Feedback & Reports

Our annual trip to meet the Welsh Black-finned Trout in his mountain home had a special significance this time; we wanted to congratulate Salmo nigrippinis on his reinstatement as a separate species - see Jon Beer article in July T&S. And, after a little reluctance to put in appearance for a while, due to cloud, sun, wind or absence of it, the little fellow began to rise up out of the peat-stained water to traditional wet flies, including the very aptly named Sun and Wind fly on my middle dropper. No specimens today: the biggest might have been 10 inches and the smallest was a perfectly formed adult of about 4 inches. A delightful day on the moors, glad to be out of the sticky heat at lower altitudes. On reflection, the only other place I can think of where you can wander about with a fly rod looking at the tops of clouds blowing through the valleys below you is Horton Plains in Sri Lanka. The usual superb sunset over Plynlimmon as we drove back to the road. The only downside to the day was a senior moment type fall I had on the rough ground near the top end which left my ankle badly sprained. Driving was subsequently extremely difficult and I'm hobbling with a stick today. It did strike me, at that particularly painful moment, that it was no bad thing to have companions with me - as the WUF recommends for this remote location.

44 Trout

A hot day with a thunderstorm thrown in, a lot of weed continually coming down the river made it difficult to get to grips with the fishing. Really liked the beat and river keeper very helpful. One rod managed two nice barbel and would certainly fish it again.

2 Barbel

No fish to hand today, the dog days of August are well upon us, or me.

River was very quiet with hardly a rise or fish to be seen , fished a dry & wet combo in varying permutations. Spotted a good size eel and thought of running a goldhead past it but then reality kicked in! Plenty of fry in the river and bugs on the stones but spotted a family of mergansers on one of the best pools!

Fresh otter spraints on the rocks and the kingfisher family doing well. A raving series of thunderstorms wiped out any chance of evening action , was still a good day on the river though.

RS and GW form Worcestershire.
1 Trout. We thought the recent rain might have woken the Wild Streams into action - but alas we were wrong!

The chosen beat - the Lower Henllan on the Honddu - was indeed very thin and only very few fish showing. At least the tree cover gave protection from the direct sun. A couple
of missed opportunities and one small WBT was our total bag!

For information it's worth noting that the upper fields of this beat are used as a campsite and you might, like us, find more than fish in the river!

1 Trout

A good day at this location, weather was hot and bright throughout the day, making fishing difficult. Found some deep holes to fish. Bites were slow. No bites on pellet and swim feeder, switched to luncheon meat and swapped the feeder with a weight. Started getting bites, Eels mainly, then hit into a Barbel and then another. The farmer has gone to a lot of trouble making the river accessible to anglers. A good location and fish were present although we only managed to catch a couple. I would visit this beat again

2 Barbel, 6 Other

4 Trout

Arrived with the intention of fishing the "evening rise" only to be rained off within an hour ! Some downpour it was too! Hope the young family camping opposite the house were ok. Nil caught.

I blanked, but friend caught two good size Barbel. (Will probably report separately). Lovely spot, but peace and quiet spoilt by diesel pump running all day extracting water from river!

Poor outing, fished from 1pm to 5pm only 2 v small trout.

2 Trout

I fished Crewil pool on Friday and Saturday nights. On the Friday I only managed to fish for less than two hours due to very heavy rain and lightning storms passing through. There were a few big fish showing, but only a couple of smaller shoal fish. I was fishing the pool with a local club angler but neither of us had any takes before bailing out at midnight.

On Saturday night I managed a full night of fishing (10pm-4am), fishing through the rain which persisted for most of the night. The river had risen a couple of inches after the previous night's downpour but was still running relatively clear. I was surprised to have Crewil pool to myself so had several runs through, starting with a floating line and size 6-8 singles (Alexandra, Yellow Peril, Deuoni, All Rounder) on point and dropper before moving to a fast intermediate with a black&silver 1.5" tube on point and various fuller-profiled flies on dropper. I finished the night trying a jambo in the slower lower part of the pool. A 5lb+ sea trout was crashing about in this part of the pool, and smaller fish were showing in the mid section. I didn't get any takes on Saturday night either, but it was good practice (new to fishing for sea trout).

It would be good to hear from others about what tactics work well on this beat (flies and lines etc).

N.B. If you're fishing the main beat and aren't local it's worth checking National Rail Enquiries (Llandeilo to Llandovery and vice versa) as there will be trains coming through the open level crossing at the time when you're likely to arrive (8-9pm). Visibility either side of the crossing is obscured by vegetation (it would benefit from warning lights).

This is a great beat - good access and safe wading. Really pleased that WUF now has booking options for sea trout waters - the more the better!