Feedback & Reports

Hard fishing and a cold biting wind! Only 2 fish between 3 of us, lots of fish moving though.

2 Trout

2 x grayling 6 inches, 9 x out of season trout 6-8 inches, dry Red Tag. Plus countless parr (below 6 inches) of both species. I don’t really know this beat properly; of two previous visits, one was during a flood of coloured water and the other was with the very pleasant owner and his family during conditions of heatwave summer drought. So, although it’s 70 miles from home, I thought I should give it at least one proper chance this autumn. As I know the wading is difficult and I wanted to cover a lot of ground, I opted to go up with just the one rod, an 8 footer made up with a dry fly. A chilly start at 3 degrees, but little fish were rising at once and the day warmed up to 14 degrees. And this was to be the problem: lots of little fish around, at least at the bottom end of the beat, so that the fly would disappear after a couple of seconds on the surface, but I struggled unsuccessfully to find a decent grayling. In fact I still don’t understand this one. I gave it a long morning and got about halfway up by a mile or so, into the woods beyond the cliffs, by which stage even the little fish seemed to have disappeared. Lots of invertebrate life under the stones under the bottom; not so much higher up which seemed almost dead. Quite possibly I would have had some better results by using nymphs, even if it slowed me down. Wading difficulty on a score of 1-10 probably rates 10: there is virtually no gravel and the bottom is all either bedrock or boulders. Having left the campsite field, you either have to wriggle along between thorn bushes and a wire fence or wade a couple of deep pools. After that, access gets easier from fields on either side if you don’t mind rolling under wire fences here and there. Otherwise, it is a most beautiful valley at this time of year, in some ways like the Irfon – but in other ways not. At one point there is a surprising bloom of ranunculus weed, sustaining a pair of unexpected swans at the moment. To summarise: this one is still rather a mystery to me. This is odd, because we are getting such good results from Llandewi upstream. There must be some adult grayling somewhere to produce all those parr. Maybe some fit young fellow would like to try from the top end of the beat and let us know how that fishes?

9 Trout, 2 Grayling

6.35 pm tail of common pool 13 lb cock fish very coloured - size 12 Flamethrower fly with silver body- delighted to report first Wye fish for 30 years!

1 Salmon

A 6lb salmon caught in the Cafn Stream at 2.15pm today. Nyth and Tyr Celyn total catch now 56.

1 Salmon

Monday 10 October, 10-30 am 6 lbs cock fish from the tall top croy, shrimp fly just after the mist lifted. 100+ Geese on the stubble in the field opposite the fishing hut, no canoes, no walkers, other fish seen below the bridge, a very good day out.

1 Salmon

River low and clear and the weather was beautiful. Mild with blue skies and light winds. We fished the entire length and picked up fish to 1.5lb throughout. No big shoals but ones and twos here and there. Lovely day.

30 Grayling

We caught one Barbel of around 3lb and 5 Dace. The conditions were overcast and slightly chilly with a lot of canoeists about.

1 Barbel, 5 Other

3 Barbel

River was low and clear running on a warm and slightly overcast evening. A very short session in the end, late in the day but rewarded with a 12'' Grayling in lovely condition, took a barbless Klinkhammer on a slow drift in one of the smaller pools, lots of fish rising, and missed a few other takes. Access is a little difficult in places. Quiet and peaceful beat with a friendly resident Kingfisher, if only the Lower Lugg was this clean.

1 Grayling

First time fishing the Wye had a fantastic day, all fish caught on pellet and ground bait feeder caught from lunch time onwards with a lull about 3. Had 2 barbel at 8lb 4 around 6lb 2 at 5lb and one around 4lb; chub from 4lb to 2 1/2 lb. A great day as I've never caught barbel before. Will be back again, lovely place to be and fish. Water was clear.

9 Barbel, 3 Chub