Feedback & Reports

The river was low and extremely clear, which made things a little difficult. M had a chub early on in the session but that's all we got in the morning. A change of swim produced a barbel for M. We then went back to the orchard swim and M managed to wrestle out a 13lb crocodile on a float fished dead-bait. A few more chub were banked just before dark, I managed a lovely 4lber on my last cast. Good angling by M, I definitely could have caught a few barbel but I was just happy making bacon sandwiches and cups of tea. I thought I better let him win this time, he was still a little upset about the hammering I gave him on the last visit.

1 Barbel, 5 Chub, 1 Pike

Fished from first light for about three hours. Spent the first two hours exploring, trotting various of the less accessible rocky parts of the upper and lower ends of the beat, without so much as a bite. I was considering an early retreat but decided to have a go in an ordinary looking gravel run in the middle field - this proved to be stuffed with fish and in the last hour I caught about a dozen Grayling to about 1 1/2 pounds, lost about the same amount (always happens with Grayling) as well as two Trout. I would have stayed longer but for a slow leak in my chest waders - not recommended in December!
I wouldn't attempt to fish this beat without waders, and the second lesson learned was to keep moving until you find the fish - once I located them it was pretty straightforward.

2 Trout, 12 Grayling

River low and clear, slight downstream breeze with sunny spells. Challenging wading in many places, but some easier wading over gravel too. We struggled to locate many grayling but we did bump quite a few fish off, which in my experience is usually grayling, especially as we hooked so many trout. Fabulous location and we look forward to returning very soon.

20 Trout, 3 Grayling

We found a few grayling in Dol-Meudwy pool and a few in Orchard, but it was the chub we were after. We managed one about 3lbs - my excuse was the clarity in the water combined with the reasonably bright conditions. Despite this, it was a very enjoyable and peaceful day and a fabulous place to trot a float. Thank you.

20 Trout, 7 Grayling, 1 Chub

4 x grayling 15-18 inches, long trotting. I'm not quite sure what I conclude from this experiment (trotting on the Cammarch Hotel's middle beat is a new try-out). The Irfon was very low, so low that fly fishing might have been a better bet on this occasion. Four large grayling, including two really nice ones, but all these were widely separated and seemed to have been lying singly; no shoals were located. I had to leave one pool which proved to be alive with spawning salmon. Finally, one lovely 18 inch fish took the float down at exactly the spot where my friend DB took an 18 inch grayling on a dry fly back in October. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the very same one.

4 Grayling

A pleasant day out on the river although not an easy one.
One Grayling on a heavy nymph, and a couple of missed takes. There was a brief hatch of Pale Waterys and the Grayling did come up, sadly we didn't get the bonus of a fish on a dry fly in December.

1 Grayling

The Irfon was very low and clear (around 0.24m on the Cilmery gauge) and the weather was unseasonably mild for this time of year (hovering around 10 C). I had decided to fish long trotting with maggots, starting in the pool just upstream of the church and below the ford. I couldn't tempt anything here so I moved up through the copse and fished the glide in the meadow above. It was around 1pm by this time and a few fish were rising to large terrestrials that were blowing in off the field. I decreased the float depth and switched to a single maggot and this immediately sparked short-term interest from the grayling,catching one at 14" and another at 17" (a thick-set fish estimated at 1.5-1.75lb).
Walking back to the car I had a last ditch attempt below the church in the glide above the riffles. There were a few small fish rising and was pleased to see that, when I caught one, they were grayling parr - a good indicator for the health of the river.
I noticed on the joining instructions that the new owner is looking for feedback on improving access. My only comments would be to improve the hard standing for the parking areas, and to see if anything could be done to by-pass the boggy part of the path mid-way through the copse. Other than that, access is excellent here.

3 Grayling

No sign of barbel or chub to any baits. Fished hard all day on all available swims.
Spoke to the bailiff on the opposite bank who said we would struggle, he was bang on.

First time on this beat so targeted the most likely looking locations. 6 grayling in total to trotted maggot. Quite a slow day's fishing but the scenery made up for that. Saw two or three salmon moving upstream also.

6 Grayling

Fished this beat up and down all day no barbel showing
one chub late in the day.