Feedback & Reports

Nothing caught

Another fantastic day on a beautiful beat that is well kept by the legend Colin.
We went to our usual swim in the hope that the river level didn't mean that it was pushing through too much. On first glance we thought we were going to have to rethink our game plan as the river was pushing through but we decided to give it an hour and see what happened.
First cast with a 2oz lead saw it bounce straight round into the nearest snag it could find whereas 3oz seemed to hold just fine. We then started to pick off barbel and chub regularly throughout the day.
A brilliant day made even better when Colin came to see us and have a good natter. Lots of kingfisher action with one sat on a tree opposite in full sun for at least 20mins.

21 Barbel, 25 Chub

The river was up about 4 or 5 feet making the fishing a little difficult. Lost a lot of tackle but ended up with ten barbel and three chub between two of us. An enjoyable day in testing conditions.

10 Barbel, 3 Chub

River in good shape after recent rain. Quite coloured but on balance that does give the angler much needed cover on small streams. Felt the conditions were excellent but very little fly life and precious few rising fish.
However, casting a dry to likely spots resulted in 12 wbt, 6 big 'uns and 6 little 'uns. Best was 13" and all plump well conditioned fish.
For me, two points of interest. I am a para Adams addict, so promised myself on the M4 I would not fish this pattern today and tried many long forgotten flies in my box. What I observed was that of the 6 flies I used (elk wing olive, grannom, f-fly, bwo, olive klinkhammer and iron blue dun) they all seemed to work equally well. All flies were 14's so maybe this was the trigger. But I increasingly think on small wild streams the residents are opportunistic and if it's in their feeding zone they'll have a go.
The other point was the laziness of the take of the bigger fish. I'm used to my fly being smashed most of the year. But every large fish I hooked today was done in a slow, leisurely manner. Then of course all hell broke loose!
Sorry this has been a bit of a ramble but far too often I fish at 100 mph doing the same thing as I did last time, and the time before and the time before that.......

12 Trout

6 fish caught

6 Trout

0 salmon caught. a few fish moved early in morning.

10Lb hen salmon on tube fly

1 Salmon

5 small brown trout. None bigger than 12 inches.

5 Trout

First time back here for several years and was delighted to see the improvements to the beat with the new styles since I was last here. Great stuff! 10-11" on the Byton gauge and only a tad murky after the recent heavy rain. Booked a bit late so only fished the afternoon, so only got as far as the bridge from the bottom of the beat. No fly and hardly a rise but some of the grayling did come up to a HE emerger, fished duo with a FBPTN which took the majority of the fish. A heavier version also worked bugging with heavier nymphs in some of the deeper pots. The grayling were all 9-10 inchers though so the bigger ladies weren't in the mood today. The trout were 9-12". Just a thought: there is a lovely long deep pool in the section between the first major RH bend and the house which is totally occluded to river level by tree branches (so you can't cast under them any more). This used to be great spot. It would take little effort to clear it - maybe the river owner can get some pole-saws out and open this up again? Similarly the lovely pool above the bridge used to be a banker but is almost totally overgrown from the far bank wall on the far side. Give it a year and the river here will soon disappear as further down. A few minutes with a pole-saw could work wonders and open this up for the punters too! I look forward to coming back and exploring above the bridge again. Maybe there will be some bigger girls about next time?!!

4 Trout, 15 Grayling

Arrived at 7am with 0.76m on the gauge and the river heavily coloured but just fishable. Quiet at first but saw a few fish show at pub decking and cables. River clearer and had dropped 5cm at lunchtime. Unusually no fish seen at Rock all day. River picked up a little more colour by the evening as a result of more rain at Brecon. Had very enjoyable afternoon in L.T's company and was pleased to net a sealiced 3lb sea trout for him. River should fish well tomorrow.