Feedback & Reports

A cracking day on this lovely beat. Weather conditions were near perfect - 20 degrees with a slight breeze. Water was gin clear again and cool.
There was rather little fly activity, except for lots of very small aphid like insects, their bodies were 2-3mm with clear wings. It would be great if the W&UF could let one know what they are called? They fish were rising to them in a frenzy all morning, sipping them from the top, which I think were mostly Grayling.
This was a real lesson in matching the hatch, as I must have tried every dry fly in my box without success! I persuaded a lovely Grayling of 10" to fall for a size 18 olive F-fly. The lesson learnt was the more about the size & silhouette than the colour of the fly. In the afternoon, I managed to tempt several more Grayling between 10-13" on a grey Duster & Klinkhamer, all size 18's.
Gofynne is a fantastic beat, with a great variety of dry fly flats, deep pools and runs. I would definitely fish this stretch of water again.
WUF Note: An angler fishing the beat above (Cefnllysgwynne) on the same day reported aphids on the water too.

5 Grayling

We loved this beat and will return, but only in mid week. The river was very low and the number of boats very high, we didn't expect to get anything because of the noise and disruption but were very happy to land a stunning 9lb Barbel on Richworth Xtracta Barbel baits before we had to leave for home. Many Thanks.

1 Barbel

Had not fished this beat before. Parked just past the bridge half way up the beat. Fished the top half for about 1.5 hours. Should have started at the bottom but was aware this part of the beat is shared with local angling club. In future I would check here first (about 800 yards down from the bridge) as this part of the beat offers the better fishing.
Very low flow, water clear. 3 wbt to 10" on an emerger pattern. Lovely beat, easy wading, would occupy the small stream angler for about 4 - 5 hours of gentle fishing.

3 Trout

The water was very low. A limited rise happened in the morning and a few small fish rising throughout the day. 20 small trout and grayling caught between us on size 22 cdc f-flies and cdc emergers. Best fish 1/2 lb brown trout. Beautiful day and a few salmon leaping in anticipation of the rain that came in October.

10 Trout, 10 Grayling

Had already fished the Kington beat earlier in the day. Not having fished this part of the Passport before this was a bit of recconnaisance for future trips.
Simple wading, gentle fishing, meandering through flat pasture land. Reminded me a bit of the Piddle in Dorset. Walked the beat for half an hour, winkled out 2 wbt, 6"-7". Looks like a decent half day's fishing when water levels return.

2 Trout

We only fished for 30 minutes as the bank was inaccessible, the water was full of weed, and even with a hatch, we did not see a fish or a sign of a fish in the two hours it took to walk round. Waste of time and money.

Our group of 4 rods fished both Friday and Saturday as we were staying at Flanesford.
Friday we had the beat to ourselves. The river was exceptionally low and clear - "on its bones" as they say - and this made the fishing very hard indeed. One angler took two barbel from the lower end of the first beach, whilst the angler next to him tempted an eel and a chub. Two further rods engaged in some trotting and had a very enjoyable morning and early afternoon taking small dace, chub and the occasionally acrobatic brown trout. Come the later afternoon, all anglers fished the beach on feeder gear hoping for barbel, but only one chub put in an appearance. The magic "last hour" produced nothing (the two barbel being caught a 2pm and 3.30pm respectively).
On the Saturday, swim choice was limited due to the fact that we were sharing the beat with a number of other anglers staying at Flanesford. However, there's plenty to go round and all of the anglers wishing to fish managed to get into swims. Saturday was a tough day again, one angler managed two chub from a swim opposite the top boundary of The Kerne Bridge beat... the other 3 returned to the beach, where no barbel were caught. One rod had two chub at the end of the day, one being a rather impressive 5lb which was a personal best.
So overall the results of two days fishing were not so great. I put this down very much to the conditions, painfully low, clear water with little flow is never going to add up to bumper catches. One of the lads we talked to who was staying at Flanesford commented that in 8 years of coming to the Wye, he'd never seen conditions like it, thoughts echoed by the bailif Adam Fisher. We had the next day to look forward to at Wyatstone Leys, maybe our luck would change there.... maybe!
On a brighter note, the stay at Flanesford was great! We had the Walford appartment between four of us, a bit cosy but it had everything we needed. Highly reccomend the indian food from the Forgehammer in Lydbrook, we had a takeaway and it was very nice indeed.

3 Trout, 2 Barbel, 6 Chub, 1 Other

Mag, feeder, 4' fluorocarbon, small hook, river low, hot, cloudy spells. JB silvers on the mag feeder. Barbel 8lbs bracket.

1 Barbel

Tough day. Tried various baits and swims with not even a bite. Beautiful stretch of river that I would return to once we've had some rain.

Fishing poor, barbel nowhere to be seen, river very low with lots of weed coming through.

1 Chub