Feedback & Reports

Another mild day; air temperature up to 16+C. Cloudy. Water temperature 10C. River slightly coloured and a little higher after rain on 16th.
Fished a pair of bead-head nymphs through a number of likely looking pools in the middle and upper parts of the beat, to no avail. Spent a very interesting period watching a pair of otters. Soon after their departure, saw a solitary rise and covered it with a dry fly, catching a beautiful grayling of exactly 2lb. I would have thought that the otters would have 'spooked' any fish in their vicinity. Maybe the pools which hold grayling attract otters because of the ready food source?

1 Grayling

Weather: Dull, cloudy, rain in morning, air temp. 10-12C.
River: fairly low and clear.
Whilst fishing near church, an otter swam directly towards me. At the same moment my only grayling took hold and was landed (1lb 9oz), presumably the lesser of two evils from the grayling's point of view !!
Also caught approx 12 OOS trout.
Grayling took gold head pheasant tail nymph with red 'collar'.

12 Trout, 1 Grayling

I went back to this beat after fishing there on Sunday to try and find the end of my rod that I lost! Could not believe my luck when I found the olive tip section in the ferns along the bank.
The River was lower than Sunday and clear. Thought I would fish a couple of pools before returning to Sussex and again to my suprise caught a hen Salmon in the tail end of the flow on pool 5.
She was about 30" long, about 8lb and looking at the beautiful colours been in the river a few weeks. She was released and swam away. This is a great stretch of river to fish and will come back next year.
Thanks to the Wye and Usk staff who had mentioned my missing rod section to other anglers on the beat. Still can't believe it !

1 Salmon

3 of the guys tried for Salmon all day but no luck.
I had a Grayling of about 1lb from behind the Church. Great weather and the river looked perfect. The only down side of the day was that I lost a top section of my Hardy Angel fly rod in the bushes somewhere between pools 3 and 5.
I will come back next year and try again.

1 Grayling

Very hard fishing on my favourite beat of the irfon. Gin clear and no flow on several parts didn't help, but did manage to catch 4 trout, biggest 16 inch and 1 grayling 10 inch and lost another. French nymphing caught all the fish, never saw a rise all day! It seems to me the results of other anglers over the past year or so have gone down drastically, this is sure to be down to the otters! living in Norfolk as I do, I know only too well how they can destroy small rivers!

4 Trout, 1 Grayling

Had a great day on this beat. The fishing was very challenging. Water levels were very low and any fish that were in the main river were very spooky. No shock though as I spotted two otters on this beat! All fish were taken in or around the main pools. Lots of insect life but very few rises so opted for nymphs which accounted for a few small wbt and salmon parr. Switched back on to drys in the afternoon after seeing a couple of rises and had two stunning wbt in the two pound bracket. And one fish around a pound that looked remarkably like a seatrout. All in a great day. I will be back.

5 Trout

A lovely warm and still, initially misty then sunny autumn day with the water quite low at 0.36m. on the Cilmery guage. Hardly any insects though, apart from the odd small olive, sedge and stonefly, and presumably few terrestrials in the foam as well, given the few rising fish. However most of those that were seen to rise were caught and just a couple which weren't were also tempted to get off their backsides and head upwards. Tried duo, single emerger and some bugging but the nymphs were all declined. I suspect in fact that the fish were just not "on" today. The few that were, proved to be four trout, the best of which was a lovely two pounder, and eight grayling from 14- 17", the best of which weighted just under 2.25lb. - all in great condition. All fish caught in the foam lanes on either HE or dark olive emergers. But where are the smaller 8 - 12" year classes that I used to catch here? Maybe FEBs and the otter are having a say there? Lots of otter prints today. The good news is that I also caught about six 4" graylets and what were almost certainly others were rising. A tough but great day, in a lovely place.

4 Trout, 8 Grayling

A nice day to be back on this lovely beat. A few fish rising here and there throughout the day, with willow flies being the most abundant. All but two of the fish taken on dries.

2 Trout, 9 Grayling

Guided by Oliver Burch. Lovely beat. 2 small browns at beginning of beat on Orange Otter; 1 medium-sized grayling (12") at upper end on grayling blue fly. Cloudy in morning, brighter in afternoon. Quite hard fishing.

2 Trout, 1 Grayling

Fantastic day on Irfon for JD from Porthcawl and JE from Surrey. JD stubbornly persevered on dry to get 1xWBT 16" plus 2x10" and 2 grayling 14". JE mixed wet and dry to net a couple each of WBT and grayling. This beat has all types of water and is extensive although everything switched off mid-afternoon. JD waded up a blind alley which took a long time to reverse out of. Wading is quite difficult in places.

5 Trout, 4 Grayling