Feedback & Reports

Stunning morning,had my first Chubb at 07.30 and weighed in( by the ghillie) at 6lb 4 oz ,pb.bumped one of off at 08.00 and that was it for the rest of the day,very sunny and warm,not ideal fishing conditions but great to be sat on the bank,ghillie was super helpful and friendly as usual,great day,great beat

1 Chub

I made this trip to take advantage of the unseasonably warm late February weather. It was a very bright day but still with a sharp frost when I arrived around 8:00 - far too early as it turned and I could probably have stayed in bed for another couple of hours. Nothing happened until mid morning when my first grayling came to a heavily weighted nymph. Thereafter there was a steady trickle of small flies coming off the water but the only fish I saw rise were those that swirled at and missed my fly. I caught steadily until mid-afternoon, mostly with spiders (snipe and purple, and partridge and orange) fished in a team with a weighted nymph on the point. All the fish were in lovely condition with the best trout and best grayling each around the pound mark. All the fish came from the Cillau run near the lower limit of the beat. A lovely day all in all.

4 Trout, 4 Grayling

A cold start but then it turned into almost a summers day. Hot sunshine all day and not a breeze. So I fished the balsa down the middle on the maggot. Great days fishing. Best chub 6lb and a lovely 9lb barbel. Not bad on the float. Sublime

1 Trout, 4 Barbel, 12 Chub

Decided to give my season an early start with our new summer in February, and i saw, my first of the year.... canoeists! That was about it I'm afraid. No fish seen or heard. Bit of waste of time really. Thought there would be some flies hatching during the afternoon but saw very few.

Would recommend allowing access to the top of the beat if possible. It's hard going to get there and likely necessary to go in the river, frightening any fish along the way.

Warm and sunny late February day after a heavy frost and the river was low and clear with predictably difficult fishing. Many of the swims are difficult to access and quiet steep and slippery so we were restricted in swim choice.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling, 2 Chub

Another lovely afternoon on one of my favourite beats. All the fish caught in the first three hours. Nothing then until darkness was falling when I had another bite but lost the barbel to a hook pull. Most of the fish around the 5 to 6lb+ mark. Feeder with halibut pellet accounted for all. Meat brought nothing but some snatchy chub bites.

6 Barbel

nothing caught not even a minnow

I must be doing something wrong
Not a fish to be seen no rises and nothing caught
Need a guide to show me where they are
Water very low

Ventured out to try trotting the likeliest runs of the beat. No grayling, but my son caught a lovely out of season brownie, leaping clear of the water before being carefully played, landed and returned safely. Great experience for a 12 year old’s first attempt trotting a river. No other offers, but a huge (and I mean huge) amount of bank side clearance has exposed the river with many trees cut down. Plenty of opportunity for re-growth and making access to the water much clearer. I’m guessing from the bonfires that the work has been done very recently, with some branches likely to be in the river, so a good flooding would be useful to shift snags on. A very pleasant couple of hours fishing though. Looking forward to the trout season soon!

1 Trout

Beautiful day, a very orderly group of kayaks and canoes past, no problem with sharing river . Let river settle in front of us and then fished. On returning to bottom of beat found the canoes driving up and down the stretch using long poles to propel themselves. How good is this for the river bed, plus of course fishing blown out.

WUF Note: Under the terms of the access arrangements, canoeing on the Marteg to Newbridge section is only permitted when the water height is over the red line at Rhayader, at all times of year. These canoeists should not have been on the river and should certainly not have been using poles on the riverbed.

2 Grayling