Feedback & Reports

12lb coloured cock fish to Stephen Orledge.

1 Salmon

Just fished the morning until mid- afternoon. Very misty until about 10.30am but once the mist cleared and the sun appeared, a hatch of small, pale olives got fish looking up with most fish caught being non-risers and almost all taken on a UB Duck's Dun. A few YM's around as well. It then became cloudier and rather breezy around midday and the hatch diminished but fish were still risen to the UBDD. Changed to a grizzle Elk Hair caddis for the early afternoon and continued to rise fish until I headed home. Most fish 8-10 inches plus a few 11-13 inch fish as well.

16 Grayling

Day was planned to target grayling on another Upper Wye beat having fished Pwll y Faedda and Abernant over the past week.
Used a small wispy brown fly (not sure what) and had 6 wbt in the 1st hour - all 6" or smaller. Persisted with dry fly all morning searching for grayling from the hut to the top of the beat with not another fish. Did have an otter playing around and staring at me at one point.
Chatted to the other rod on the beat at lunchtime who had been catching steadily all morning French nymphing.
Reluctantly switched from dry fly to a small tungsten hares ear and searched the faster water below the hut to above the bridge. Ended up with at least 25 trout and 2 grayling. Most of the trout were small but two were 10 - 12" and both grayling were 12".
Gromain is stuffed with small trout - which bodes well for the future.

25 Trout, 2 Grayling

2 trout caught on spinner, 4 on bubble and worm. 2 returned as undersized.

6 Trout

River running low and clear so I decided to use a French nymphing set up. I lost count of how many fish caught after a while, so numbers estimated. The majority of the fish were small but with a few around 10"-12". Most took a size 14 copper tungsten head hares ear. Catching lots of juvenile fish is not really my thing but it was perfect for practicing long leader nymph fishing, which is a new style of fishing to me.

35 Trout, 10 Grayling

The river was, as expected very low and clear. The weather warm and mainly sunny with some flies hatching. Pessimistically thought I would struggle again but seeing a couple of rises cheered me up a bit. Put a small para adams on and found trout willing to take practically everywhere there was a bit of flow, even when I spooked the small ones at the end of pools. Ended up with 20+ 6" to 10" trout and a few fingerlings. They were confident as well, my missed take % was much lower than usual. I have no explanation but my goodness what a Grand Day Out!

25 Trout

"When the wind is from the East, the fishing is the least"! That combined with very low clear water and a sunny day resulted in me catching only a suntan. Tried everything, pellets, luncheon meat, bread flake. Even trotted bread flake. Nada. It wasn't until sunset I even had a twitch on the rod. I would have been happy to just get an Eel. I picked a spot where I could not see the bottom, but I guess the conditions were against me. It is a beautiful spot though and access is good. I'll revisit when there's more flow.

Just one barbel around 6lb landed but a real good barbel lost in a ferocious fight. Very little action and the river looking badly in need of a flush of fresh water. Even the chublets were quiet. Still... the potential to land decent fish is still there for those willing to give it a go.

1 Barbel

Nothing caught again, very disappointing.

River low and clear. Bright sunny day. Lovely to be out. Saw a kingfisher and Red Kite in first hour. Fished for salmon with single hander. No sign of salmo salar. A moderate hatch of mixed Ephemera throughout the day with very sporadic rise. S.B. had six salmon parr in about an hour (encouraging for future stocks) and no sign of cormorants or goosanders for months. Caught 4 small brownies and 3 dace between us and enjoyed a very nice vibe.

4 Trout, 3 Other