Feedback & Reports

Booked Rectory for 4 days. River low. Hot and humid. Forecast rain absent. Fished 3 hours Tue. Caught 4 chub to 4 lb on salmon fly, all returned. No salmon seen. Did not fish for rest of week.

4 Chub

Such a pleasure to fish this beat. 26 degrees and clear blue skies didn't make for hungry fish. 6 caught mostly on nymphs in faster water but also a couple on coachman and Pennell. A number got away including the biggest of the day... of course.

6 Trout

1 Trout

Not a lot of water at the moment and the sun (not overcast and rain BBC) didn't help matters on this great beat but we both enjoyed the day. It started with a quick preview of the beat where we spotted a a large otter patrolling below the salmon pool, a great sight but unnerving when my mate told me how much fish they need to consume to survive, and what if there were pups ?!
I managed to net a smallish wbt at the start and then went to find where my partner was. I can still see it now, I found him in a nice looking run under quite a bit of tree cover, looking dazed and confused, wrapped up in line annd holding a "birds nest" in his hand. In three casts he'd had a brief meeting with a "Penpont Porker" that dove rolled and shed the hook and then netted a very good fish only for it to leap out again when trying to remove the fly. He now knows what this beat is capable of and has vowed to return, unfinished business apparently.

2 Trout

We've fished Bugeilyn most years for about 20 years, in the past buying tickets (and using a boat) from the currently closed Tyn-y-Cornel Hotel. So it was lovely to be able to return to this water on a day ticket from the Foundation.
Impressions: The track down to the lake has deteriorated at the top (road) end and so advice to only attempt direct access if in a 4WD is not to be ignored (we were fine in a Land Rover, but most cars would have a very rough time of it).
We fished on a day when we were mostly in low cloud, but it was muggy and lots of flies were around. Fish were rising but being choosy. In the past you could almost guarantee success with anything bushylack on the top. This time you needed to select flies carefully - alder, sedges, buzzers, and tiny caenis-like flies hatched at different stages of the day and we found that it was best to try to 'match-the-hatch' to get any attention. When fish did take, they were the usual feisty little fighters - mostly 6-10 o.z. in weight. But larger fish wewre seen, and a fish of around 1.5 lb. jumped near my companion.
We think that there is more weed than we remember from the past - particularly at the top end near the culverted outflow channel - and that this might explain the more abundant fly life. Evidence of climate change? Fish seemed better fed, fatter, and more selective in what they were eating.
All-in-all a most enjoyable return to an old fishing haunt. And although two of us only caught a dozen or so fish from the bank (in the past up to 60 fish from the boat was not unknown), we had an excellent day!

10 Trout

11lb Salmon Caught on the a Cascade Fly lots of fish in the River.

1 Salmon

Caught 8" on klinkhammer 2nd cast of the day, made way up to junction pool with Escley and took a 10" WBT on mayfly nymph. After letting the pool rest a wonderful 14" trout took a crippled mayfly on the surface and put up a tremendous fight. Thunderstorm put an end to my day at 5.30pm. Water level lower than I would have expected - lots of fry in the margins.

3 Trout

A few mayfly out, but it was not obvious that the fish were feeding on them. However, one fish caught was on a grey wulff. River very low, and back eddies made presentation difficult. On the way back I had a few cast at the bottom of Aberedw.

1 Trout

Grabbed 3 hrs in the gorge.....first time on this beat. Fished from 9-12. The only two rising fish were the ones I caught and 6" was the biggest,both on
size 18 para adams. Only made it to the footbridge so will be back to investigate further. The beat start is hard to find, ignore the track behind the bench ,walk up the hill a short distance until you see an obvious footpath take it and almost immediately turn hard left, the once white poles are no longer white but are visible for most of the way down. Sleepy fish today.

2 Trout

A glorious day for sunbathing and a long lunch! Lovely stretch of the Monnow, but the river remained extremely quiet all day. Very few fish rising throughout the day and even the spent Mayfly drifted unhindered. Just too hot for all concerned.

1 Trout