Feedback & Reports

After trials and tribulations over the last year and some, it was an absolute joy to be able to get back on a wild stream, even if the forecast rain turned into a vertical downpour that drove me away mid afternoon. River running fast and clear, plenty of birdlife for company and sporadic hatches. Nothing rising but had some success with a small black flashback weighted nymph. Missed most takes, short of practice, but landed 2 feisty 11 inchers. Delighted with that, can’t wait to get back to one of the other wild streams.

2 Trout

3 trout to 9" on a small nymph. Many fewer fish apparent than I would have expected from visits earlier in the year.

3 Trout

Only on here for a couple of hours in the rain, but great nonetheless. 6 trout all on sedge, and lost plenty that threw the fly by e relentlessly leaping! Good little beat.

6 Trout

River very low and weedy, but coloured up so that by 2.00 nothing was happening. Hopefully the river will rise as well and clear it out a bit. Had some rises earlier on, all missed, but then nothing. WUF note: by the campsite people have been building dams, which is fine (built many myself when younger!), when there is still a run through. However, just below the bridge there was one substantial, well built dam right across the river. Whilst the water was getting through, it was an impassable barrier for any trout trying to get further upstream. Perhaps a chat with the owner to ensure a passage way is always left?

Another hot still day, but the full tree cover on this narrow river, and plenty of fast flowing runs still fishable, meant it was slightly cooler in the valley. No rises, but I had the first trout within ten minutes on a tiny para midge pattern so stuck with that for a good day. Rose plenty, mainly from the fast runs, and landed 7 - all but one were 6-10" and very feisty. Highlight was an unexpected strong 13" trout, again on the midge. What could be better?

7 Trout

3 x trout caught on emergers.

3 Trout

Arrived early at this very nice beat in the beautiful Honddu valley. Fished just a couple of hours and managed three small trout, best was 13", two took a ptn and one to a dry emerger. River had good flow and was very clear.

Would have been better to have started later in the day and fished through. Did not see a hatch or any surface activity part from the one that took my dry!

3 Trout

Don't know which river god I have pleased or how, but s/he was certainly with me today. Good flow in the river with a brown stain, the sun shone most of the day, even the breeze was mostly upstream. A lovely autumn day. Saw a few flies around so started with an adams klink size 16, nothing till about midday. Only saw the odd rise from then on, but the trout in virtually every glide and pool was willing to attack the adams, until I reached the end of the beat at about 5.00, not having changed my fly. Eventually landed 18, 8" to several at about 14", all fighting fit. Lost about half a dozen more, they were either lightly hooked or performed aerial aerobatics. And I missed others. All in all, a glorious end to the season with memories for the winter!!

18 Trout

A stunning location, and another great section of the Honddu… but what a weird day. I managed to land 11 fish (all small WBT) but hooked, fluffed, missed, shook-off and got ‘spat out’ by at least 25 other fish in different places. It was extremely frustrating. It can’t have been the hooks, because they are what I usually use, maybe it was my technique… I’d like to think that the fish here have different shaped mouths to the norm!!! I think that a better fisherman than me would be up in the +20 zone for the day if even just a fraction of the chances were taken.

The day started with low cloud and a bit of drizzle, but that soon burnt off and it turned warmer with light cloud and sunny spells. I liked the fact that you parked mid way down the beat, easy to get back to the car for food and drink. It was difficult to find the start and finish of the beat. I don’t think I was in the correct place at the bottom, but I did eventually find the upper limit sign.

There is a great variety of fishing on this beat, with some open spaces to allow you to cast, and then a few tighter almost unfishable spots. The wind was a bit of an issue, so I fished nymphs off a Klinkhammer for most of the day. Interestingly there were quite a few takes on the Klinkhammer, so later in the day/early evening I switched to drys with some success.

Met the friendly farmer/land owner for one of the sections, and she was happy to know that there are fish in the stream. One word of warning though, there is a campsite that runs along much of the length of the beat, so I would stay away at weekends (is it open at weekends?) and any holiday period. I would say that it is a no-go during these times. Now is perfect.

11 Trout

1 6" and 1 9" wbt to para adams and klinkhammer.

2 Trout