fishing cramped together for an hour they went home in a thunderstorm. Upper Hill Court is in one sense a poor relation of the other Hill Court fisheries as it includes sections remaining after arguably the best salmon pools were allocated to Goodrich Court and the best barbel swims to Middle Hill Court. However, some of the UHC pools are nevertheless very attractive and probably under-fished. You do need to drive around to see it all and I gather that Mr Staff, far from walking the whole fishery, didn’t visit the lower section. There is a pretty realistic assessment of the access in the fishery description in the Passport, plus a sort of video “guided tour” of the upper section. Barry Diamond from Ballymena caught 8 barbel from Upper Hill Court on the 8th. The following day he had 11 barbel and 7 chub at Lower Canon Bridge. Matt and Chris from Bedfordshire caught a barbel, 8 chub and 20 dace from Upper Breinton, while Ronald Denne with a friend from Hillingdon recorded 5 barbel and 40 chub from Holme Lacy 3 and Lechmere’s Ley. This incredibly prolific beat went on to provide 2 barbel and 27 chub for John Turner from Canvey Island on the 9th and 4 barbel and 29 chub for David Norris from Carshalton on the 10th. Meanwhile Allan Trevett from Basingstoke reported 2 barbel and 15 chub from Fownhope 5.
Split cane rod and an Usk trout - Ben Garnett 
Llangadoc Towy - Philip Bullock from Churchdown Artur Davkszys with a friend from Exeter had a remarkable day of game fishing on Gromaine and Upper Llanstephan, reporting 23 trout, 37 grayling and, just to show everybody how it’s done, a barbel! David Jackson of Halesowen reported a sewage smell during heavy showers at Dinas on the Usk where he caught 7 trout. According to my information there is an upgrade planned for the sewage treatment plant which discharges in the upper part of the beat. Mark Harris of Swansea was just upstream on the Breconshire Fishery where he caught 5 trout on a “…shrunken river…pretty low.” He tells us he was trying to recover his confidence after losing a salmon the day before. Further upstream still, Andrew Arkell was on the Fenni Fach fishery where he caught 11 trout, mostly on nymphs. He warned of difficult wading in places – which is certainly true, although it is an interesting if challenging piece of water. Paul Jones from Swansea was on the Irfon at Cefnllysgwynne, where took 19 trout and 10 grayling by Euro-style nymphing. Unluckily for him he was blocked for 45 minutes by a truck left on one of the estate roads preventing him from driving home. There are three separate tracks and parking places accessing the long Cefnllysgwynne beat so I am not sure where this happened: top end possibly? Robert Smith with a friend from Newcastle on Tyne fished the Tees at High Coniscliffe and caught 8 trout: “Showers on and off, river normal level. Black Klinkhammer drifted on the edge of fast water and pools.”
So far the heavy showers over many days had produced less effect on rivers than you might have guessed, much of the water having been absorbed by ground parched by the summer drought or taken up by those trees still with the sap rising. The main Wye was still reluctant to rise, but the smaller rivers further west were more affected and with this extra water a few reports of autumn salmon came in. Three fish were taken on the lower Usk during the brief period in which prawn fishing is permitted. Prawn fishing is close to being a forgotten art, although it’s supposed to be deadly at the right place and time. Pontardulais Angling members were out over several days on the lower Loughor and three more salmon were taken spinning on the Tal y Cynllwn stretch, not far above the tide. One of these was a first fish for junior member James Davies. There were also a couple of Loughor sewin, also taken by daytime spinning in high and coloured water. Then on Saturday 13th September, with the Wye at Goodrich Court still low, George Butt from Gloucester took an 18 pounds salmon from the Maddox with a Red Francis. It was a well coloured fish, but truly a capture to be celebrated, because this marked the first salmon from the Wye in just over 3 months. Congratulations!
