Feedback & Reports

Beat unfishable due to very low water levels.

No water. A few fish moving early on...

Dropped in after a poor day at Mortimers Cross.
3 small grayling between us but enjoyable never the less.

3 Grayling

A lovely day - generally quite sunny with a bit of cloud, and pretty calm apart from an intermittent pesky upstream wind, which didn't help presentation at times, but helped to get the leaf off the trees plus the bugs that come with them, so plenty of fish in the leaf and foam lanes. Water low at 5" on the Llanstephan guage. Some small olives and PWs came off in the morning then fewer in the afternoon, plus some needle flies and latterly a few caddis. Fish were rising from our somewhat late 10 a.m. start until a 6 p.m. finish when we had to drag ourselves away in spite of fish still rising. It should have been "grayling heaven" and indeed it was. Most of the grayling were in the familiar 8-10" class but four 12", two 13", one 14" and one 16", one and a half pounder, put in an appearance as well. All fish were taken off the top, mainly on small hare's ear and darkish olive emergers. We tried nymphs and spiders when the fish were not rising but failed to move anything, either in the pools, necks or the streamier water. The trout, the best of which was 12", were also taken off the top, as were a few graylets. A wonderful day all round!

4 Trout, 55 Grayling

River exceptionally low and has been fished hard by others over the last few days. Today was made all the more difficult by bright sunny conditions despite the forecast for cloud. I toiled in the bottom swim, left bank, from morning until mid-afternoon without any joy. Moved up to a small section of deeper water just down from the bridge and finally landed 3 chub (4-5lb) and a small barbel circa 3lb. All fish took small cubes of meat and were in tip-top condition. Met the owner who imparted useful advice for my next visit.

1 Barbel, 3 Chub

River a bit low and weather warm with some sunshine. Tried a variety of baits but only connected when I put bread paste on the hook and fished the deeper shaded margins. Total of five fish - all barbell, best about 7 or 8 Lb. A great day.

5 Barbel

Beautiful day - very light wind, sunny, clear blue sky, warm (18 degrees) and crystal clear water. Arrived before 10 AM but not much action until midday when spotted multiple rises occurring in a shallow inlet/tributary. On investigation there appeared to be a shoal of brown trout that appeared to be at times feeding, sometimes leaping out of the water, and sometimes racing about in formation causing impressive bow waves on the surface of the water. The fish were easily visible in the clear water. I estimate that the size of the fish was anywhere between half to one and half pounds. Was this pre-spawning behaviour or were they feeding on the small fry visible in the shallows?
Although trout appeared to be feeding there was no apparent hatch. Were they feeding on daphnia? I tried numerous flies and lures but only managed to get takes on small generic dry flies. 2 fish broke the 3 lb tippets I was using and another slipped the hook after I had gone up to an 8 lb tippet. I spent another fruitless few hours trying to induce takes from the remaining fish, which were seemingly impossible to spook, but to no avail. The action died away around 5 PM, although solitary fish continued to rise.
An interesting but somewhat frustrating day!

After checking reports for this beat I arrived with Aphid patterns at the ready, size 18 light green F fly with a white wing. Sure enough I was straight into fish sipping off the surface. As the day progressed the numbers of Aphids on the water was so great the fish started smutting with the chances of them finding my imatation highly unlikely. I tried tempting them with a BWO but they were fixated with the little green flies. I decided to change over to French nymphing and enjoyed some fine sport at the heads of the larger pools and gutters. The fish were of a good average size with the best Grayling and Trout at 15".

6 Trout, 10 Grayling

Had a great day thanks to Colin the bailiff who gave us good advice on where to fish. Nice stretch of the Wye.

3 Barbel, 6 Chub

Fly, worm and spin - one hooked on spinner and lost. Sun high, little wind!!