Feedback & Reports

Water clear and low at 0.32m on the Ddol Farm EA guage. As the guidelines say, this lovely beat is for the well-shod and sure-footed! First time here and, in retrospect, should probably have come a few weeks earlier when upwing hatches were still abundant. Hardly any on the day, with just a few yellow sally stonefly and some sedges flying around. Lots of cased caddis on the rocks and boulders in the margins. Started early but didn't stay to see if there was much of an evening rise. Not surprisingly, there were very few rising fish - just a few small trout sipping in the foam lanes late afternoon and not a grayling-rise all day. Fished the water with emergers, duo and, in a few likely looking spots, weighted bugs. All but one fish taken on a hare's ear emerger; the other on a PTN. Had eight trout and one 12" grayling, most of which were non-rising fish. Best trout a lean 16" 1.25 pounder. The sandpipers were busy all day, a red kite popped in to say hello and, if the fish weren't very interested in what fly there was, then a pair of pied flycatchers certainly were, with other mouths to feed in one of the nest boxes on the beat - delightful! Will be back in September for sure in search of the ladies!

8 Trout, 1 Grayling

Very nice spot, perfect for easy wading and walking, few bites on dryflies no fish landed river low at the moment.

A lovely stretch of water with plenty of challenging casts and fairly good access to the pools. A few yellow may spinners about but otherwise not a lot of insect life - a quiet day with not much rising. Only two 7" brown trout caught at the end of the day.

2 Trout

Another new beat and another long walk like the previous day at Lower Canon Bridge. It would have been possible to drive the car up the track but for the damage caused by someone hauling a huge tree up the bank with heavy machinery. Still, it gave us the chance to have a good look at the length. We settled on a long pebble beach where the river narrowed and flow increased and were rewarded with 16 barbel to 9lb 13oz and 10 chub. Most of the better barbel fell to 10mm boilies with various pellets acounting for the rest

16 Barbel, 10 Chub

Each fisher caught two small brown trout (6-8 inches) and all fish were successfully released. The weather was showery rain and the river rose and coloured for a while before falling slightly at the end of the afternoon. Some sedge were seen, but there was no organised hatch of fly. Accordingly, very few fish moved. Wet and dry fly were used but the catches were on small wet flies of traditional patterns such as Greenwells and Black Spider. Difficult day but we enjoyed the varying fishing the beat offers.

4 Trout

2 barbel, 2 Chub were caught.

2 Barbel, 2 Chub

Low and clear, very quiet day, think barbel are still spawning? River full of shad said salmon fisherman.

2 Barbel, 2 Chub

Great to explore a new beat at summer levels and understand the lies for another day. Lovely fly water. Can't wait to return with 2' on the Llanstephan gauge!

Raining quite heavily on arrival but stopped shortly afterwards. I decided to walk the length of the beat for a "recce". With some knowledge of the beat I chose to fish the downstream end, past the shallow slack water into the deeper faster flow. This proved to be a good choice as I caught five barbel, 1 just over 10 lbs, 1 - 9 lbs, 2 - 8 lbs and 1 about 4 lbs, 5 chub to 5 lbs and 2 eels. What a day! Thank you Don for our interesting chat and a well managed beat. Another wonderful day on the Wye. Thank you W.U.F.

No barbel. First time on the Wye. So much to learn. Very enjoyable though.

2 Chub