Feedback & Reports

Cold mistly morning. Still about 3deg at 11am, then the sun broke through and it warmed up. Lovely beat with some great runs and pools. Wading and bank access difficult in places. Caught three nice brown trout to 14" on heavy nymphs fished through knee high runs. No fish rising, in the warm and sunny afternoon. No grayling caught, which was a surprise. I fished this beat several times about 10-15 years ago and there were specimen grayling present at that stage. The caravans that are now in the bottom field are a bit of an eyesore. There are a few problems with the map: with the caravans now present, the access instructions are incorrect. Also, it does not contain the stretch below the bridge.

3 Trout

First time on the Ithon and it was high and coloured and we had to work hard to catch any Grayling. Biggest Grayling around 1.5lbs.

15 Grayling

Water low and clear but a fair few fish rising. Managed seven trout to 9 inches and two out of season grayling to 12 inches. Changed tactics throughout the day and caught on various beaded pheasant tail nymphs, cdc emerger and mayfly emerger fished on a french leader on conventional rod and reel with the last two caught on a tenkara rod. Not easy fishing but an enjoyable day on this attractive beat.

7 Trout, 2 Grayling

All fish under 6"

4 Trout

2 x grayling 6 inches, 9 x out of season trout 6-8 inches, dry Red Tag. Plus countless parr (below 6 inches) of both species. I don’t really know this beat properly; of two previous visits, one was during a flood of coloured water and the other was with the very pleasant owner and his family during conditions of heatwave summer drought. So, although it’s 70 miles from home, I thought I should give it at least one proper chance this autumn. As I know the wading is difficult and I wanted to cover a lot of ground, I opted to go up with just the one rod, an 8 footer made up with a dry fly. A chilly start at 3 degrees, but little fish were rising at once and the day warmed up to 14 degrees. And this was to be the problem: lots of little fish around, at least at the bottom end of the beat, so that the fly would disappear after a couple of seconds on the surface, but I struggled unsuccessfully to find a decent grayling. In fact I still don’t understand this one. I gave it a long morning and got about halfway up by a mile or so, into the woods beyond the cliffs, by which stage even the little fish seemed to have disappeared. Lots of invertebrate life under the stones under the bottom; not so much higher up which seemed almost dead. Quite possibly I would have had some better results by using nymphs, even if it slowed me down. Wading difficulty on a score of 1-10 probably rates 10: there is virtually no gravel and the bottom is all either bedrock or boulders. Having left the campsite field, you either have to wriggle along between thorn bushes and a wire fence or wade a couple of deep pools. After that, access gets easier from fields on either side if you don’t mind rolling under wire fences here and there. Otherwise, it is a most beautiful valley at this time of year, in some ways like the Irfon – but in other ways not. At one point there is a surprising bloom of ranunculus weed, sustaining a pair of unexpected swans at the moment. To summarise: this one is still rather a mystery to me. This is odd, because we are getting such good results from Llandewi upstream. There must be some adult grayling somewhere to produce all those parr. Maybe some fit young fellow would like to try from the top end of the beat and let us know how that fishes?

9 Trout, 2 Grayling

Fly fishing, nymph and wet fly. Catch and release. Very high water. Small fish.

3 Trout

River low, very clear and warm. Four beautiful trout, 6-8 inches, plus a couple of tiny grayling and a salmon parr. All caught on a PTN fished on a tenkara rod.

4 Trout, 2 Grayling

Hi water was coloured with no sign of fish, heavy rain falling caused river to rapidly increase in depth and cloudiness. 5-6 dead sheep in and along river bank, smelling bad. Altogether not ideal. one bit all day. Map not accurate. regards Neil

This beat was fished by a member of the Grayling Society on this occasion.

Had a look - water quite low so decided not to fish - as well as a 'Wash Off' policy, I think the day could come when there should be a'Low Water' policy?

WUF note: Unlike spates, droughts and low water do not suddenly arrive. Our gauges give ample advance warning of low water conditions!