Feedback & Reports

Arrived late morning to find little sign of hungry fish but managed to catch two trout around 8" in length in the first half hour. Thereafter no success for an hour so I decided to go to Upper Grwyne Fawr which is a short drive from Lower Stanton.

2 Trout

This a challenging beat in the sense that the water is fast moving and in parts it is a bit tricky underfoot. However, it is a very nice stretch of water that I have fished a bit in previous seasons. I spent about 4 hours picking my way upstream through the small fast running pools getting plenty of interest in my Grey Wulff fly but failing to hook much. Pretty much every pool produced a strike but for some reason I did not manage to actually make contact. This said I did manage to catch 3 small trout of the order of 5-6" and one a little larger. Thus at the end of a long afternoon and feeling tired and a bit frustrated I reached a rather deep pool nearer the top of the beat. On first cast I made contact and wow, what a splash! After a substantial fight I landed a trout that must have been 16" in length and very fat; a great end to the day and the best fish I have caught this season. Interestingly, all of the fish caught were dark in colour with relatively small spots; not sure why but maybe something to do with the lack of light on this beat?

5 Trout

The river was a good height and clear but the bright sunny day made fish hard to find. Never the less we managed a few small WBT and a lovely 12" oos grayling using various nymph paterns (olive and greens seeming to be most popular).
Fished better in the morning and became slower as the day moved to evening. A few mayfly about but not much rising for them. We lost a couple of better fish, which managed to spit the hook after a brief battle and brought salmon par to hand throughout the day.

3 Trout, 1 Grayling

Difficult day due to bright sun, fish were rising occasionally but whatever they were taking must have been very small as we couldn't match it. The barbed wire fencing is a bit of a bind but there are places to get over, pity the new gates are wired shut, it would be easier to use the than climbing fences. There were a few mayfly lifting but the fish didn't seem to be interested in them. It was interesting to hear from a local resident that several years ago there were some spectacular mayfly hatches.
Thanks to all at WUF and fishery owners for providing such lovely places to visit.

3 Trout, 2 Grayling

The day was hot and bright, with little evidence of fish or fly until the evening. But at about 7.30, after dinner at The Bell, we stood on the bridge and offered a libation (in the form of a small quantity of bitter) to Adipe, the Fish Sage, who was revered and consulted by the ancient Mesopotamians (Adipe is believed to have been a giant Tigris carp, said to have come from the waters beneath the waters).
Soon a few mayfly, yellow may duns and smaller flies began to leave the water, and there were occasional splashy rises. By 9pm, the air was thick with yellow may duns, though the rising was still quite sporadic. We caught some beautiful and hard-fighting fish (though up to only 3/4lb) on mayflies, duck's dun, yellow may imagos and emergers. The action slowly tailed off, but there was still the occasional rise at 10.
I now see that I should have tipped the whole pint in. Then there would have been a spinner fall and a feeding frenzy.

8 Trout

Oh dear, this fishery dosnt seem to be stocked as regularly as it used to be and listening to the locals it gets fished as soon as they know it has been stocked. Disappointing day as this place used to fish really well. Will try once more before the season finishes to see if I can be proved wrong! No fish caught and no fish seen taken by locals, in fact one chap said its the worse he's ever known it.

Hot, low river, blank. Watched an otter from the bridge for 5 minutes.

1 Trout

Sunny & hot. River clear and very low. The largest fish I caught was 8 ounces, all fish were caught in the tail ripples of the pools

6 Trout

I'd been promising to take my fishing partner up the Clettwr for some time now, the sheepish look he always gave me made me think he wasn't to keen on the idea. Finally this trip allowed me to introduce him to the pleasure and pain of this mesmeric beat.
Initially he seemed a bit perplexed as we dropped into the gorge, "madness" I think was the word he first used, "this isn't fishing its mountaineering". Eventually, even with some pool's and runs now redundant due to some very big log jams, he succumbed to the beauty and uniqueness of this amazing beat. We made it as far as where the two small streams run in from the right bank and decided to call it a day. Five of the prettiest wbt came to hand , all on Klinks. I think he'll be back, just as every body else does.

5 Trout