Feedback & Reports

Disappointing as there was no real fly hatch. The water was coloured and running well as a result of the thunderstorms the previous night. I made contact with three fish and brought one of about 5 inches to hand. Is it me or are there less fish about in this part of the Arrow?

1 Trout

Salmon 12lbs Fly.

1 Salmon

Paul's first Salmon on spinner 12 lbs.

1 Salmon

I fished from 11-4pm on a warm and humid day. The water was a bit coloured which I wasn't expecting and there weren't many flies about with only 3 fish spotted rising. I
decided to fish with a long rod & french nymphing leader and spent the day lobbing a pair of tungsten beaded nymphs into any water with suitable depth and pace. 20 trout
from 6-14 inches caught including four of 12 inches and over.
There is a large tree that's fallen across the river on the part of the beat downstream of the footbridge.

20 Trout

Fished from 5:30 - 7pm. Only stayed for this short time as the river was unexpectedly different, with a distinct tinge of colour. Very little fly life and only one fish seen rising. Changed from dry to duo and managed one grayling on the nymph.

1 Grayling

16.30 - 1900hrs. A sultry early evening after a very hot, but slightly overcast day. The water was getting on the low side; plenty of fly life evident - mostly small pale olives at the lower end, with a darker variant predominant at the top of the beat. The only surface feeding fish were fry, however.
Undeterred, I worked my way up stream casting blind into the throat of a pool, or a gully cutting under a tree root. Too often I lacked the desirable delicacy but managed to provoke 4 solid rises from fish in the deep but turbulent areas of stream. A couple of these came to hand and were about 10". Size 16 dry Greenwell.
It's a lovely beat, but I suspect much of the middle section may be unproductive at most water levels. Also perhaps best fished in the morning, working upstream into the light, since it runs east to west. Very well maintained fences and gateways (but the stile at the bottom of the beat is collapsing).
Two separate cuckoos, and a huge warren of rabbits added to a most enjoyable visit.

2 Trout

A great day's fishing. The weather was hot (25C) and muggy but bright and the water level was low-ish but not low summer flow. Didn't turn up until about 3pm. Things were slow initially but as the sun dropped a bit the fish rose steadily to the abundant fly life and I was able to cast to rising fish though some came blind from likely lies. I fished dry fly all afternoon and caught most on a grizzle grey duster. Most flies coming off were olives - some yellow mays about and the odd mayfly. Got broke on a beauty and lost another nice fish. All mine were 10-12 inches apart from one small fish. All were safely returned.
The beat is lovely - the photos on the WUF site don't do it justice. Had the place to myself all afternoon and felt quite privileged to be fishing in such beautiful surroundings in the shadow of Pen y Fan. The details provided with the booking were spot on and I was able to park within 20 yards of the water at the bottom of a field. Access to the beat couldn't be easier. Casting is unrestricted in most places and wading is easy though you need chest waders to get the best out of the fishing. Definitely cross to the bottom section and fish up from the bridge - the bottom section holds some really nice resident fish but they are hard to catch as the water is slick there and they are very fussy. I'll definitely be going back for another go. Saw 3 kingfishers, herons, dippers, bats, heard an otter - fantastic. Thanks WUF for making this stunning fishing available on day permit and so readily booked on your online system.

8 Trout

James and I fished one of our favourite beats for the first time this year. We had the pleasure of the company of kingfishers, salmon and sea lampreys although the flock of 10 goosanders when we arrived didn’t inspire confidence.
However all was in order. There were sporadic hatches all through the day – olives and yellow mays prominent but not necessarily the most numerous – other less conspicuous winged insects were far more numerous. The fish weren’t really impressed by the insects however and never really settled to regular rising patterns – a lot of oncers or experienced fish that were happy to keep rising to something miniscule whilst continually ignoring our offerings.
We habitually fish dry fly – that’s it! In the first two hours we had 8 fish between us – of my 4 I did not see any of them rise before I hooked them, and had I not been looking directly at my fly at the key moment neither would I have seen the take. All were extremely gentle – but well hooked. They were caught by fishing the likely spots fine and far off. The best of these 4 was a lovely fish of 15” which looked more like an Usk fish with the number of spots. The others were smaller.
James managed 10 trout and 2 grayling – two more 15” trout amongst them and a 16”er in the grayling. His 15”ers thought they were safe staying on the far side of the fast water but they haven’t encountered James’s suicidal wading before – chest waders over topped! Still it was a lovely warm day and the fish were worth it.
Despite current low flows the Wye lacks the algal slime that the Usk seems to be suffering from and there were at least 3 salmon in the beat. We fished to 9pm on a cracking day! All safely returned - Thank you as always.

14 Trout, 2 Grayling

Had a very frustrating and difficult day on this beautiful stretch of the Arrow. The day was bright with no wind and the water was clear, I had thought that with all the thunder storms around the Midlands and Wales that it might have been slightly coloured but definitely not!
I knew it was going to be tough when every time I saw a fish rising by the time I got to a point where I could cast the fish was long gone.
While I'm still a novice at fly fishing I do have a lot of experience stalking fish when coarse fishing, and how anyone got in range of these fish with tenkara outfit amazes me! I even tried sitting still for a while and waiting for the trout to re-appear, which they did, only to have them disappear the moment my fly hit the water!
To make matters worse I actually managed to hook 10 fish, including one large brownie tempted from under a tree, sadly the majority got off the hook.
I began to suspect there was something wrong with my flies, but they seemed ok, and they definitely didn't have any problem hooking and staying hooked to every leaf, twig and rock on the entire stretch.
On a bright side the whole river was alive with wildlife, Mayflies, dragon flies and damsel flies were all on the wing, and twice a pair of king fishers shot past me in blue blurs.
Overall this beat is superb, plenty of fish and plenty of likely looking areas to cast to, shame there are so many of those fly eating beech trees though!
Thanks WUF for another great day

2 Trout

Rod 1 - 3 trout on fly
Rod 2 - 4 trout on fly
Rod 3 - 2 trout on fly

9 Trout