Feedback & Reports

With the Usk still painfully low I made Talybont the focus of my efforts for this third camping trip in a month or so. The surface water is distinctly tepid but both today and on the Monday trout were willing to play ball when the wind got up and created the necessary ripple with a bit of scuff to it. Much of the first morning was spent encouraging the wind to stir itself, as the early mist coated the hills, but by the evening when I returned it was stronger and the best fish landed from the east shore was perhaps a pound and a quarter. I chose the opposite bank on Tuesday, and fished two black dries kept apart by a semi-sacrificial wet spider (for leader-sinking purposes) on the lower dropper, never switching to the rod carrying a team of wets although surface activity to naturals was limited. After two early losses of modest specimens I then made a steady succession of catches, marvelling at the strength of these half- and three-quarter pound trout, until clocking off at about one o'clock for the walk back to the car. Much of this was left-shoulder casting but at least the falling levels are opening up more of the bank at this intriguing lake, which was unusually generous today. A cuckoo called repeatedly from the woodland on this west shore - I more or less set my watch or mark the calendar by the Talybont cuckoo these days.
9 trout

9 Trout

I decided to fish in the evening , thinking just maybe they sleep in the daytime and come alive at night- not so, 1 Trout returned around a lb - I think its time to try somewhere else.

1 Trout

A calm and bright (but not sunny) day on the river. Yellow Mays and Mayfly (etc.) emerging throughout most of the day. Trout from 9" to 12", with one c. 14"; Grayling c. 1lb. Fish in deep runs, faster and slower moving pools, especially at the ends of the pools. A few salmon moving. Best fishing up until 6pm, then the river went quiet (the opposite of the previous days fishing at Plas Gwyn). Bead-headed GRHE; CDC comparadun, and klinkhammers. The wading is very tricky in places; a wading stick (I used a pre-cut length of hazel), and good wading boots, are absolutely essential. A beat with lots of variety. A lovely day's fishing.

15 Trout, 1 Grayling

Pretty hard going for two fish. It is a lovely beat and looks as though it should be a lot easier. Fish were rising but refusing to take almost everything !

2 Trout

5 Trout

Small but lively Salmon 4lbs on very small cascade. River very low & slow moving .
(WUF note: first Grilse and many congratulations in catching it)

1 Salmon

3 Trout

Beautiful river, good hatches.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

11 x trout 8-14 inches, Monnow Gosling. I'm having to fish mornings at the moment (I'm on aged parent care duties afternoons), so I went up the stream licketty split with a big dry fly, missing out most of the difficult and tight bits in the middle of the beat. It was a very humid and cloudy morning with rain threatening, just right for mayfly fishing, and almost all fish taken in the fast run-in to pools. Bank-side bushes full of mayfly and today's hatch just beginning at midday. Most trout were around 10 inches but one 14 inch fish made an unexpected treat.

11 Trout