Feedback & Reports

Amazing contrast to yesterday - rain and very strong wind. Fished further along by trees which afforded some protection. Some roach to corn. Groundbaited area with swim stim betaine green + micro pellets. First sign of a carp was big areas of the silty bottom being thrown up (it is very shallow). He finally got around to my single piece of corn and turned out to be 5lb common. I was expecting a beautiful untouched specimen but he looked like he'd gone 12 rounds in the local commercial - disfigured mouth, scales missing, a real bruiser. Surprising. Still, he gave a good fight. 20 mins later there was another who wandered in but he wasn't interested in my bait. Then the wind became almost gale force, so time to go. Perhaps worth another visit in summer to tempt the bigger ones.

10 Other

Arrived around 11am to find the river high, coloured and racing through after a week of heavy showers. With two days booked I decided to fish the inside line on the left hand bank and do the other bank tomorrow.
Catch: 4lb 3oz Chub using pellet and feeder to 10lb line (caught from the far end of the beat).

1 Chub

Arrived to find river well in flood and very muddy. We skated our way along a very muddy and slippery track to river bank. One angler tried roving in morning on meat with no luck. Two of us settled in pegs having to fish close in due to water level. We all worked hard all day and ended the day with 1 barbel 6 08 lb and 1 chub, both on pellet and feeder.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

Very nice day out under a blue sky surrounded by autumn colours. Unfortunately the River was just a touch too high and coloured after the previous weeks heavy rain but it was still nice to have a splash around. A few grayling rises but only one trout around a pound landed. Thanks WUF.

1 Trout

Rain is like busses - none at all or far too much. This year we waited and waited in vain until the heavens finally opened at the death of our season. Looks like one good days salmon fishing is all we will get above LLanwrthwl bridge. Today proved that amazing exception, of high, but unusually clear water. I managed to hook 6 salmon, and safely land 4. Every one was carefully retained in the net prior to hook removal, then revived and released from it later. Not one hand touched a single fish.
To me the upper reaches of the Wye are very special places, where perhaps you need to angle more so to catch. Catch it right and Dolgau is one of the very best. A wonderful end of season day, on a wonderful river, in a wonderful country, at a wonderful time of year.

4 Salmon

Arrived to find river a little higher and coloured than I anticipated but persisted by fishing margins in lower field as upper beat inaccessible. Not suitable for fly or wading so trotted maggots close under bank. DW's 2 grayling were 10 to 14inch size. RL's very small and chub only around 1.5lb. A hard day by Abernant standards but pleasant weather and seeing active kingfishers all day combing to make yet another a good day out with my mate in Mid Wales!

1 Trout, 6 Grayling, 1 Chub

River very high and ripping through but I have always fancied trying the eddy created by the willow first swim over the bridge, when the river is this state. So armed with my 2lbs test curve carp rod, bait runner loaded with 20lbs braid and 12lbs flouro hook link. Well my thoughts were if you do hook anything in that flow I would have a chance of banking it? My bait was a cheese paste with several add in's molded round a size 4 strong wide gape hook with the barb pinched down. 4oz of lead kept me on or near the edge of the flow, expecting chub was surprised that a steady bouncing bite produce a rather tatty looking Barbel, very pale in colour around 6lbs but it led me a right dance through weeds and bank vegetation (now under the water near the bank) several surging runs later it was netted. I had started fishing around 1pm and left just after 6pm. Same bait and rig saw me land a further 2 (good conditioned Barbel) and one lost fish in the submerged bank side weeds. Conclusion they are there and will feed in these high water conditions, but be prepared for a serious scrap if you hook Birty Barbel, all 3 fish required 10+ mins to recover in the landing net prior to release? Maybe pellet would have found a few chub but as always here, had a great afternoon.

3 Barbel

River had come up over night making accessing the swims difficult. I had 9 barbel and my mate had 1 and a chub.
Fantastic stretch of river that would benefit from a bit of tree clearance being carried out.

River levels too high after recent heavy rain. Even though the level had fallen during the day, no signs of fish anywhere on the beat.

An oddly shaped but pretty lake which is very shallow. As others have mentioned, one bank is not accessible and there are plenty of areas where fishing is not possible. I set up in the bay nearest parking spot. Beautiful clear day. Feeder (hemp-based ground bait) with corn was pretty ineffective although a couple of small roach did take the bait eventually. Stalking the margins with meat/corn yielded nothing, although I imagine it's a great tactic in summer. Plenty of small roach to maggot under the rod tip but it only keeps you interested for a while. I agree there doesn't appear to be a great number of big fish here although it probably wasn't the best time of year to find out. A real change from the usual commercial with just the cattle for company. Great directions and service from the Foundation. I'm back tomorrow as well.

20 Other