Feedback & Reports

A rather cold day but dry at least.
Picked up on 10" trout on a nymph early in the day then fished for a few hours with out a sign. At about 1:30pm there was a brief spell of sun shine that stimulated a short hatch, the trout were rising immediately and I had one of about 14" on a March Brown, all to soon the hatch was over and the fishing tailed off.
An great day out on a lovely stretch of water.

2 Trout

This was without doubt the best days fishing I have had on the WUF beats. Beautiful stretch of river able to cast from the bank into some of the deep pools.Bright cold windy day. Red Kites overhead.Not much happening till I reached the island at the bottom of the beat.Sat on the bank at the bottom end of the island where the faster water runs into a calm pool.Suddenly a hatch of olives ( I think) Fish going ballistic. Put on a Klinkhamer with adams hackle caught 8 in about 20 minutes. Mostly half pounders. 2 however were over 2lb, one of which was nearer 2 1/2 lb. Hatch stopped as suddenly as it started. Calm returned to the river. Went back to the car for late lunch. Returned to same spot. Bingo another hatch. Caught 2 more 1/2 pounders. By now it was so windy it was almost impossible to put the fly in the right spot. Hatch stopped again. Fantastic day. Thanks WUF.

10 Trout

1 Grayling

No fish caught.but what a great beat when the river is running clear.the named pools look full of potential.
the instructions for the car park may need changing.there is now hard standing infront of the beat gate with a wuf sign for anglers.
the welcome i recived was very warm.
a good days fishing thanks

A great day. The river was low and extremely clear. 7 of the fish taken were from the tail of one pool about half way down the beat. We spotted the shoal and took the fish on nymphs fishing the duo. Largest fish was 2 lb 8oz and smallest was about 1 lb. Thanks for a great day.

9 Grayling

0 fish taken, none caught.

River perfect. Lovely setting and fantastic beat. Sadly no Grayling to be had, although this didn't come as a complete surprise. We know next to nothing about Grayling fishing apart from mid Feb is probably not the best time to go.Hope to come back in the spring and fish for trout.

After taking a gamble and making the journey in far from ideal conditions I was treated to the most beautiful scenery in that part of the world. About 5 inches covered the ground and made the whole area look like something out of a natural history documentary. Looking more like a green Michelin man than an angler i made my way across the fields towards the river. What a beat! Absolutely beautiful, especially with all the snow. I fished the majority of the upper half of the beat and not surprisingly found fishing a bit slow. Fortunately I did manage to find a few fish Czech nymphing and was rewarded with two beautiful, fin perfect Grayling of 16" and 18". These two fish combined with the scenery and the snow made it all very much worthwhile. Sadly by 4:30pm the looming darkness, frozen fingers, frozen rod rings and line forced me to head home. Look forward to trying out the beat when everything's a bit greener and warmer. As always thanks WUF!

5 x grayling 13 - 18 inches, on leaded wet flies fished in a team: Red Tag, Yellow Bumble, Grayling Steel Blue. The upper Wye looked to be in good condition (0.61 at Ddol), although I can't say anything very complimentary about the weather which was around 2 degrees all day with alternate showers of rain and sleet. And I found Craig Llyn a most attractive and interesting beat, with different types of water where you could practice almost any style of fishing you could wish: pocket water, runs, gutters, gravel flats, and some sumptuous deep salmon pools, all neatly labelled. Only the wading (with the exception of the bottom end) is not exactly dangerous, but hard work for us folks in our sixties - lumpy boulders rather than gravel for the most part.
This was in fact my first experience on Craig Llyn, which made such a good reputation for itself throughout 2012. I would have liked to try for its grayling during the cream of the season, September and October, when fish are rising, but other commitments and the floods kept me away until now. So I was starting from a position of ignorance and it's more or less a given that fishing a strange water for grayling in January is going to involve a lot of searching. So it proved, because I probably wasted time on unproductive water and I never came across a large shoal. However, I did eventually find a couple of small pods of grayling after lunch which included some lovely fish.
Some large fish have been reported from Craig Llyn and on this day mine were, in order, 18, 16, 17, 14 and 13 inches. Which is very nice of course, and I don't wish to seem to be looking a gift-horse in the mouth, but I would have been happier to have caught a few smaller ones as well. Where are they, those grayling we need for future years? They were certainly hiding on this day and 3 of those 5 nice grayling had the dreaded cormorant scars, which makes me a bit suspicious - like so many areas of the upper river, there isn't much cover at Craig Llyn. Anyway, a very nice day despite the weather.
One dead salmon kelt on the bank at the top of the beat - foxes or otters had most of it already.

Arrived at beat after a sharp overnight frost. Fog gradually subsided with the afternoon sunny and cold. Water conditions very good. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any grayling despite trying nymphs at various depths. The beat looked excellent with plenty of likely looking water so I was somewhat dismayed to (almost) blank, the only relief being a nice pound and a half out of season trout in excellent condition, which was returned.