Feedback & Reports

A fascinating beat: despite real challenging clear-water dry fly flats at the top end (where an eight-inch brownie made my day by taking a long hard look at a #18 midge pattern – twice – before spooking horribly at a similar-sized CDC spinner) the upper half of this beat is dominated by long, largely featureless canal like stretches.
The lower section feels slightly more diverse, and this was where I hooked a really fine 16” trout in one of the fast, gravelly shutes. Some of the fallen bankside willows seemed to have been cut back a little too strongly, however: leaving these in place as sweepers (as on the Breconshire Fishery, for instance) would produce more bankside habitat for fish of all sizes.

1 Trout

Set in a steep (vertical in places) sided gorge with moss covered rocks and many fallen trees criss-crossing the stream, this was exactly the sort of fishing I was after.
Care needed to be taken when accessing the beat as some of the path had eroded away, no doubt after the recent heavy rains. These rains however meant that the water appeared to be at a normal levels.
I fished the beat from 7am-9am, fishing Tenkara style with a short (for Tenkara) 10ft rod which was perfect. All fish fell to a GRHE spider variant and all were returned.
I lost count after the first 10 fish or so. The largest two were 10 and 14 inches. The later a cock with kyped jaw and striped flanks, taken in a relatively small pool at the end of the beat! Fantastic!

10 Trout

Rained very heavily, caught 4 nice fish biggest was 3.5lbs, other 3 were all over 2lbs so came away wet but happy.

4 Trout

Blank, I'm afraid. First time on Cadora Backs for me, although I live not far away. This is a most beautiful part of the valley. A warm, rather dark day, with intermittent showers. Conditions should have been perfect. Wading is difficult here, so it's mostly casting from cribs or perched on rocks. It was interesting as the high tide began to affect Cadora Pool, to see how every resident fish in the river began to show for a while. There are plenty of fish of different sizes in the beat, although the ones I saw were coloured. One small salmon seen with a bad case of UDN.

Weather was overcast when I started. Fished for one hour, caught 1 trout 6 inches then the heavens opened and stopped further play. Small fly activity, small number rises, stream looks good, will fish it again.

1 Trout

All fish are up to 5 inches.

4 Trout, 1 Other

4 of the trout were between 10 & 13 inches. 3 of the grayling were also between this size. I also hooked and lost quite a few more.
River low with slow flow and some almost stagnant pools. All fish came to weighted nymphs in the deep pools that did have good flow.
Very overgrown with fallen trees across river which made for slow and difficult progress upstream.
A healthy looking stream nonetheless with obviously a good head of fish - a very enjoyable afternoon.
Spotted a tawny owl and several kingfishers.

10 Trout, 6 Grayling

Better day - river again slightly down. Barbel up to 7lb, chub up to 4lb. All on straight leger and feeder tactics. Absolutely poured down late on but thanks to Colin the resident guide for pointing out the good swims for us.
Overall a lovely stretch of river and countryside but if you are a bit of a river novice like us it can be quite hard at times!- but nonetheless enjoyable.

3 Barbel, 9 Chub

River very low but gave us a chance to see the rocks in the river where we loose our tackle. Set up and watched the otters swimming bye then when we moved swims. Had to clear up rubbish left by morons tin cans paper rappers all harmful to the cows in the field and the large friendly bull. We could not understand how some people could pay £22 plus booking fee and leave litter.
Back to the fishing, bait was pellets, sweetcorn and meat with swimfeeders, ledgering, freelining. The barbel were 8lb 10oz and 6lb 4oz and the Chub were from 3.5lbs to 4.9lbs. In the evening about 8.30ish 3 Otters swam into the swim one of us was fishing so we called it a day. We had a good day despite the storms, it's a lovely part of Herefordshire. Thank you Wye & Usk Foundation, we will be back.

2 Barbel, 6 Chub

The day was downcast with frequent showers, however, still a warm day. No fish rising and no indication of any hatch.
Beautiful setting, although care must be taken due to wet and slippery bank - also lots of pot holes covered by grass and some rather difficult terrain on the opposite bank.
Casting was very difficult - great for short cast, but to get out over 15 meters, false cast will be hooked up either by trees or over grown shrubs (lost 5 flies, but did manage to find one hooked up on my boot).
Great location for tube fishing, more likely to find the fish; otherwise fish finder would be a great tool.
All in all had a great workout traversing around the muddy lake, throw back to my army days running up and down the Beacons.
No fish caught; would I fish there again? Most likely, especially either early morning or sun set when a hatch is happening close to the bank.