Builth Town Water - Ross James 
Llangoed in spate - Aidan Melling The big rains began with a proper Atlantic weather front on Sunday 14th September, and this was followed by some very strong winds. Autumn seemed to have arrived definitively now and this storm was enough to put all our rivers into flood. Chris Gill from Leeds with a friend managed to take 9 barbel and 8 chub from Middle Hill Court before the high water arrived. On the Monday RG from Freshford fished the Usk at Abercynrig in high winds: “River high and coloured (over 1ft 9 inches) but fining down…nevertheless a good day.” Obliged to fish down and across in these conditions, he caught 6 trout. AH from Witney was on Middle Ballingham and Fownhope No 8 where he caught 3 barbel to 5 pounds 10 ounces and 3 chub. The Wye was colouring and rising past 0.6 metres on the Ross gauge when he left. On the same day PB from Norwich was another angler who pronounced himself very unhappy with the maintenance at Sugwas Court (although I imagine the fact that the river was in flood must have contributed to his difficulties): “Last visited Sugwas some years ago. What a huge disappointment today’s visit was. Walked the whole beat. Zero fishable swims. Electric fencing tight to the river. Overgrown everywhere. This is NOT wild fishing. Left fishery without wetting a line. Disappointed as made a special journey from Norfolk.” PM from Dorking was another who complained about the access at Sugwas Court. Jonathan Chandler with a friend from Nuneaton were able to make a good fist of flood fishing at the Home Fishery, catching 8 barbel to 8 pounds 12 ounces, plus an impressive 99 chub and 9 dace. The smaller fish were taken trotting a float down with sweet corn: “A great day’s fishing.” They fished the following day at Thomas Wood, this time taking 7 barbel, again to 8 pounds 12 ounces, and 40 chub.
Others trying at this time of high water were either washed off or managed to catch just the odd fish. There were several exceptions. Chris Warrington with a friend from West Wickham fished in the flood at Whitney Court and managed 5 barbel to 9 pounds 2 ounces plus a pair of chub. Tom Harbinson from Woodbridge had 3 barbel to 8 pounds 8 ounces and 7 chub from White House. He had 6 barbel to 9 pounds 4 ounces and 7 chub at How Caple Court the following day. Chris Monk from Ware with two friends found the barbel feeding hard on a rising river at Thomas Wood. They caught 30 barbel to 9 pounds 9 ounces, with 5 more over 8 pounds, plus 3 chub, and 24 more barbel to 9 pounds and 7 chub from the same beat the following day. The same team took 6 barbel to 7 pounds 8 ounces and 28 chub to 5 pounds 4 ounces from the Creel on their third day.
Bigsweir flood 
Dan y Parc - Shaun Richardson from Ruislip The Usk was running a little less coloured at the same time: Shaun Wakeham from Looe caught 8 trout to 1.5 pounds at Dinas on spiders, although he was washed off from Abercynrig the following day. Member Mark Harris tried the Rectory with small salmon tubes just before the “big lift” arrived, as the Llanstephan gauge varied from 1ft 10 in to 2ft 2 in. He got 9 trout and a grayling, but no salmon. Tom Davis from Amport also fished the Usk at Buckland on the 20th: “Absolutely vile weather – solid rain all day and strong south-easterly wind. River quite high but surprisingly not too badly coloured.” He had a 17 inch trout in the leash caught. AD from Monmouth with a friend fished up at Llyn Bugeilyn in “driving rain and stiff wind.” 13 trout were taken with black flies either on or just under the surface of this remote hill lake plus there was the “gift of a hen harrier which was extra special.”
Back on the lower Wye, the Wyesham beat had a 13 pounds cock salmon taken with a Junction Shrimp on the 19th with 4ft 1ins showing on the local gauge. This was just before the next big front for which the Met office issued a yellow weather warning. A huge amount of localised rain was predicted for a somewhat indeterminate area of Central Wales before the front would move slowly north. Accordingly it was difficult to calculate when and where to fish. In the event, a very big rise began above Rhayader and another one on the Irfon, and these were enough to send a couple of metres of dirty water rolling down the main river, reaching the lower beats by the 21st. At the same time there was nothing too much on the Ithon or for that matter on the Monnow in the shadow of the Black Mountains. The Lugg was coloured, but did not rise unduly. MP from Stockton on Tees caught 10 barbel and 18 chub from the Wye at Middle Hill Court while the river rose by a good metre, which had pretty well killed the fishing by lunchtime. At How Caple Court the following day the same team found the flood past its peak, catching 5 barbel and 15 chub during a fall of nearly 2 metres. Cliff Brammeld of Hereford had a pair of common carp from Trelough Pool weighing 10.5 and 7.1 pounds. We were also getting some news of salmon from South Wales, including a double figure slightly coloured fish from the lower Loughor, and also catches from the classic Towy beats, 12 during September from Golden Grove and 14 from Abercothi. Otherwise reports of big Welsh sewin seem to have been relatively sparse.
