Feedback & Reports

Well, with the email from Allyson ( WUF ) WARNING of closure of the Arrow beats ... Again !!! More dam crayfish problems it seems .... who actually notices these dead crayfish ???? The times I've fished Kington, Whittern and Titley, there's never a sole to be seen anywhere??? Well, it scuppered my pending Arrow trip ....no matter ... The very top of the Hundred House beat .... time to sweat in the jungle!!
Was actually great fun, dries as always!! Muggy overcast with thf odd bit of drizzle....Lots of risers evident, and great fun working out how to get a cast away....then net them!!!......
Fab fun, went right up to the road bridge...half nine till half two ...Thirteen, maybe more to the net, hard earned too ... The usual stamp for here, with four crackers .... lovely stuff !!! And, the most aggressive of takes, bar the clywedog, gotta be the quickest in town.....lol !!!!
Still reading 26 when I got back to my wagon ...I was like a camel at a watering hole drinking a cold can of diet coke ...The absolute business after that session upstream... untouched water I'm guessing !! Bet the last time this was fished right up to the top, was the last time muggins here went up there lol !!!
A fab few hours, and two cracking dry fly sorties, Thursday and today, on an old favourite ..Back to the guiding tommorriw, looks like weathers about to break too tommoz .... be perfect for the wild stillwaters of The Elan Valley ....I hope !!!..........

13 Trout

Twas hot when i arrived at the Hundred House bridge pull in ....Lovely casting the gossamer six foot two weight rod, after quite a few bouncing days on Nantymoch snd Claerwen Reservoir, with sublime numbers of Bibio Pomonae in abundance ....Huge numbers caught for my clients...Happy faces to be honest .... Although, strangely, yesterday was a tough day .... still brought fish to the net but much slower than previous days on the Bibio ......
Today was a fab four hours ... strewth it's strong sun today... 31 degrees on my truck wen I got back, for a well earnt diet coke....
Lovely dry fly sport today.... the usual.summer jungle here, but I love it to be honest lots of catapult casts , casting on my knees etc etc.... great savage takes ...Nothing huge, the usual stamp for here, and first time in a while, I didn't see a mink either .....I did however see thr kingfisher five or six times up and down , superb to see.
Seventeen or eighteen to my net ... great sport, and a hectic few hours ....ohhh before I forget ..Jungle Formula repellent, was well and truly needed here, lots of horse flies about !!! Anyway, back to The Ponderosa, a none client day, so this callsign may take a bimble into Rhayader and indulge in a cold pint of Thatchers Haze .....Be rude not to hey !!!! Lol .......

17 Trout

Couldn’t find access without ruining expensive waders so didn’t fish. More details about access required.

Well a searching afternoon for risers today !!! Lends itself well to that at Hundred House beat ...OK you gotta struggle over reams of barbed wire fencing, but , apart from that it isn't tooooooo bad !!@ just the tight casting with a hugely narrow stream bed !!!
I'm writing this on my phone inside, yesterday's efforts I might as well written it in Adabic ... some looked complete nonsense, and made no sense with the sun glare outside !!!
Anyway, casting to risers this arvo ... midday till half five... Good fun and nine made it to my net, three more fluffed strikes, and a further three long range releases!!! They kind of don't bother me at all .... tis all in that take of my dry Anyway!!!
A lovely hot afternoon again!! Plenty of mayfly about, in fact oodles of them ... This beat is perfect mayfly habitat... silty slow pools, areas with yellow flag iris , kind of five star mayfly accommodation!!@ lol ....
Lovely splashy aggressive rises mid afternoon .... and I even watched several nymphs running the gauntlet in the river !!!!
Didn't see the mink today, although masses of tadpoles in quieter areas ... Huge oil slicks of them ... ... Full of life here today!!! Uowings, mayfly, sedges, Sand Martins and a cheeky Jay spying on me !!!
Serious need of water here .... needs a dam good flush through in fairness... A lot of leg work done nearly ended uo by thr top road at Hundred House ..
A long walk back, but a marvellous five hours dry fly sport ....Time for a Friday cider sat outside The Lamb and Flag..... Can't fault that hey !!!!

