Feedback & Reports

We arrived to find the river pushing through nicely, with periods of bright sunshine, which warmed the air/water well and encouraged good hatches throughout the day. Sadly this was not matched by rises with just the occasional fish showing. 4 Goosanders and a Cormorant were present which may account for the apparent deficit of fish on what is a fantastic beat.

We manged 5 trout between us mostly small except for a 3/4lb one, this was when there was more cloud cover.

Lovely peaceful and tranquil beat - the kind of place you get away for. I had 6 hours from around 2.00pm to dusk but a great session nevertheless. Numerous Barbel including one klonker (no scales guess around 9lb); and epic struggles with a further couple (est 7.5-8.0). One of these got under a willow on the steep bank to my left. Remarkably (more luck than judgement) he(?) seemed happy to swim out when I got above him. Compliance was short lived and with the clutch screwed down and the rod describing the most unnatural curve I just kept him from getting back in there (12lb line). Adrenalin fuelled fishing for the finest fighting fish in British freshwater. Thanks WUF.

Two fully finned browns approximately 6 inchs, duly released in excellent condition. Excellent accomodation at Swan Meadow Cottages,Abergavenny

3 brown trout all put back as they were only 8" to 10"

Fished White House on 13th and 15th Sept. On 13th had 4 chub between 2 and 3lb and a 4lb Barbel in a 4 hour session. Lost a larger Barbel (8lb?) close to the net. All on luncheon meat. River was slightly rising with strong downstream wind and overcast sky.
On 15th River was down by a foot and much clearer. Only caught 1 chub. Conditions were very bright - in effect a lovely day in beautiful surroundings. On both days had the beat to myself other than "meeting" a cow which had swum/paddled several hundred yards downstream from the upper field.It managed to get out of the river near to the hut and rejoined the herd but on the wrong side of the electric fence - farmer alerted. Will be back again next year. Thanks WUF.

A great day`s fishing, caught two barbel between 7-8lb.
Weed was a problem, otherwise I would have caught more.

Great day. No fish seen or caught.

This was a day's fishing as part of the RT Autumn Conference. I caught 1 grayling (1.25lb), 1 brown trout (1lb) and 1 salmon parr (3cm!) on silver invicta or other colour variants. All fish released. Water was coloured and nil rises seen. I saw 1 otter at upper beat access point. This was a stunning day, so many thanks to the Foundation for its generosity and hard work in running the passport scheme and conservation projects.

I made a bit of a miscalculation here when I booked the previous evening, totally under-estimating the amount of rain due to fall on the Cambrian hills overnight. When I got to the beat, I was taken aback by the water height and rather wished I had taken a salmon rod instead of a trout ticket. Still, Abernant does fish reasonably well for trout and grayling in high water if it's not too mucky, so I had a quick whizz through with a team of spiders to establish that, no, they were not coming to the surface. What's more, the water was clearly still rising and colouring with more and more debris floating down as the morning went on. I think it rose 13 inches between 8 o'clock and midday. So, I switched to heavy nymphs and for about an hour found a few fish prepared to take on the bottom to the side of the main flow - first 3 nice grayling, then a smaller grayling, a single modest trout after a long gap ... and then nothing. I finally gave up at midday. 4 x grayling 10 - 14 inches, 1 x trout 10 inches, all on a Pink Shrimp.

D O'Dwyer, caught 3 brown trout on Hare's Ear and shrimp.
PS caught 1 Grayling on shrimp.