Llandewi - Joe Alexander 
Goodrich Court salmon - George Butt of Gloucester copy The next period was one of flood run-off with high pressure weather seemingly settled in without much threat of rain. We had some hot and sunny afternoons, but also, as predicted, the first early morning frosts in hollows and thick fogs in the Wye valley. Times like these, a falling flood at the end of the season, is when keen salmon anglers will be working hard, reasoning if not now, when? Members Brian Skinner and George Ottewell were out on the Rectory two days in a row, starting with Gravel Catch which is often a good bet in high water. However, nothing was seen. Mark Harris of Swansea fished upstream at Llangoed and Lower Llanstephan: “Almost perfect height for a salmon fly on this beat today, if perhaps a bit too coloured. Fished all the catches but it’s a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack. Nothing seen!” Further downstream the coarse fishers were contending with thickly coloured water as the levels dropped. Chris Dobson from Langport had 9 barbel and 14 chub at Middle Hill Court. Colin Mcsherry from Keynsham had 11 barbel to 8 pounds 12 ounces along with 3 chub from Courtfield and gave some detailed advice about parking and access. Andy Rose with a friend from West Wickham caught just 1 barbel and 4 chub from Upper Hill Court, but enjoyed themselves watching the wildlife: “slow fishing, but amazing…two more days of bliss.”
The rain of the previous week had topped up the reservoirs as well as the rivers. In the Beacons, Mark Payne from Blackwood caught 4 stocked trout from Llwyn On: “Reservoir is very full now and looking beautiful.” Elsewhere in the UK water storage and supply were still in crisis. AA from Norwich found no rising trout in water which was still high on the Usk at Glan yr Afon, but caught 14 with a nymph. Michael Wheeler from Tonbridge caught 12 trout on the Raby Estate water of the Tees.
Sam Brown from Stoke Lacy fished unsuccessfully for salmon at Goodrich Court on the lower Wye: “Everything seemed perfect for it! Fished hard, countless tip and fly changes but not a knock all day. Working with the theory that the fish have pushed up in the recent high water so attempting some upper Wye beats before end of season.” By the 24th a few salmon were indeed seen moving through the upper Wye. Glanwye lost a fish and then, after quite a wait, Ross James caught one of 8 pounds immediately upstream on the Builth Town Water. Glanwye responded next day with a 15 pounds hen for Andy Brundon from the Barn Pool on a Red Cascade. We had some more news over the weekend: 3 fish lost at Nyth and Tyrcelyn and a remarkable morning for Matt Cooper from Devon, who caught a 12 pounds salmon at Lower Glanwye, “a strong fish in great condition,” and then went on to catch a 9 pounds fish down at the Ross Angling Club water, all before lunch if I understand it right. That’s what I call energetic angling! On the 29th a thankful angler from Builth Wells declared the first salmon from the Nyth beat this season: a magnificent 14 pounds cock fish hooked in the kype. That was all there was to tell about Wye salmon at the time of reporting, setting the total 2025 rod catch for the river at 37 fish with 17 days left to the end of the season.
We had a lot of complaints about access and maintenance. A Bromsgrove angler described the access at Lyepole as difficult due to “rubbish stiles and too much barbed wire.” That is probably a fair comment and particularly true now of the stiles either side of the road bridge. David Bunker from Exeter complained about Upper Hill Court where he was trying to accommodate a party of 3 anglers. He argued that there are swims available for 2 anglers, but not 3 and definitely not 4 as suggested in the description. I don’t know whether they included the lower section. A Birmingham angler described a “day of frustration and disappointment” on the Hindwell Brook at Knill. This wild stream, he averred, is now just too wild to be useful due to the overgrown canopy and fallen trees. Regular salmon anglers Brian Skinner and Ian Williams of Brecon had some remarks about the access to Gromaine and Upper Llanstephan, a beat very well known to them and where the late Stephen Marsh-Smith did a lot of work with steps and boards to allow anglers to cover the pools. I think the main problems now are on the steep path to the upper section which they described as quite dangerous. Dave Collins from Moccas described a bad experience at Melyn Cildu, during which he walked 3.5 miles trying to get round the barbed wire and reach the river Irfon without much success. Dave will be the first to admit that as a veteran he has even more miles on the clock than I have and he didn’t appreciate the access arrangements at all. My own experience was similarly bad and I found the only way to get upstream was to zigzag back and forth across the river, working up by alternate fields. There are no stiles between the fields, but barbed wire blocking every approach. It’s a pity, because there are or used to be some big grayling in Melyn Cildu. Meanwhile Adrian-Cristian Aspiu from Warwick queried the use of spinners by 4 anglers on Llyn Eigiau. As far as I can see that was within the rules, which permit any methods except maggots.
