Feedback & Reports

A very chilly and beautiful day to have this stretch all to myself. Very slippery banks made swim selection tricky. One 4lb chub mid afternoon, taken on multiple maggot gave a good account of itself and right at last light the rod tip rattled round, sadly not a Barbel but a 1lb Roach that had attacked a huge chunk of Spam!

1 Chub, 1 Other

13 x grayling 9-14 inches, trotting. Too much wind, too much water - not really a very good day to go fishing at all. River level started at 2 feet 6 inches, which was high to begin with. A gale blowing downstream and horizontal rain, sometimes sleet for a change. I did find some grayling eventually, having tucked myself into a spot under the bank, but they stopped taking as the river began to rise. Finally an otter appeared, working under the bank along the line of my float. If an otter is doing that in daylight, I call it a flood. In any case, my position was becoming insecure. Time to go home.

13 Grayling

Although conditions looked good with river at 2'4" and temperature about 7deg fish the two of us only managed a fish each; both to small nymphs with a touch of pink. I expect there were more fish around but didn't make contact with any of them.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

I needed to visit Fishtec in person, then went to this beat for the first time. The river was very fast flowing and slightly coloured, but not as high as it obviously had been. I had a couple of hours fishing weighted shrimp flies in the calmer parts, but not with much confidence. I hope to visit later in the year.

29 x grayling 6-18 inches, mostly with single maggot whipped on a Tenkara rod. This was a dark day, warmer than of late, with what proved to be an annoying downstream wind at times. Showers the previous day had provoked one of those classic “quickly up and down” Irfon mini-spates, rising up to 0.75 metres. However, now the level was back down to 0.55 and the water was almost painfully clear, every stone on the bottom showing. The grayling seemed to be extremely spooky and before long I put the conventional trotting gear on one side and went after them with more success using the Tenkara rod and a tiny float. Most were hen shoats of 10-14 inches, but some of the big boys showed up around lunchtime. A few large dark olives hatched during the afternoon, which finished with light drizzle. Just one rise was seen.
There is a story attached to the largest fish, an 18 inch male. Using the Tenkara outfit I hooked into what was obviously a pretty solid grayling, which then caught me unawares with a sudden downstream lunge and broke the tippet at the hook knot. I was using 6X, which admittedly is fine enough, but the very flexible Tenkara rod usually protects it. Nevertheless, I was rather annoyed with myself; it is a shameful thing to break off in a fish. I remade the tackle and 10 minutes later, in the same place, I hooked a grayling which again was obviously a good one. However, this fish seemed unaccountably tired, without quite the usual mixture of fire and doggedness. Before I netted it, I had half-guessed what I was going to find. Once it was secure in the net, I proceeded to remove my hook, and then went on to remove a second, identical, hook from the upper lip. It seemed rather unlikely that somebody else had lost this fish using a Varivas 2100 size 16, so I concluded this was my adversary from 10 minutes before, happy to take once again. He was a handsome fellow, too, this “Tim Nice But Dim” of the grayling world. This is not the first time I have caught the same grayling in the same session; I suspect it happens more often than we realise. In Spain, my son once did the same with a wild river carp, a fish recognisable by a very distinctive scar, which fell for a floating crust twice during one afternoon.

29 Grayling

My first trip to this part of the river this year, and I hope it gets better than this! The river was slightly high, but not coloured and looked more than fishable.
Worked hard and even in desperation fished right up to the top limit, and did not get one bite, no sign of a fish all day. This beat normally doesn't produce as many fish as you would take further down stream, but the fish are normally bigger, but not today, left with my tail between my legs about 2pm after being there from dawn.
I see that the beat was fully booked the day before, and I look forward to reading the catch report, to see how they fared.

We booked the beat hoping to catch a mild spell but frosty fields and 3° air temp greeted us. With 1.24mt of water it was going to be difficult but three chub saved the day.

3 Chub

Twelve members of the Grayling Society fished various beats on the Ithon and Irfon as the rain from the previous 24 hours was making its way through the catchments. Both rivers were a little up and coloured at the start of the day but fined down as the day progressed. The Middle Cammarch beat eventually produced a couple of nice fish but it was hard work trying to locate the fish with the fly rod.
Those trotting at Cefnllysgwynne were more successful than the fly-fishers and caught grayling and trout. The new Ithon beat (Llanddewi) was fished instead of Doldowlod which was high, coloured and totally un-fishable. This Ithon beat is a gem and produced four very respectable grayling for those that fly-fished it. Despite the rivers being up and coloured this was a most enjoyable day and our thanks go to the Wye & Usk Foundation for enabling us access to these beats.

2 Trout, 9 Grayling

Nothing caught, but a lovely day on the river nonetheless.

Trotted maggots in deeper pools and picked up four grayling of about 1lb each, the two trout were 12 and 18 inches, both in great condition and still quite plump which is a good sign. Struggled to locate the bigger grayling but did get snapped after a good tussle with a fish of about 2-3 pound who found the fast water and my mainline gave when I applied some pressure. Good to fish the Leen, sadly a wee bit to much water for my liking.

2 Trout, 4 Grayling