Feedback & Reports

A day of mixed fortunes. 3 Grayling, 2 of them very small but the other was an absolute whopper of two and a half pounds and a personal best for me.

The river Lugg was carrying a fair bit of colour and was up after overnight rain this looks like it affected the fishing if recent reports on the W&U site just prior to my going be are to be believed, or perhaps my fishing skills leave a bit to be desired. All grayling caught on czech nymph in the pools. The big fish gave me quite a time and I had to land it downstream.

Just a thank you note for this trip. It was fantastic and I am definitely a convert.

The barbel weren't too keen at Whitney Court but I had some stunning chub up to 5lb.

Backney was a different story. Three barbel to 9.5lb, chub to 3lb and a 16lb pike that has a penchant for halibut pellets (fantastic fish but I was disappointed when I thought I'd hooked the biggest barbel in the world).

You see some wonderful things when you are sat on the riverbank but if I hadn't seen the following, I would not have believed it.

Kingfishers Have A Sense of Humour

The kingfishers had been buzzing up and down the river all day but it doesn't matter how often you see them, your attention is always drawn to the blue bum skitting across the surface and amazing speed. Well, one of them at Backney was rehearsing for the Red Bull air races.

I was sitting on a cob and about 80 yds or so downstream from me were three swans, probably 10ft from the bank and just holding position with their wings curled like they do in the best photographs.

Out of the corner of my eye a flash of blue on the far bank turned out to be a kingfisher hurtling downstream, 18 inches off the surface and hugging the tree line. For no obvious reason he suddenly swerved and shot diagonally across the river, between the chests of a pair of swans who could not have been more than 2ft apart and then back across the river to continue his journey down the far bank.

Why would that little bird fly at least 50 yds out of his way to buzz the swans unless it was just for a laugh. I could imagine him sniggering to himself as he flew away.

Arrived on a beautiful autumn day, but first view of the river confirmed my worst fears - a very low and benign looking river Monnow.

With such an absence of flow and nothing rising, there were precious few pockets of water to fish. Did manage to winkle out 3 small grayling (6"-8"), all returned safely. They fell to small spider patterns - Snipe & Purple, Partridge & Orange.

Make no mistake, this is a super beat: easy to find, safe parking opposite the pub, simple access and easy wading. It has a good reputation for winter grayling so I will wait for the Welsh heavens to open and try again!

3 small grayling of approximatively 4 ounces each caught on small nymphs (pheasant tails). 5 good sized grayling ranging between 12 and 15 onces caught on Czech Nymph and Shrimps. Very nice beat but I found some of the parts towards the end of the upstream limit impossible to access.

3 x grayling all 14 inch; 1 x out of season trout 8 inches. Warm earlier with some (autumn-sized) large dark olives creating a little top of the water activity in order to take a few on spiders. Then cold wind after lunch and fish seemed to switch off. Lost a couple on nymphs.

Beautiful spot. Ian Bonny as helpful as ever.

Fished Beat 3 and had chub below and alongside the island to 4lb on and off all day. Small pellets on the hook and in the feeder did the trick.

Fantastic place and great fishing.

Excellent days fishing on a lovely stretch of river.
Caught 14+ grayling up to 1.5lb with several around the pound mark, all caught on small nymphs fished near the bottom.

Neither of us had visited the beat before and our first impressions were favourable – what a lovely spot. The river was at 10” and quite clear although there were lots of floating leaves about but otherwise a grey, windless cold day. In the morning we concentrated in the shallow gravelly glides and managed 5 fish between us – grayling to 1lb plus on small nymphs. After an early lunch we finally got some sun amongst broken cloud and the temperature rose noticeably and, so did the fish I am glad to say. Grayling were taking tiny midges/aphids with relish and we quickly managed another 20 or so fish – tiny GRHE. Unfortunately when the sun went down so did the fish and we reverted to nymph again to take a few more before a 5pm finish.
A lovely day in all and the rising fish really made it – there were lots of tiny flies – impossible to imitate – but the grayling were not too picky thankfully. We would heartily recommend this beat.

3 x grayling 11 - 14 inches. A hard, cold morning with the water full of leaves - a few on dries when an olive hatch began after lunch.

River condtions were very low and clear, with clear blue sky for most of the day. I caught many small grayling but foung it hard to locate the bigger fish. I had one fish of 11 inches and one of 14 inches on a small olive nymph. I also lost four reasonable sied grayling. A pleasant days fishing.