Feedback & Reports

Again , another fabulous day , the black finned brownies waking up and on the fin !!!! Some great sport in the usual areas , on both traditional wets , and some great dry fly sport , as mentioned before in my other report I submitted , shall head down again in early May , superb day !!!!!!!

11 Trout

Only fished an hour or so but no sign of fish today.

Well the love affair continues . . . . . Bugeilyn greeted me with a sunny glimmer and a brisk Northerly breeze at midday . She's top of my wild stillwaters , closely followed by Llyn Adar , Gwgia, and Llyn Teifi and today was a great sporting day . I started off on the western banks half way down , fishing a variety of small home tied traditional wets , having three good takes from this area , and quickly releasing three beautifully marked brownies , between eight and ten inches . I moved up to the lone pine tree changing tactics , the team of two being my own flashback GRHE , and butcher on the dropper, again hitting into several lovely fish , quickly admired and returned . For fun I'd brought along my seven foot , three weight spilt cane rod , made for me by a fabulous chap from up Oswestry , Sid Diggory .It was great to rig up a couple of tiny nymphs and catch a couple of hard fighting wild brownies with it , superb , the split cane rod seems to come alive , awesome !!!!!. I completed the day by fishing in the boathouse bay , tying on a single small sedge pattern on a long tapered leader , and had two lovely takes , and two missed ones as well !!!!!!! Wild Wales fishing at its best , and with eleven black finned beauties caught and returned , it almost seemed a shame to pack up at half six , ahhhhh well hopefully head down to this jewel in May , which spookily enough is next week ha ha !!!

11 Trout

A great day on a beautiful river... but it almost felt like winter. Not quite a freezing day, but with cold air being pushed in from the Arctic it was decidedly cool! Bright sun to start with (9am), gradually clouding over during the day, with a few sporadic bursts of sun (which were very much welcome). They was also an occasional gusty breeze that seemed to be coming from no particular direction. You just had to wait for it to pass.

The river was low, but not too low, and it had a good flow to it (possibly from the previous day's hail and snow). It was fresh and crystal clear. It was also good to see that quite a few lower branches on some of the trees had been cut down too, making casting easier in places. In the morning there was no action at all, and I saw no fish. I fished a few sections where I have caught before, but nothing.

Things started to happen from around 2.30 onwards in the upper half of the beat, working upstream back towards Skenfrith. A small Grayling, then I failed to land a much bigger Trout, just inches away from my net when it shook itself free. I moved upstream and caught a further two Grayling, one of which was a good size. But I was still looking for my first Brown Trout of the season. Further up again, and at about 6pm, I finally landed a perfectly formed, small WBT. Great. All caught on a Hare's Ear Nymph on a dropper with a Klinkhammer indicator, and all fish safely returned.

1 Trout, 3 Grayling

Had nice Grayling at lower end of the beat all fish caught on rusty klinkhammer

2 Trout, 1 Grayling

2 Trout

2 Trout, 5 Grayling

A Northerly wind kept the temperatures to 10C max. but it was a lovely sunny day. The river was very low making wading easier than usual.
I started with gold headed nymphs and took a couple of fish and lost one much bigger. I soon found myself at the large pool at the top of the beat where a few fish were rising to the occasional olive and March Brown and spent some time trying to tempt one but as on previous visits the fish here proved difficult and the trees behind you hinder casting so I headed for the flats as a variety of insects were now coming off.
I love the flats here, especially on a sunny day and soon spotted rising fish, fantastic stuff on a dry fly but today was frustrating as the fish just wouldn't stay on the hook. I lost three, each time checking my hook for sharpness, but in the end changed my fly and then promptly lost another! In the end I managed 4 on dries the last being a beast of a fish with a mouthful of needle sharp teeth which must have been nudging 2lb.

6 Trout

Caught my first trout on a spider in a hailstorm with 4 USAF F16s screaming overhead at treetop level. Never to be repeated I suspect.

6 Trout, 6 Grayling