Feedback & Reports

7 x grayling 13-14 inches, 2 x trout 10 inches and 16 inches. I had promised myself a nice early autumn dry fly day on the beautiful Irfon...just like the one I had this time last year. And the conditions look good: warm and cloudy, a bit of a breeze, and I didn't think the low water would be a problem here. However, it's always a mistake to let God know your plans, isn't it? In fact nothing was hatching and nothing was rising. I managed to persuade one grayling up to an Orange Otter, a fly which has a reputation for persuading almost anything up to the surface. After which a number of fish flashed underneath this and one or two other patterns, but always came short. Having messed about like this for a couple of hours, I finally saw sense and changed the dry fly rig for a double nymph set-up, and the rest of the fish came from fishing along the bottom of gravel runs and deep dubs.

A beautiful piece of water that held plenty of promise, but in spite of a very good and varied hatch throughout the day, there was no rise, apart from a constant stream of tiddlers that would rise at anything. Tried nymphs, wet and dry, and caught several 3 - 4" fish and one very feisty brownie of about 7". Saw one good fish of about 2lb glide out from the bank to the deep water in middle - so there are fish there!

Took a 10" trout and a 13" grayling on dry fly (Griffiths gnat) in the first hour, then struggled the rest of the day until evening. Between 5 & 6pm, got some interest from a group of grayling. Took three of them, all about 12" and lost one. Very fussy eaters though... ignored everything at size 14 ... inspected and rejected everything at size 16 ... took a size 18 klink.

D.C. 4 trout and 4 grayling biggest to 8-10 inches. G.C. 5 parr. Only managed to fish about a third of the water available, so will have to come back and try again. Lovely secluded spot with plenty of wildlife.

River carrying six inches or so of extra water and a little bit of colour. Ended up with 6 small trout and five grayling, 10" to 13". Most of these came to dry fly late afternoon / early evening.

Wonderful beat with a wide variety of wildlife seen including kingfishers and otters playing in the water. Caught 2 brown trout - both about 6" on a Parachute Adams - plenty more takes and should have caught more but missed out due to the inexperience of a novice angler!

River was very low, not much more than knee-deep over most of the deeper runs. It was also a sunny day with clear water. We watched water all day and fished if we saw any activity but this was rare. Caught nothing but enjoyed the river nonetheless. We did see a lamprey 100 metres upstream from the church, by itself but appearing to be looking for a 'scrape'.

Due to traffic didnt arrive til mid afternoon what a lovely beat. River up .3metre with light colour. Took 1st brownie on parachute grey duster only 10" but fin perfect. We found it tough fishing very few flies on water due to very strong wind, small hatch disappeared when colder water from heavy morning showers arrived late pm water colouring noticably by 8pm. Total for 2 rods 5 trout 6-11in. Must try again with hopefully better hatch.

Water incredibly low and clear with little flow in the pools - in the "Grandstand" and by the church it was more like being on a lake or a canal, with trout seen cruising to take fly whilst we had lunch - good quiet wading practice! It did mean though that we could get to normally inaccessible parts of the river. Hardly any fly - a handleful of tail-end grannom, some olives, and one or two large brook duns. Very few rising fish, most of which turned out to be grayling. Not much to show for the day either, with just one trout of 1.25lb and seven grayling three of which were 15-16 inches. Fish taken on olive and hare's ear emergers and one on an olive nymph, mainly in deeper water with a bit of pace. Similar story on the Usk the previous day, with some good rising fish of up to 2.5lb taken on hare's ear and olive emergers, but nothing taken on spiders, very few fish rising and little fly apart from black gnats and a one or two tail-end grannom. Bring on the rain ASAP!

Clear water, sunny day with a light breeze. Good hatch earlier in the day. 1 Trout and a couple of Grayling, all on the dryfly. A pleasant and challenging few hours.