Feedback & Reports

Fishing at Llanover on Saturday. Was out yesterday for 3 stints. There was an emergence of black gnats in the morning that tapered off around 9am. Fish rose steadily throughout the early afternoon and then there was a cracking rise to a heavy hatch of small olives from around 7pm-dark. Whilst you could get fairly close to them with a touch of colour still in the water the fish were being very selective, even in the gloaming. Brought plenty to hand but all but 3 were 8-13". I was broken twice by good fish on 3.4lb rio floro that upon testing this am broke at 1lb 10oz!

At dusk I found a giant fish mopping up olives close to the bank. It was too dark to see the fly except on the patches of water reflecting of the sky and I knew I only had one shot straight upstream. At that moment I understood what Chris Yates meant with 'Casting at the sun'! Cast was pretty good, as was the 2nd, 3rd, 4th...and all were ignored as the fish continued to rise...

Saw a 4-5lb sewin jump at dusk as well.

Bright sunshine, cold gusty northwind, cold enough to need a wading jacket on. The pool at the bottom of the gravel run was sheltered and I landed a 10inch out of season Grayling and lost a decent size trout, all caught on a GRHE. I nymphed my way up the gravelly run, into the wind, without any success, although I spent more time untangling my line than I did fishing. Moved further down stream sun was getting brighter, wind was getting stronger, not a fish showing anywhere or interested in anything I was offering.

Reality over came my powers of self-delusion and I realised I wasn't enjoying myself, so I packed up and went to the Griffin to read the paper and have a couple of pints.

Not a good season for me so far.

Despite the low water level - with pools nearly stagnant, the fish were enjoying the occasional Danica as they emerged and also sipping other small emerging flies of uncertain identity. So it was that I fished (from 10am- 4pm) the downstream mile of this delightful 2+ mile beat with James Evans' Border Mayfly and Mike Weaver's Mayfly patterns most of the day and caught (and released) 14 fish and connected with scores of others that were too quick for my reactions! Three of the 14 were 13"/14" beauties with fabulous markings and the remainder all 8"+. What a delightful beat of lilliputian proportions bearing plentiful fish.

2 x wild trout 13 inches and 15 inches, on a small Grouse and Claret Spider retrieved slowly across the wind just before dark. Come dawn, come dusk, the better fish at Talybont move inshore for a brief period and you never quite know what you may encounter. In this case, the larger one was golden and jumped high 4 or 5 times during play; the smaller was silver and sewin-bright - despite the growing darkness I could see it twisting and turning out in the clear water. This lake's extremely beautiful shore has a wild backdrop so that it's a sheer delight just to be there, whatever the result. Walking back to the car with the moon up, there was a great crash and ripples far out in the lake as one of the heavy ones leaped.

First go on a marvellous stretch of river. Running coloured red and still low, but still caught and returned 4 wbt to 11" and missed some more. 2 on GRHE nymph, then in late afternoon 2 on dry adams when a small rise started. Definitely going back!!

Nil catch plenty of fish seen.

After 3 years of fruitless fishing on the Wye and Usk roving scheme we decided drastic measures were called for - hire a guide, and what a difference it makes! As our choice of guide, Frank Williams, was busy for our preferred dates he passed us on to an alternative, Gareth Lewis.
Gareth proved to be well worth the investment and had us catching fish within minutes in, what he informs us, were very tough conditions. In total a count of 5 trout to 8" were landed and several more lost - only small but very welcome. With Gareth's tuition and some wonderful scenery a fantastic day was had by all.

Blustery day. A lot of mayfly emerging - but not much rising. 2 wbt 8-10 inches on mayfly.

I am fishing this beat for the third time now and it is a very pretty venue indeed but I still think £25 is a bit steep! Not all the length is accessible and I can never manage to fish this nice pool opposite the house, the owner beeing there all the time it seems!
On that day the water was very low and not many fish rising in proportion with the large quantities of duns of all sorts. The fish were more interested in taking small flies, gnats and emergers.
I took a few small trout on an invicta wet fly just under the bridge and one large 13" trout(blind) with a small depth charge nymph further downstream. No fish taken from the bridge upstream where usualy nice size grayling can be taken in a couple of pools. Very variable weather.

I arrived at the water late in the morning. Several types of duns were hatching and fish (mostly small) were rising. Despite a stiffish and cool Westerly breeze, there was enough shelter down among the trees to find holes in the wind where the dry fly leader could be rolled out straight upstream. Worked up from the middle of the beat to the top taking two 4oz brownies and one of about a pound, all to a nondescript size 14 spider pattern that looked about the right colour (browny grey). All fish returned. The hatch died off about 1:00 and so did much of the activity. Spent the afternoon exploring the lower part of the beat, where a deep slow glide next to an exposed rock shelf just upstream from the lower car park took my eye. The river was low, which was probably just as well since, due to the tree-cover it was only possible to fish effectively by wading quite far out into the stream. Higher water would have made that tricky and, as it was, the chest waders were essential. Tried a spot of upstream nymphing, but to no effect. Determined to fish the "evening rise", I waited out the unproductive time and, at 7:45, returned to the spot I'd seen earlier. A few fish were rising but they weren't all the splashy rise that tells you its a tiddler. They seemed to be feeding on spent flies. After a few offers that were ignored, I tied on an thin-bodied (no braid, just silk) size 14 Greenwell spider that I must have tied 30 years ago. One decent fish came short to it straight away, then a few minutes later it was taken solidly by a magnificent fish that turned out to weigh 2lb 12oz. One smaller fish about 8 oz took it too, but I put him back. Activity ended about 8:30 and I went home, very happy. Thanks to WUF and David Jones Powell for a very enjoyable day.