Feedback & Reports

River quite low (Glanusk gauge on about 3 inches) and slightly coloured, no sign of salmon. Two small trout caught on small nymphs and returned. A quiet day but a very pleasant beat. There is some lovely salmony water and the walkway is a very convenient casting area, but most of this beat is too stony for wading so I think it must come into its own casting from the bank with slightly more water. I looked for the 'white gate' in vain - if it's the gate I think it must be by the parking area, it lost all its paint a long time ago! The banks adjacent to the parking area are extremely overgrown after this warm and damp summer and although you can wriggle down the path to the water (as long as you are not carrying a made-up rod), there appeared to be no way of getting to the upper part of the beat other than a very tricky wade across the river. Access to the bottom two-thirds is far easier along the public footpath than through the gate.

2 Trout

3 Barbel to 6lbs caught in the first hour but the river was rising steadily and this seemed to put the fish off feeding. We only had one other bite between us in 7 hours and that fish (probably a chub) came off. By the time we left at 4pm it had risen by nearly 2 feet and gone a lovely brown colour! This also meant we had to move swims twice as the rising water effectively washed us off where we had settled in for the day. Really high banks mean there is very limited access to the water and the amount of weed, branches even half trees coming down the river made it a really difficult day. Will try it again but I think river conditions need to be spot on.

3 Barbel

River chocolate and trees coming down in the flood. Half-heartedly fished the slacks to blank. A washout really.

A hard few hours on this fantastic stream that obviously has potential. Fished from 7am-10.30am.
The main river was high carrying lots of colour and unfortunately so was this beat.I very nearly went back but decided to have a walk/fish and use it as a recce for the future. With the Water 6 inches above my ankles I could only just make out the metal lace eylets and with the water just below my knee they were not visible at all. Conditions were fishable but only just. And air temp was down to 6 degrees C.
A small trout fell to a GRHE variant on the 3rd cast. I then fished the next 40 mins without a touch. Wading up the stream was slow going with the conditions.
I changed to a bright Red Tag with gold bead and first cast it took the best fish of the day at 10 inches. After that, takes were more regular but with the coloured fast water I was bumping and loosing far more than I was hooking.
The natural nature of the stream meant that every type of presentation had to be used from every angle which was great!
I fished using a Tenkara 10ft rod and single barbless fly. In hind-sight I would have fished a version of the Czech style in the deeper runs as these areas were the most productive but it needed to be bouncing the stream bed.
I'll be back as this beat has real potential!

9 Trout

8 Trout

Worm fishing.

6 Trout

The river was in flood and very coloured so I fished a swim that was downstream of a croy. I used a 1.75lb TC rod, 15lb line, a 3oz cage feeder and a size 12 hook on a 12lb fluorocarbon hook-link. I didn't catch the barbel until about 6pm when I caught them both on consecutive casts fishing a swim a rod length out from bank.
I will be coming back in the not too distant future, hopefully when the river is back to normal when I'm sure I'll catch a lot more fish.

2 Barbel, 3 Chub

Washed off Abernant with a big brown flood coming from the Irfon, so WUF kindly fixed me up on Dolgau. Never been there before but I will be back. It is a beautiful and well maintained beat with some very promising looking salmon pools. I started off above the bridge with a couple of nymphs and caught a 12" brownie with my third cast. I caught a few more, smaller brownies and had several pulls in the Bridge Pool before moving up but the trout were less obliging in the bigger pools. The owner came down for a chat and he suggested that the water was just right for a salmon, so I put on a cascade and fished through the top salmon pool. Although I did see a grilse jump, he did not want my fly. I did catch a few more trout on the nymph as I fished back down to the bridge and then changed to the double hander to fish the 2 pools below the bridge with a cascade. There was a moment of excitement as I hooked a fine wild brown trout of about 2.5 pounds in the Oak Tree Pool. He would have been a lot of fun on my 5 weight trout rod but despite being a very feisty and active fighter was no match for the salmon rod, so was netted and released quickly. I shall look forward to another visit!

10 Trout

Fished for a couple of hours in the evening. Saw some rises but didn't have any takes. Stayed at the Bell at Skenfrith, which was excellent.

First visit to this excellent new fishery; good variety of water, easy access from car park and usual stunning countryside. A really nice addition to The Fishing Passport.
9 barbel to around 7 pounds, quality chub and two eels, one of which was around 3 pounds.

9 Barbel, 4 Chub, 2 Other