Feedback & Reports

Wild Stream Open Day Day one 15 May 2016.
A pleasant surprise was meeting Rob from Llandewi at the meeting so paired up and fished with him. Our 'local knowledge' was Richard.
Lugg Pilleth is quite wooded. The water was clear but a good level with good flow, and you could see plenty of fish. Mostly spooked! No rising fish seen until about 4pm.
A few mayfly, some olives, plenty of black knats seen
A 15C air temp but feeling much warmer in full bright sunshine. The breeze was negligable.
We tried dries and duo..no joy. Swapped to single GH PTN or GH HE single sz 14. This was not too large. A look under a submerged rock showed up to a dozen big stone clinger nymphs, shrimp and caddis. This is a rich river for invertebrates.
The fish responded to the deep nymph, all 2 of them and the best at 8",came from shaded pools with plenty of plucks and follows to the nymph to keep you concentrating. Pools in full sun gave nothing.
Swapped to dry, a 14 red humpy, much later having seen a single fish rise, 3 offers but none brought to hand.
Rob was left to fish on so it will be good to see his update on the end of the day.
Richards top tip was to be really gentle with a snagged fly. A gentle pull and a jiggle would often see the fly drop from bush to stream in a good spot. Thanks Richard. This was very useful the next day.

2 Trout

I participated in the organised wild stream day and teamed up with Clive from London whom I met last year. The day was warm and bright with little in the way of breeze. We saw plenty of fly life, but little in the way of rises. Clive caught two trout, but I only managed two enquiries, one on a killer bug and one on a Kite Imperial, neither stuck. Persevering with dries for too long was perhaps foolish, but a very enjoyable day in fine company was reward enough.

Gold head PTN excellent day lovely stretch of water very hot

4 Trout

Arrived on what will probably be the last day of winter after a frosty morning, weather remained cold and overcast with a maximum of 9C, the river looked about normal level but was pushing through surprisingly powerfully, and was nice and clear with a slight blue/green tint where it was deep enough.
Access downstream of the bridge was very limited with barbed wire, stock fences, fallen trees, steep banks and deep pools making things very difficult so I made my way upstream instead which was much easier going. I tried heavy gold heads to get down into the deeper water on the bends but failed to get a take. This is a lovely stretch which judging from past catch returns fishes very well but I think I was a month or two early as I saw no fish or fly life on the water.
I stayed at Pilleth Oaks B&B which was very nice and just a short walk from the river.

The water was low and clear, so fine and far off was the tactic. There were a few flies hatching, but not enough to bring the fish up.All of the fish came to tungsten nymphs.
A lovely looking beat with plenty of fish holding water.

4 Trout

River low and clear. Three hours fishing. Trout very easily spooked. No mayfly. 9 trout 8-9 inches, all caught on dry fly. Thanks to the person who has cut back some of the obstructing branches.

9 Trout

Fished for about 4 and half hours late morning/early afternoon on a warm and sunny day. A decent number of fish rising although they tended to be either easily spooked or in areas difficult to cast to. I ended up catching 2 fish on nymphs (PT) and 5 on dry flies (2 on cdc & elk, 2 on adams, 1 on grey wulff), of about 6 -9 inches. Sporadic hatches of various sized olives as well as mayflies throughout the afternoon, with fish becoming more interested in the mayflies as I was getting ready to leave.

7 Trout

Cool day but river in excellent condition. One salmon smolt caught, all fish carefully returned.

1 Salmon, 2 Trout

WUF Wild Streams Day
I fished the upper half of the Pilleth beat, success (not counting a number of offers) limited to one beautiful 10" trout taken on a #14 Grey Drake which, rather surprisingly given the amount of vegetation on this beat, I managed to preserve all day. This half of the beat has easily waded shallow stretches, some very deep pools which can be walked round, even places where overhead casting is possible although I wouldn't have wanted more than my 6' rod.
The whole beat is definitely wild, lots of overhanging trees, bankside vegetation, fallen branches etc although WUF volunteers have clearly been at work. It is barbed wire and stock fenced both sides but once you get in above the bridge you can stay in. Below the bridge is a different matter. Fallen trees, deep pools, high undercut banks and stock gates mean you can't wade the length of the stream so I gave up after climbing the fence thrice and went back upstream. There are a few (but not enough) bits of plastic padding, the number of stiles required would not be affordable. (Thought: why don't I carry my own length of foam pipe lagging on my wading stick?)
Altogether, an excellent day. Many thanks to Seth, Roger and all for organising it. Now they've got the hang of it may we look forward to next year's event?. And thanks to the Riverside Inn whose chocolate cake would have made the trip worthwhile even if we'd been washed off.

1 Trout

WILD STREAMS DAY
A well organised day by the Wye and Usk Foundation. Lovely coffee and biccies in the morning and even better chocolate biscuits with coffee and choccy cake in the afternoon. Well worth going for that alone.
Oh yes, the fishing..... not so good, only one trout but several rises spotted and a very good day. Bottom half of the beat had difficult access, but top half easy wading.

1 Trout