9 Trout

Waited for it to warm up a bit, so a recce of the Elan Valley, and all the lakes early bells.... Compensation water now bring released from Caban Coch into the outflow River Elan, which means a cooler Elan, and secondly a huge amount of bank space on Caban Coch and Garreg Ddu reservoirs ..... great stuff on all accounts, especially for my clients....lovely job !!!
The fishing today was fun ...... olive uprights and Large brook duns on the go from about half twelve at the glorious Hundred House beat ....She's low, and, as standard creepy stealthy wading is muchly needed here ......
The usual feisty splashy rises here ... love it !!! Nine cracking Edw fish made it to the net ....another three didn't....ohhhhhh well !!! A lovely session from.hskf eleven to four bells. Saw two mink , so I'll be contacting Allyson at the office to see about dealing with these. Both seen with s minute of each other, I'm guessing a breeding pair ??? Well, so the river bank residents and the kingfishers are safe, these little monkeys need thinning out !!!
Tis a jungle further up, I only did a third on the winter cut back, this poor old beat should have really had some tlc every season, much like a garden hedge !!! And, of course farmers put fencing so close to the River .....They'll never learn ... after a winter flood, outer meanders create suspended fencing, just hanging in mid air !!! Oh well !!!
A cracking session on an old favourite.... operation mink thin out needs to be implemented me finks !!! Home, and a cool cider I reckon ....

9 Trout

Fished for a very pleasant couple of hours, mid afternoon. As expected river was low and clear, weather bright sunshine and very warm for April, Just the one trout, about 10", on small dry fly, returned. No hatches noticed.

1 Trout

Well, a niggling easterly with a bit of poke today, we’ve had it for a few days now, getting a bit annoying to say the least !!!! I opted for the Hundred House beat today, see how she goes ….. I bowled up at the bridge, at quarter to twelve….. Jeeeeeeeeeez, she looked lower than the Hergest beat, from the bridge view point !!!! We need some serious rain. The Edw, and probably the Wye and all her tribs, need a dam good flush through ……
I did start a hundred yards below the bridge, strictly speaking in the Cregrina beat, looked fishy, one of the pool heads from the bridge, and in fact she was, first one of the day, on my dry offering ….. yaaaaaaaay, a nice start !!!! Large brook duns and olives were on the go from about quarter to one … so not bad timing today….. at least even with the horrid east wind, there were some bugs showing . As I tackled up, it was reading 14 degrees in my truck at ten to twelve …. Not tooooooo bad !!!
It certainly wasn’t as lively as three days ago …. Had it not been for that wind, dry fly sport would have been excellent ….. wading is a slow affair now, with these being so low….
The Hereford / Leominster contingent, I’d be giving the Arrow at Kington or the Lugg at Litton a good bash on an afternoon stint … I’ll be on one of them, if not both next week, it’s all about giving them a go …..see if the trout are looking up on those beats !!! A couple of hours midday till two tells you a lot about the state of play !!!!
So, a difficult, but rewarding session, six wee chaps , nothing big, in fact all between six and eight inches… but, two were risers, and the others speculative casts into trouty territory …. Produced the desired splashy rise to my dry !!! Always fun on this beat, lots of new pools, masses of woody obstructions for trout refuge, and some nice dry fly areas too !!! Wild streams always do their own thing … You can trim them back, but they’ll never be tamed !!!! Hoping for this east wind to alter to at least the north or better still south west !!! Here’s hoping, and looks like no rain for quite a while too …. It’ll be the River Elan and the big reservoirs soon then …. Right, off to The Crown in Rhayader for a well earned pint of the good stuff ……. Cheers folks !!!!!

6 Trout

First time for a while that a bad back that had precluded fishing for the last month or so had eased up AND a reasonaby stable few days (weather wise), so I toook the opportunity to visit my local wild stream beat this afternoon.

Whilst I didnt hook up, I had 5 rises to small dry flies in a couple of hours. Good to be out and mobile again.

The stream itself was reasonably clear and a nice hight compared to the last few days when fairly heavy rain had rendered it muddy

Well I did intend to fish the little Clywedog, but the farmer was penning sheep and busy in the only parking area down that narrow lane, so I reversed up, onwards to Hundred House, only another twenty mins onto the journey !!!
Actually I did three hours here and finished off with two at Cregrina, I'll submit that report also......
Ohhhhhhhh dear , really overgrown and what a cracking beat this used time be ..... one of my favs ... Tis a pity no investment is put into these streams..... still I persevered .... I don't mind over grown but jeeeeeeeeeezzz this is like primary jungle!!!
Fish taking surface insects by one, manged five on the dries ..... one was particularly fussy , three fly .... he took a size twenty f fly !!!!
I was actually pretty pleased with five, considering the dense foliage , stuff in.river etc etc etc ....Sizes of fish, between eight and eleven inches .... Happy days ... Still plenty to go at ,just a bit sparse now!!! And thr fish are there, just frustratingly not doable with dry fly tactics ..... loved it though as always...A quick pastie at my truck, and a can of diet coke ...then a mooch to Cregrina at half three, see if the parking spot is free ....ahhhhh yes ... might as well give it a go, happy days !!! The Edw extravaganza continues........

5 Trout

1 Trout