On a lighter note, the barbel and chub anglers were still having a wonderful time. Mark Rosindale for Leeds with a friend had 6 barbel to 9 pounds 3 ounces plus 31 chub at Fownhope 5. Andrew Parker from Rugeley reported 11 chub to 5 pounds 1 ounce at Lower Carrots and Luggsmouth and wondered where the barbel might be. From the Creel, PS from Cheltenham caught a barbel of 10 pounds 5 ounces which made a dramatic run downstream. Mark Pickering and a friend from Stockton on Tees caught 6 barbel and 26 chub from the same beat. SG from Lydney with a friend caught 1 barbel and 40 chub from Holme Lacy and Lechmere’s Ley. Paul Smith from Southam with a friend reported 30 chub taken by trotting a float at the same beat and thanked the owner for fixing the stiles. Again on the same beat DC with 2 friends from Bristol caught 2 barbel and 55 chub, and disturbed a hornets’ nest on the path by the hut. SN and a friend from Swindon caught 12 barbel and 6 chub at How Caple Court. AG from Bristol with 3 friends at the Home Fishery reported 9 barbel, 15 chub, a large eel and either a dab or a flounder, the last being a long way from the sea. Michael Bruton with a friend from County Antrim caught 3 barbel and 17 chub from the Creel.
Fenni Fach - Andrew Arkell 
Abercynrig trout - Andrew Arkell A controversy has been brewing for a while about the ecological status of a river which I am very fortunate to have been invited to fish now and then. This is the Upper Avon above Salisbury and the main side tributaries, a stretch known in the last century as the home base of Frank Sawyer and Oliver Kite. It was always famous for its fly hatches and particularly for a long mayfly season. More recently the river and its invertebrate population received a lot of attention from the entomologist Dr Cyril Bennett, who used it as a source for transplanting fly species to less fortunate streams. Currently the Water Framework Directive, in its official role as guardian of our rivers’ natural life, pronounces the Upper Avon monitoring sites to be “high quality” or “good quality.” However, Dr Janina Grey of the Wildfish Smart Rivers project independently monitoring 5 more sites covering the same river over a 9 year period has described a crash in invertebrate numbers overall and an 83% decline in up-winged flies. Even the shrimps had declined by 85%. Could they both be right? I have not had the opportunity to do a kick sample where David and I have been fishing, but I have some particular memories of true mayfly duns which kept hatching right to the end of the season and the heavy trout which would rise to them. Pale wateries would also engage lines of sipping trout on late summer afternoons and a size 16 Grey Duster could get you a (probably stocked) 4 pounder and possibly more than one. I have the general impression the Wiltshire Avon is not what it was, but I hope I am wrong.
Incidentally, on the subject of Frank Sawyer, I go shooting these days with a retired gamekeeper who spent his working life on various estates in Worcestershire. He shoots a side by side AyA game gun which is almost as old as he is and he does very well with it, although like most light Spanish guns it has a sharp kick. Mike remembers that when he was a young trainee at agricultural college, Frank Sawyer was invited from Upavon to talk to the group about the keeper’s job, the wild life on and below Salisbury Plain, the countryside in general, and that he was absolutely fascinating.
You might be interested to read the latest Welsh river featured by Seth Johnson-Marshall of Affonyd Cymru. This one is a bit beyond my patch as these days it’s not so often I get north of the valley of the Teme. The Vyrnwy has long been famous for its Victorian dam which supplies water to Liverpool, and also for a rather Victorian kind of classic fishing on the lake, mainly involving casting under the surrounding and overhanging trees from one of the hotel’s drifting boats. I am looking forward to features on some other Shropshire border streams with a Welsh connection, such as the Tanat and the mysterious and contrary flowing Camlad, which according to one account produced the biggest grayling ever known in Britain.
There has now been a successful prosecution brought by NRW against Welsh Water, who have been fined 250,000 pounds plus for pollution incidents on the Gwent Levels, a SSSI, and also on a tributary of the Afon Llywd, which itself is a tributary of the lower Usk. Welsh Water pleaded guilty to the charges.
Some good news for once: at the end of September we heard that following advice from the EA the Arrow beats will be opening again, no evidence of crayfish plague having been found during recent checks. The EA do want to keep strict biosecurity measures in place however.
With a groan of exasperation I note that British Cycling’s website in publicizing their Junior Race of South Wales cannot bring itself to reproduce the English name of the community at the mouth of the Wye’s Llynfi tributary, known to the rest of us and the road signs as Three Cocks. Instead this apparently has to be displayed as “Three *****.” You would think they might name it in Welsh as Aberllynfi if the English name bothered anybody. In fact British Cycling has ascribed the nonsense as being the fault of an automated filter designed to weed out offensive language. I once had a similar experience when I informed a colleague by company email that another friend had a spaniel bitch for sale (as I had been told he was looking for one). I had my account closed down for a few hours over that “incident of hate speech” while I explained myself to the technical support people and HR. That was years ago; what times we live in now!
