Feedback & Reports

Fish caught on pellet throughout the day.

23 Barbel, 6 Chub, 20 Other

Only managed very brief afternoon session upstream of bridge. Bright sunshine, nothing rising.
One trout and one grayling caught - both about 8 inches and both on weighted nymph.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

All fish taken on dry flies and returned

3 Trout

1 Trout

1 Trout

18 x grayling 8-16 inches, Grayling Steel Blue and a few on a Red Tag as change fly. Nothing very large or small, but a nice average size with plenty of 13 and 14 inch fish. Willow flies and pale wateries on the river through the morning, sedges from midday. I had a nymphing rod made up with me, but never used it and finished early afternoon.

18 Grayling

What day of contrasts! Started fishing at 7am. Tried every method and fly I could think of (except one - more later) but failed to get a take let alone a fish. By 11:30 I was hungry and tired so back to the car to refuel and rest.
It was at this point that I made the decision that turned the day on its head. I had come to this beat with the sole intention of not doing any Czech nymphing but as I had tried everything else I thought that as I was here to catch fish and all else had failed...why not. In a crazy two hours I had bagged 15 beautiful trout. None smaller than eight inches up to a stunning sixteen inch specimen. All came from the fast water along the beat with the best one from the water adjoining Abercynrig. I must remember to bring a camera with me next time.

15 Trout

Two trout on a dry fly and one trout, two grayling on nymph, beautiful stretch of water.

3 Trout, 2 Grayling

Had a great day with my son James and we were lucky to have assistance from Nathan whose knowledge and patience were much appreciated Lovely stretch of water but have to report nil return on this occasion. Hope for better luck next time.
Late afternoon slight spoilt by drifting weed which someone was cutting or clearing upstream

Llanstephen Guage 8". Fished 10 till 6.30 on a generally calm, warm, partly cloudy day. Perfect! Became even more perfect at about 11.30 with the "catch of the day" - an osprey above us, heading down river on its way home. But back the fishing - a few PWs, but not many, was about it apart from some sedges late afternoon. Some fish rising all day, but not many. 75% of the fish we caught were non-risers. Given that fish were looking up, we fished emergers pretty well all day and all of the fish caught were off the top. GW used small olive and brown parachutes, and latterly a brown bodied Duck's Dun. DC had just about every fish on a size 16 pale hare's fur Duck's Dun, with a few on a HE parachute as well. The best trout was 13" but every grayling, bar four, was 9-10" - that's 70 single year class grayling! We've never experienced anything like this before on the Wye where one year class is so prolific and so dominates catches. The other ladies were 11, 12 and 13", and more the sort of fish that in recent years have formed a significant part of catches on this beat. Where are the older fish? Whatever the reason for their absence, the 9-10" grayling spawning year was clearly very productive in the Wye catchment. What was so good about conditions that year? Let's hope that the FEBs don't feast on these fish. If they don't, a few years hence, the quality of grayling fishing should be something to behold? All round, not a bad day.

4 Trout, 74 Grayling