Feedback & Reports

A warm and gentle day with sun from time to time, one would have thought there would be plenty of surface activity but it was the opposite. I saw only 3 rising fish and caught them all, 3 trout 8-10 “ on size 16 and 18 dries, 3 Grayling 8, 10 and a massive 16 1/2 inches, the first to a dry and the others to a copperhead PTN. Felt like late summer not early autumn!

3 Trout, 3 Grayling

4 wildies (starting to colour-up) to 14" and one bright 12" (and therefore presumably a trip.) stockie. French leader/black PT bug.
Tough going in excellent fishing /water conditions. Am pretty sure they're starting to think about things other than feeding....

5 Trout

11 Barbel, 3 Chub

After an early start from east london I managed 5 hrs on the beat fishing till dusk. One trout was all I caught, two salmon seen in the last hour but no luck. I'm pretty sure the boat is in a different place to on the map which caused some confusion heading from the top downstream.

1 Trout

Decided to fish at the last minute so only for 2 hours but caught well on a range of baits. Best barbel was 7lb and best chub was 4lb. River in good condition.

6 Barbel, 2 Chub

Another great day on the Irfon, I do like this river, seems to be fishing realy well. All caught on dry fly, Although not many rises, just cast the dry blind and they come up. All the fish usual 8 to 10 inches except one graylig about a 1.5lb

2 Trout, 20 Grayling

River up 18 inches and coloured , conditions looked ideal .A barbel each in the first hour then nothing until between 3 -4 pm when a few bites came but then switched off completely , we bailed out just before dark a little bit disappointed after a good start.

2 Barbel

No fish , but saw two in the Rectory Pot.

Poor choice of swim (first time I'd fished The Creel) resulted in a wasted hour and a half first thing. Moved to below the Church Stream Pool at about 9am. Plenty of signs of fish but it was 10am before the first fish arrived. No more action so another move at about 12 to the upstream end of the beat and a switch of tactics to maggot feeder resulted in 5 chub and two Barbel, including best fish of the day at 9lbs 2oz, and two lost to snags (and a Dace which somehow hooked itself ) Last move of the day was back to the field nearest the footpath back to the church. A swop of tactics back to Pellets resulted in four more Chub and three Barbel to finish the day off nicely.
Water looked "spot on" but the bright warm weather (in fact it was too hot at stages) may have slowed things a bit. The last Barbel was only "hand sized" but a great sign for the future. The rest ranged from 4lbs 12oz to 9lbs 2oz
Great beat with loads of swims to fish, some easy and some more challenging.
Be careful on some of the upstream banks where the undergrowth creates a "false bank" which can catch you out.

6 Barbel, 9 Chub, 1 Other

Firstly a thank you to WUF for telling me Abernant was fishable in parts - if I had been offered a washoff I would have taken it. River was 1ft 9" at Llanstephan and Erwood was showing 1.20. At this height 2 weeks ago Ty Newydd had been virtually unfishable.
Water was up to the croys in Lady Alexander's Catch and flowing fast - but the saving grace was that the water was reasonably clear and there were distinct areas of lesser flow alongside the main stream. Started off fishing these edges klink and dink and had some splashy attention to the large klinkhammer. Switched to a small grayling steel blue and had a 10". Changed to a couple of heavy nymphs fished along the crease of the fast water at the head of the pool and had 3 more grayling to 12". Back to the dry rod and a couple more grayling.
Abernant Stream in the afternoon was a harder proposition. Impossible to wade but managed to edge out far enough for space for a backcast in three spots and fished stock still braced against wading staff jammed in downstream. Probably should have not been out there by myself. GSB kept sinking - but still picked up fish. Added a tiny pink bead head to deliberately keep gsb sub surface and picked up grayling all afternoon. Best fish easily 14" which gave a good tussle in the fast stream. Had one 10" grayling fight like a fish twice its weight - and then discovered I had a 10" trout on the nymph as well.
Last hour was back at Lady Alexander's - back to dry fly and had 5 more to get me to the 20. Most grayling were 8" to 10", 3 at 12" and 1 at 14", the wbt was 10" - didn't include the parr which took the nymph. All in all a very satisfying and confidence building day fishing in quite tough conditions. Lost quite a few as well on this season's barbless hooks.

1 Trout, 19 Grayling