Feedback & Reports

First time on this beat fished 11am to 6.30pm met Don the owner who was a pleasure to meet and very helpful. As for the fishing it was a little hard finally hooked into a fish after moving swims which got me stuck and then snapped off in some rocks which there seem to be quite a few in this deep fishery. Will try again another time, stayed at the Inn on the Wye which is convenient for this end of the Wye. It also serves good food.

6 barbel and 3 chub caught on a variety of meat and pellet baits.

River was 18" up and falling. Due to a howling south westerly we were a bit limited to where to fish comfortably. We set up in some promising looking swims in the field below the orchard, opposite a steep wooded bank. I fished a bit of a hole adjacent to a willow on the near side, but could only tempt a barbel of 7lb around midday. Merv fished a couple of swims down, sitting in a well trodden swim amongst willows. He fished in a typical snaggy barbel area, resulting in 10 fish being hooked with just 3 being landed, the biggest being about 8lb. Dad tried several pegs with little success, including the near-side channel in the bottom meadow which Woody had raved to us about. He ended up taking 2 chub to 5lb fishing 2/3 the way across, a few swims down from Merv.

A tough day for two of us and a frustrating day for the third. Though as always seems to be the case with the Wye, it was a day spent in fantastic surroundings.

Very poor day. Started fishing about 9.30am, we had takes for the first hour or two, lost 4 fish and landed 1 barbel (6lb 13oz) and then it went dead for the rest of the day. Moved around alot but still didn't seem to have much luck.

A late start as going on the previous few days fishing, its important to choose your swim carefully in the low conditions. I picked a swim near the footbridge and with careful feeding, coaxed out 6 Barbel to 8lb 7oz and 7 Chub.
The other rods managed 4 Barbel between them.

River at summer levels - three grayling - first and two on black and peacock spider. Last fish on Endrick spider.
Largest fish weight estimate one pound. Thank you for great fishing day.

1 x 8lb cock salmon from Stone Catch. several fish in residence making themselves known throughout the day. great day - finally avoided being forced off due to weather! Oh, and many thanks for the cow that opened and slobbered all over my pastie I was saving for lunch!

Tough day with lots of weed coming down river - lots of tackle lost. Day saved by one 5lb barbel. But interesting beat and will fish again in better conditions.

Water conditions looked perfect having dropped over the last 2 days. First time on this beat and a little daunted at first what with some tricky wading.
Blanked, albeit a couple of tentative pulls (probably only trout). Probably wasted a lot of time working out the best lies but look forward to another visit at some point.

10 x grayling 10-16 inches, 9 x out of season trout 6-10 inches. Low clouds on the hills and a strong wind blowing downstream all day, colder during the afternoon. The Irfon was much higher than I expected, from more rain on the Cambrian hills I suppose, but running clear. Nothing much rising, but nevertheless it turned out to be a dry fly day. I spent much of the afternoon parked in one spot and dealing with a shoal lying under a very powerful run, over a distance of about 15 or 20 yards, not more. I had great fun trying to bring them up and working my way through a little box marked "traditional grayling dries." Put on a new pattern, one or two grayling would rise, then the shoal would become nervous and no more rises. Put on something different and there would be one or two rises again. Grayling Steel Blue, Red Tag, Treacle Parkin and Yellow Bumble all got the odd fish or two. So did John Storey with its forward-pointing wing, the only one in this collection of size 16 artificials which actually looks much like a natural fly. The white hackled flies, Green Insect and Grayling Witch, designed for the chalk streams, as usual in my experience didn't work here. Best of the bunch was Orange Otter, a fly which has built a reputation over 70 years for bringing up non-rising grayling (and trout), and which accounted for some nice ones at the end. Personally, I believe that the graylings' interest in Orange Otter - and many of these fancy flies and flame tails - is not much to do with imitating fly life, but something to do with exciting curiosity and even, perhaps, aggression. Anybody who fishes nymphs much with an indicator will have had the experience of a grayling rising from the bottom of the river, grabbing a bright orange egg-shaped indicator and taking it down to mouth for several seconds. At times our wild grayling, bless them, can be as curious and naive as newly-stocked rainbows.