Feedback & Reports

It has been my first time fishing in a welsh river. Great place for the landscape around. The day was sunny. I fished from 11 AM to 4 PM predominantly dry fly. The water was veiled probably because of the rain the day before. I caught and released a brown trout with an imitation in CDC. I had some refuse. The next time will be better. Greetings to all the fishermen of Wales.

1 Trout

River clear and fast. Heavy rain in the afternoon and evening. 3 x BT to 16", 10 x Grayling to 13". Flies size 16 and 18 CDC Quill Size 16 JIG PTN. 2.8 Tungsten Bead

3 Trout, 10 Grayling

A Curate's Egg of a day. The good? 4 of the Trout I caught were 1lb plus; with the best two going all of 3lbs a piece. So surprised was I to catch fish of this stature that I contacted Oliver Burch to check if anyone was stocking the river - and was gratified to be assured that they were almost certainly wild fish.
The bad? Having to turn two teenage girls, armed with spinning rods, off the water. The girls came down from the Caravan Park, within 30 minutes of my arrival, and proceeded to chuck spinners into the Lower Craig Lyn Pool. I must admit, I felt a bit like Scrooge telling them that they could not fish. However, having dragged myself out of a warm bed at 5:00am, and driven the best part of 100 miles to be there, I was not going to allow my day to be spoiled by anyone going down river in front of me with spinning rods. Their father (at least I assume it was their father) came down shortly afterwards. He opened with the standard "I did not know it was private" gambit and then said that he had been told that he could fish by "the bloke who is always fishing here". He then went on to tell me about the nice trout (plural) that he had caught from the Lower Craig Lyn the night before. Neither upstream nymphing nor catch and release featured in his repertoire (ditto, I suspect, reference "the bloke who is always here"). As if that was bad enough, there were two other fly fishermen on the beat. I did not get close enough to either of them to establish their bona fides (or otherwise).
Other than that, not a bad day. Unless you fish rivers like the Test (when you will almost certainly be catching stocked fish), it is not every day that you catch a brace of 3lb browns. That said, I cannot help thinking I would have caught more were it not for the antics of the worm/spinning brigade and the other two anglers on the beat.

5 Trout, 2 Grayling

Tried fly & other stuff but didn't catch anything although saw lots of fish.

Fly, river conditions high.

6 Trout

Our first visit to Craig Lynn which we thoroughly enjoyed. We did find wading tricky, both of us getting a wetting - large rocks were difficult to negotiate although there were quite a few runs which had large gravels making wading much easier. River was clear with a good flow.
Fish were taken on both drys and nymphs with the nymph taken fish liking a moving target, several taken on the pull when recovering for the next cast. A lot of fly coming off in the late afternoon but no frantic rise - just the odd fish coming up.

10 Trout, 7 Grayling

8 brown trout to 11", 7 grayling to 14". Flies size 16 JIG PTN 2.8 and size 14. JIG PTN with 3.8 Tungsten Bead. Dry CDN Quill size 16 and 18

8 Trout, 7 Grayling

The rain came down and the fish came on. Long leader nymphing caught most of the fish but a few were taken on a very soggy CDC dry. The average size of the Grayling was very good with the largest at 17" and the best trout at 16" fought so hard that at first I thought I was into a Grilse. By 1.30pm I was beaten by the rain and headed home with a grin on my face.

6 Trout, 20 Grayling

At last, a much overdue day when the wind didn't blow too much (and for most of the time hardly at all!), so at least bugs and fish were active. Even better, it was cloudy and warm. I fished from 8 until 6.30 p.m. and, amazingly, fish rose somewhere pretty well all day, and for most of the day there were some insects: sedge, midge and small olives / PWs. Trout were rising early but not the grayling, though by 10 a.m. they were looking up for sure and the odd one sipping. Most of the trout caught on the day were rising fish, whereas 60% of the grayling were not. I didn't resort to nymphs at all but just fished a size 20-14 HE emerger over gravels, in the foam and in the creases and the ladies obliged and came up for it. Most trout were 8-12" with the best a 14" 1.25 pounder. Most of the grayling were 11-13", fewer were 8-10" and the best a 17", non-rising, two pounder. A much needed, therapeutic session after a hard evening yesterday on one of club's waters on the Usk where "cracking the code" proved nigh impossible apart from a few trout willing to rise to spinners. So, a wonderful day in a beautiful place with such a variety of water. It was nice to be back. Also a big thank you to the owners for maintaining the access through the bracken so well. It makes such a difference for those of us of more advancing years!!

13 Trout, 29 Grayling

Thanks to Richard for our guest tickets. Fantastic day on a great beat, lots of fish to drys & nymphs with over half the fish coming with the Tenkara rod. Hard work taking casts between gusts of the downstream wind. 30 grayling to 1 1/2lbs, 3 trout to 1 1/2lbs and salmon parr.

3 Trout, 30 Grayling, 3 Other