Feedback & Reports

A tough day due to very low temperatures the day before, but river in fine form. Both anglers search hard for grayling but they alluded us, despite a few attentions from out of season brown trout. Temperatures plummeted again around 3pm. With warmer and more settled temperatures, the fishing would have been a lot easier, but searching is the name of the game at this time of year.

3 Trout

Could only connect with trout on this extremely cold day. Snow on the ground and river running with a good pace. Looking at river levels, this beat seemed the only one just about fishable. The few trout to hand all took pink beadhead body quilled fly on the point bouncing bottom. No grayling today, maybe the floods now the cold snap has put them down for a few days. The flow was strong and nearly knocked me off my feet on more than one occasion and with the water temps low not advisable to take a dunking. Still a lovely stretch of water which, come April should fish extremely well.

Stunning stretch of water particularly with a hard frost on the ground. Tough days fishing and didn't catch but plenty to enjoy.

Pike fished the whole beat, blanked, fell over, got cold.

2 x grayling 11-12 inches, trotting. Oh dear me! Today's visit smacked of desperation. After more than 2 months without fishing a river, I was ready to take almost any chance to get back to it. Ordinarily, I would like to see the Irfon gauge at no more than 0.60, maybe 0.75 at a pinch for some carefully selected trotting. Seeing it at 0.98 the night before and showing signs of falling, I took a very long chance and made a booking. Hopefully the "light showers" predicted for the next day would not have too much effect and maybe the river would continue to fall. Such optimism! The light showers, when they came, would be better described as relentless and the river was rising all the time I was there, eventually to 1.31 metres. I picked up a couple of small ones from under the bank at my feet, lost a couple more, but when the colour came into the water the bites switched off. I went home as I never have much confidence in a rising colouring river. However, there should be chances later in the week if the rain will only hold off for a bit.

2 Grayling

Unfortunately the conditions were so bad that I did not fish. Another time perhaps?

A pleasant afternoon spent trotting for Grayling on this lovely beat. Unfortunately drew a complete blank. The river level had dropped around a foot in the previous couple of days but is still high and coloured with a lot of debris - fallen trees are a problem in some parts of the beat. Spotted a heron down near the weir also a kingfisher and had a visit from a large dog fox at a range of about 10 yards as I was intent on unravelling a snag. A nice end to the year despite the lack of fish!

Returned for another try. River in better condition and fell considerably during day. Blanked again. Any chance of clearing a way across the double fence part way up the beat?!

It was going to be a bit of a gamble with such a wet December. Unfortunately it didn't pay of as the river was too high and unwadable. My son hooked one small grayling that got off before he landed it but nothing else all day. We met Charlie at the house who was very friendly indeed and we'll definitely be back when the water is lower.

River too high to wade - it was showing just over a metre at Climery. We couldn't see any features to cast to and the water pulled our nymphs along at a merry rate so no fish. My son got a new fly rod and reel for Christmas and he was desperate to try them out no matter what the conditions so we took a bit of a punt on the water levels. We met the very friendly Dai who kindly lent us a long-handled landing net as we had to fish from the banks. Unfortunately it stayed unused. The Irfon is a beatiful stretch of river and we'll definitely return when levels are a bit more sensible.