We have some fishing for sale this month. Firstly there is a share in the Ithon Fishery syndicate of the Usk, which involves over a mile around Glangrwyney and a piece of the Grwyney Fawr tributary, an area traditionally known for late salmon. Contact Simon Clark on sc@itmpl.com. Secondly the Redbrook Fishery of the Wye just above the tidal section is being offered for sale by tender, with a guide price of 40,000 pounds. This is a short beat of about a third of a mile, but it features in the salmon reports fairly regularly. Tenders before 29th October to www.bengoughproperty.com
The October edition of Trout and Salmon carries a couple of interesting articles. One is by Don Stazicker, always a reliable source of advice, about fishing the Tees at Barnard Castle. In it he mentions the interesting situation of being faced with a shoal of rising grayling and finding that they will take a small dry fly pattern on a 6X tippet until 3 or 4 are caught. After which you can often see them rising towards the same pattern, but baulking at the last moment. You end up with a swirl and a close pass, but the fly is never actually taken. Change the pattern, however, and you will once more get solid takes until 2 or 3 more are caught and the fish seem to have become nervous about the second pattern. After which you need to change to a third pattern, and again you will get strong takes for a while. So it goes on. Stazicker emphasized that this had nothing to do with the changes in the natural fly being taken at the surface and in fact on the occasion described he never did find out what microscopic naturals were being taken. I have found myself in this situation quite a few times during “grayling autumns” and I think it is about the most fascinating fishing imaginable. I have a little green plastic box for such opportunities, containing size 16 and 18 of Red Tag, Grayling Witch, Grayling Steel Blue, John Storey, Yellow Bumble, Sturdy’s Fancy, Terry’s Terror, Green Insect and even Brooke’s Fancy and Orange Otter! Those patterns are about as traditional as you could imagine, but they are varied. To be quite honest, I don’t think it matters very much what you offer to grayling at times like these, provided it is small and you keep ringing the changes. This provokes some thoughts about to what extent and how the grayling are communicating nervousness to each other and also goes some way to explain why coarse fishermen used to keep their captured roach and dace in keep nets away from the main shoal before releasing them when fishing was over at the end of the day. Before anybody writes to me I am not suggesting using keep nets for grayling however!
Upper Tees - Andrew Neal The other article is by Michael Evans in which he describes how resident salmon are sometimes “woken up” by what would seem to be a totally unhelpful disturbance. In his case he discovered this by falling into a pool, but catching salmon when he decided to fish on not long after he was washed right down through it to the tail. You do hear stories about people “stoning the pool” (illegal I believe today) and Falkus and others wrote about anglers who regularly swam their dogs across pools before fishing. It’s certainly the case that fishing a big fly – or spinning lure – over a salmon, may not necessarily result in a take but might annoy it enough to take a smaller and less frightening fly immediately afterwards. Sea trout sometimes exhibit the same tendency. It is still quite common practice when night fishing in South Wales for a pair of anglers to work together, the first one fishing a large surface lure through the darkness under the trees to stir up the sewin, while the second follows up immediately with a more conventional wet fly. It is usually the smaller, second fly which is taken.
I once had an experience on a dark night when fishing down into Pwll y wal on the Loughor. Pwll y wal is a triangular stretch of water formed on a bend, parts of it almost still as a lake, surrounded by steep overgrown banks, deep and difficult to wade into due to sunken logs and silt, and for the same reason also difficult to fish by night. However, it definitely is a holding pool for sewin. On this occasion I was coming in by wading down the inlet flow, ready to cast from the head down into the deep body of the pool. Then I became aware from the noise he was making that an otter was in the water behind me and on his way down. The last thing I thought I wanted was an otter coming down into the water I was about to fish. I made some chittering and hissing noises in turn, hoping to scare him back upstream. However, this had no effect at all and there was just enough star light to see the head and bow waves as he swam past me down into the pool. That, I thought, would be that, as far as this pool was concerned. It would be just about hopeless now. I had already fished the easier pools without a touch and it was past two in the morning. The flask of coffee waiting in my car on the hill half a mile away was beginning to call to me. Still, having taken the trouble to manoeuvre myself into this position, I thought I would have a few casts into the darkness. And it was as I began to retrieve after the second cast that the intermediate line suddenly sprang tight in about the most violent sewin-take that I can remember….
Tight lines for October!
Oliver Burch