Feedback & Reports

An very interesting day, albeit not as productive as expected for this time of year. Lovely weather - a light breeze at times, mainly overcast and warm at 18-19 degrees but the water very low at 0.28m on the Ddol Farm gauge. There wasn't too much fly life, just a few small olives, and the odd stonefly and sedge, but enough fallen leaf on the river to get terrestrials onto the surface (lots of little spiders and greenfly on the trees) and fish looking up......or so I thought! However, there were very few rises all day and the grayling were unusually reluctant to rise to standard go-to surface and emerger patterns for this time of year. Nymphs either fished duo or tandem were unsuccessful and just one grayling took a red tag spider. Three trout of 10-14" were taken on a hare's ear emerger as were four grayling of 10-16", the latter a fish of just over 1.5lb. As usual at Doldowlod, the 8-10" year class grayling that seem to predominate further down the river didn't put in an appearance. What was odd was that the water was quite cold at 13 degrees, which surprised me, given day and night air temperatures of late so, somewhat perplexed, I rang Severn Trent this morning who confirmed that, given lack of rainfall and low water, about four times the usual amounts of compensation water are being discharged from the Elan Valley reservoirs. I suspect that this may have been the problem given that Doldowlod is so close to the Elan confluence. Friends who fish the Dee and Severn catchments are always telling me how their fishing is affected at times like this. Bring on the rain please!!

3 Trout, 5 Grayling

Saw 4 salmon moving, 2 at the top end, one in the middle of the beat and one in the Cadora pool.
No takes for me, but still enjoyed the day.

You needed to be down a bit in the morning and graying and trout were caught bugging in the faster runs. In the afternoon a few fish were showing and we caught on small nymphs and spider patterns.
The river is very low but the fishing was fun and it was a great day to be out. None of the fish caught were large but all gave a good account of themselves on light tackle. Lots of par around which were difficult to avoid.

6 Trout, 7 Grayling

3 rainbows,all approx 2 lbs. 1 on spinner, 2 on worm and bubble.

3 Trout

Have fished this stretch for many years and the banks are now getting overgrown in places but still plenty of swims. Water is slow and stale and fish are not feeding til early evening. Caught very large eel on pellet and returned it safely.

4 Barbel, 2 Chub, 1 Other

Tough conditions, low and clear but worked hard for our result. Fished many swims but most action was in the first and last hour. Great to be on the Wye again, many thanks WUF, a most enjoyable day.

6 Barbel, 4 Chub

Arrived ready to go at 6am river really low and clear and lots of weed coming down, expectations weren't to high but at least we knew the stretch. Tom went to pump house peg whilst David and Mark started in first peg of the same field and I fished the orchard peg. Tom had a chub first cast quickly followed by 2 more all around 3lb and also lost a bigger one in the roots of the tree. Mark and David had a few taps but weed was a problem. I had my first Wye perch 1/2lb followed by a barbel of 8lb and a couple of chub of about 2lb, then it went quiet. Tom and Mark went to bottom of the beat but it was so low and clear they struggled to get decent bites. At 2pm David waded out to the gravel bar and cast under far bank with great results 2 barbel 9-10lb and 2 chub all caught on elips pellet but broke his landing net so had to come and fish with me on first peg of pump house field. Tom came back to the orchard peg and had 3 barbel 6lb + 2 x 8lb. I had bites on meat and pellet resulting in a few barbel (biggest 8lb) and chub (biggest 4lb). Mark tried a few pegs but was getting frustrated at the lack of action but at 6:45pm he broke his duck with a 8lb barbel... never has a fish been so welcome. We fished til dark getting a few knocks but it was hard going. Spotted a mink first thing and I've never seen so many kingfishers on 1 beat before. Woodpeckers kept us company most of the day, a beautiful place. Found 2 half eaten salmon one of about 15lb on gravel bar, only downside was a couple of blokes fishing other bank they must have thrown 5kg of pellets and a bucket of groundbait in and only stayed 2 hours over 2 sessions (strange). Also found otter tracks on Middle Hill Court and 1 eaten chub. We can't wait to come back. David,(Father in Law) has fallen in love with the Wye fishing so we'll be back in October.
Stayed at Grafton Travelodge £29 a room. It was clean and is a great base for a lot of the beats. I wish the Wye was closer as it's a long 400 mile round trip, but worth it. Thanks WUF

12 Barbel, 10 Chub, 1 Other

On arrival to Fawley Cross and the entrance to the farm it wasn't obvious which route through the farm we should take to the river and after 2 failed attempts to work it out we finally ended up asking I local land worker directions. We arrived at the top of the river bank not too sure exactly where we should park, so we asked the farm worker who we followed down the field from the farm. He was actually down there to prime up an extraction pump which was right above the pegs we intended to fish. This pump ran intermittently on 3 separate occasions through the day for about 45 minutes breaking the otherwise peaceful tranquility with very loud noise emissions and a stomach turning smell of diesel fumes, not what you expect to encounter from the Wye Usk Foundation and £22 for the privilege . Not to be put off we had a walk up and down the stretch to find the river very low and in most parts only about 2ft deep on the lower gravel runs. We took a walk past the extraction pump upstream but having walked a good 300 yards could find no accessible pegs to fish and in any case the entire bank was cordoned off with an electric fence to keep in the cattle. Disappointed was an under statement! We both decided to fish from the concrete plinth as it looked the most likeliest of areas where we felt Barbel would hold up at the end of a run off in slightly deeper water.
The river was carrying a lot of leaves and loose streamer weed making it impossible to keep a clean line or hookbait. Still full of enthusiasm we set about it. My friend chose to fish a combination of pellets ranging between 8 mm to 19mm "He didn't have a bite all day". I decided to fish luncheon meat having earlier in the week had some success with it on the Severn. I too struggled too to get any indications or bites and did try many variations on bait. Line and hooksizes. I ended up with 1 small Barbel about 1.5lb and later about 4pm hooked 1 larger Barbel but it took my 10lb mono hook length around a rock and broke it. I also caught an Eel on the same method fishing luncheonmeat on the bomb. Loose feeding hemp and 4mm pellets. All in all a disappointing day in a lovely location which was spoiled by an an annoying extraction pump and the condition of the river on the day. We wont fish this area again mainly due to the extraction pump and the lack of fish caught. Definitely poor value for money.

2 Barbel, 1 Other

Bright and sunny, needed to stay till dusk, will try again next week.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

Good day, met Don, nice bloke. A lunar landing craft would be useful but mine was in for an oil change, still preferable to the brothel like ease of a commercial set up. Travel as light as possible or take Sherpas. Best bait, caster. Used one plastic and one real on size 14 hook, that way there is always something on the hook. Barbel to 3lb. but great fun, many thanks.

5 Barbel, 1 Chub, 2 Other