Feedback & Reports

A wonderful day for a picnic in the Black Mountains, but not the weather to try to catch trout; brilliant sunshine and very hot. So it was T shirt and shorts, with thigh waders. 4pm - 8pm.

As expected, the water flow was at least 8 inches below what might be adequate, but under the canopy the world was much cooler, and there was always plenty of shade. I put up a size 16 Tups, since there were plenty of pale wateries in evidence, and edged my way up the beat; casting blind into likely spots, but also covering an occasional rise.

While the Tups looked just the job, the T shirt proved an error of judgement - not just because of vulnerability to stinging nettles and brambles when adopting an occasional approach on all fours; but more tiresomely I proved highly attractive to horse flies! And I only succeeded in scaring the fish. Then near the top of the beat I saw a few ovipositing females, so changed to a Sherry Spinner at 6.50pm. It appeared rather a mouthful, but in the space of half an hour attracted three small trout, who more or less hooked themselves with greed.

This is an outstandingly beautiful beat, to which I hope to return. The access and wading are comparatively straightforward, and all but the odd corner is fishable with an 8ft rod.

3 Trout

swim feeder and pellets
river very low

2 Barbel, 3 Chub

Staying at and Fishing the Cwm irfon beat we fished on the Sunday 16th and then again on Wednesday 19th. Myself and friends have fished this beat 5 times in the last 6 years. We rent one of the cottages that Giles and Karin Palmer have at beautiful Cwm Irfon for a week and fish the many waters available in the Upper Wye catchment. For the first couple of years on the Irfon the river seemed bereft of a substantial head of B. Trout and Grayling and was extremely disappointing....but being aware of the work that the Foundation was doing to compensate for the devastating effect of afforestation on the upper Irfon valley we persisted over the years during our visits and a slow but steady improvement was seen in the health of the rivers. This year, fishing in good conditions, reasonable coloured water and with a light upstream breeze we had 9 Brown Trout, numerous Parr and a remarkable 33 Grayling; most of which needed to be brought to hand with a net...a substantial number of the Grayling were in the 1lb to 1.5lb range ( a heavier fish was sadly lost). So the credit that must be given to the Foundation, in my opinion, is immeasurable....a very big pat on the back goes to all who work there. Interestingly the most successful patterns were north country spider patterns ( particularly Partridge and Orange and Snipe and Purple) whereas on the dry front the killer fly was the Dry Simon. Success was also had on the dry with a Black Klinkhammer. We'll be back next year....this I know becuase we've already booked our week in July 2018!!!!

9 Trout, 33 Grayling

River was very low and clear. Fished the upper swims. Fish were caught on pellet feeder

3 Barbel, 2 Chub

Cracking day was expecting more barbel as it’s the 16th but we can all dream lol ???? cracking day as I fished the fast runs got what I came for so a well happy man ???? river was realy low could do with a couple of days rain see you soooooooon ????????

1 Trout, 1 Grayling, 3 Barbel, 30 Chub

3 Chub

1 Trout

Arrow low but still a bit of flow. Fished pools where faster water was entering. Started at 7.00 and by 8.30 had 6 grayling all around 6-7". All on 18 ptn under a kinkhammer. Nothing after that although missed a few.
With reference to Court of Noke access - stick to the same bank as the car parking. After the first field the field headland along the bank has all been mown. I have hacked half a dozen access points with wading staff - did not take long. If everyone fishing spent a few minutes keeping access points open through the balsam and nettles (not just on this beat) - would be of benefit to all.

6 Grayling

Another hard day on the Wye before heading home. Managed 2 barbel and although conditions seemed ok the fishing this weekend has not been as good as normal. Got home to find that we had left a net at middle hill court. I'm assuming that it will be long gone but if anyone fishes there and finds a net I would really appreciate it if they would let the Wye and Usk know so they can contact me. Back again in a few weeks and hopefully the river will be back on form.

2 Barbel