Feedback & Reports

Great day. No fish seen or caught.

12 trout to 14 inches and 5 grayling to 12 inches. All on dry fly on a blustery day with sporadic hatches and fish rising only during short periods of sunshine. The river was in good condition with a slight tinge from recent rain.

Sunshine and storm on the upper Wye! A blustering wind, patches of sun between cumulous clouds, and a short, sharp, 5 minute shower coming regularly every half hour all through the day. More sustained and heavy rain set in before dusk. Almost no rises all day. Just one good grayling came up for a yellow may imitation at the beginning to get me encouraged (a oncer, let's say a twicer because he went for the artificial also), but then came off at the net. That was the only grayling I saw in the session. Otherwise, lots of mostly small trout and parr were in evidence, prepared to tweak away at spiders in the runs, but they wanted the flies either worked downstream and across or weighted down with a nymph on the point position. Not a very interesting way of fishing, but that was all the action I could get. (DC of W Herefordshire would be amused to know that I took no less than 3 rods down to the river, each made up for a different method, from dry fly to heavy bugs...but the grayling showed their contempt for all the money spent at Sportfish by staying well away). 13 x trout 6-12 inches.

Incidentally, referring to DC's report from Cefn Rhosan Fawr a few days ago about goosanders, the word in the pub at Sennybridge (for what it is worth) is that locals have been seeing very large numbers of these birds, particularly during recent winters. The theory is that these predators have pretty good hunting on the upper Usk and its tributaries in the upland area above Brecon, because so many of the pools have rocky bottoms without tree root cover for the fish to escape into.

Conditions: 16 degrees, overcast, showery and blustery. Time: from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Virtually no fly life observed and consequently very little sign of rising fish. I managed one beautiful grayling of around 16 inches on a parachute emerger. In the end hard going, albeit on a very lovely stretch of water.

Interested to read OB's return for yesterday from just up the river and am constantly amazed at how fickle insect activity and fish feeding patterns can be at this time of year. Today, with the river basking in almost unabated sunshine and a bit of a breeze, hardly anything moved at all. Hardly any insects to be seen, no hatch, surprisingly few late afternoon sedges and hardly a rising fish - I saw about four oncers all day! Tried emergers and things I could hardly see, on the top, in the film, dangling and down below, fished NZ style and dredged the depths as well. Just two 12" trout took pity on my HE emerger but the grayling were simply not in the mood. Well, it keeps you thinking! Answers on a postcard please.

P.S. Also seven very well equipped canoeists from up north who said that there was nothing on the canoe websites to say that they shouldn't be on the river at this time of year. Well there's a surprise! So much for compliance with the upper river access agreement.

Well I’m glad this hasn’t been my first season as I might have put the rods on ebay by now. Nursing a sore head from over indulgence at the Welsh beer festival I arrived to what looked like a promising start, some rain to freshen up the river, bright ish day but with plenty of cloud, the odd gust of wind but nothing to worry about.

Waded across to the left bank and started fishing the Gravelly Pool then worked my way up the lh bank of the Gravelly Run. Then switched to some pocket water on the rh bank of the Gravelly Run. Not a sniff of a fish, none seen rising, despite some flies coming off the water. Fished the Cillau Run, got one snatch from a small fish, didn’t connect. Finally got an 8 inch WBT on a hare’s ear emerger in some pocket water above the cillau rocks.

Returned to the beer festival, my recollection of the rest of the weekend is a bit hazy I must admit. Excellent service as ever from the W&UF team, a pleasure to deal with.

RS and I decided to try Ty Newydd again after my day there on Monday, but what a difference a few days makes! We fished from midday until we were rained off at about 7pm. The water seemed colder than on Monday but I hadn't taken any temperatures. Pretty windy for a fair bit of the time with a couple of afternoon showers between which very few flies were coming off and, unsurprisingly, hardly a rise was seen. Unlike on Monday, the fish just weren't looking up and we only managed to catch 14 fish between us: 6 trout to 12", and 8 grayling to 12" with most of 8-10". Fish taken on HE emerger, foam beetle, foam ant and on a brown Super Pupa. Nothing on NZ style nymph. Tough!

Sun and cloud, not too much wind and the water very low. Almost the only insects seen, until the arrival of the late afternoon and evening sedges, were two Yellow Mays so, unsurprisingly, hardly any rising fish - so on the face of it the prospects didn't look too good! However, in spite of all this, I still rose fish all day to a couple of HE emerger patterns which also accounted for anything that rose as well. Had nothing take the nymphs when adopting NZ tactics. From about 5 p.m. there was a reasonable evening rise which continued until I could no longer see my fly. Remarkably, over the course of the day, I had 35 grayling from about 9 to 15" and five trout to 12" - all returned. The best two grayling were saved almost to the last, when I also dropped two other nice fish because I really couldn't see my fly - they were barely hooked and it was a case of long distance release....so, time for home! A cracking day.

2 small grayling and one small trout plus several salmon parr. All returned of course.

Black and Peacock Spider and Ginger Quill successful flies. Late rising fish gave best sport but very short lived rise despite very pleasant day.

Unseasonably cold due to stiff NW & downstream wind. Not much fly life about, just the occasional small sedge and yellow mays, which combined with a low and clear river translated into few rises and fewer fish. Managed to winkle out a grayling and small brownie on nymphs (GRHE & Copper John) and a nice grayling of about a pound on a golden olive klinkhammer cast to one of the few rises seen all day.