Feedback & Reports

Quiet afternoon and early evening - no fish seen

On a day that went from dead still to increasingly very windy and with the Ddoll Farm guage at 10", there were essentially no insects and no rises all day. One female adult and four large young goosanders kept me company for much of the first half of the day, leading the way as I made my way up the beat. Tungsten beads were therefore the order of the day (I had another heavy metal in mind for those birds!) and, with the depths duly dredged, eight grayling of 12-16" (the best 1.5lb) and two trout of 10-12", obliged. Half as many grayling again were long-distance released. A 3.5mm tunghead flashback PTN variant, and a smaller Duracell nymph on the dropper, did the bizz on the day. Oh for some surface activity again.

2 Trout, 8 Grayling

3.5 lbs fresh grilse on fly.Fair numbers of very small grilse coming into the river. Hopefully their size should increase as the season progresses.

1 Salmon

Nice beat for a bit of exploring so we fished lots of swims. Best feeding time was 5pm to 8pm. Wildlife today, a quite friendly mink running past my feet.
Still up there as one of my favourite beats.

9 Barbel, 2 Chub

A full day on Canon Bridge - from 8.00 am to 9.30pm. Action was steady pretty much through the whole day, using simple pellet and feeder tactics. A roaming approach really paid off. Barbel to 9lb 3oz and Chub to 5lb 9oz. Could have been a lot more - the fish know every snag and bolt hole in the river! Great fishing.

10 Barbel, 16 Chub

River very low-lot of green weed-difficult to wade as very slippy. Fished mid day and early afternoon but needed to be fished this time of year early or evening rise. Caught fish about 7 ins. Changed to small Tupp indispensable for success.

3 Trout

Tricky conditions with strong downstream breeze all day - managed one decent 12" grayling from the Clettwr mouth and missed a few more takes on a dry, including further downstream where there was no respite from the wind, unfortunately it just followed around the bend in the river. Heard a very large fish jump by the Armies pool, assume it was a trout as it was on the far bank under the trees not a likely salmon haunt? Couldn't cast to the far bank as the wind was there just too strong for my 3wt line, even from the middle of the river.
There was a small minibus in the parking area when I arrived, and the fishing lodge was occupied with a couple of heavy duty spinning rods set up on the rack outside - didn't see anyone fishing with them & they were still there when I left c. 6pm.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

Grilse 6lb caught spinning on Weirend

1 Salmon

6 x trout 6-8 inches Rusty Klinkhammer. Water now very low and no insects about, but fish prepared to rise. I must have missed twice as many. Rain is promised for tomorrow.

6 Trout

One trout caught on spinner.

1 Trout