Feedback & Reports

Words just can't describe this place. Deafening silence is the first thing that hits you when you get out of the car, and as you are forced to use every other sense trying to understand how you got here and what's around you, it's a good while before you even start to think about the fishing! We saw the odd rise until about 11am when there was a good hatch of olives and some breeze blown food from the marginal grasses. They are not easy fish, but with patience you will catch a few. We had 6, all on dries, and left at lunchtime for some food etc - once we left we were reluctant to go 'back in' and attempt to relive those first minutes again, and so we turned our back on Llanidloes and said thank you for another year or so. I think I've said it before, Bugeilyn should be a compulsory experience for a fisherman.

6 Trout

River very low and gin clear, little sign of fish or flies hatching. Beautiful sunny day though graced by a pair of Ospreys circling overhead.

A lovely spring day, the birds were all in full song and it was a joy to be on the riverbank. Sadly it seems it was a bit to sunny for the salmon at air temps topped 20 degrees for first time of the year. Factor 20 was not enough to stop a sun burnt face!

Soon after starting, before the sun got up, saw a travelling fish in the V and shortly after briefly had a hold of big fish in the cleft at the tail of the Dog Hole. That was the sum total of the days action despite staying until the cool of the evening had descended.

River was at 9" and the tail of the Dog Hole, Stones, Island, Gabions, Windmill, Maddox and Vanstone were all fishing beautifully.

Spent the heat of the day trying lines on a new Hardy Zenith. If anyone wants the perfect casting set up I suggest marrying the 13ft 6" with a Snowbee 2D 9/10.....what a combo!

An excellebt beat but spoiled due to 6 dogs and people swimming in the river ( it was the first real spring day of the year. There is a public footpath on the north bank that was very well used on this day.
The river was like gin and low. Saw a 3lb trout, so did a dog who jumped on it! Suggest just fishing the south bank which has a walk way away from the footpath. Small hatch of olives.
There are excellent salmon pools on this beat and under different conditions and at a different time of year would be a good prospect.

4 Trout

Sporadic hatches of LDO and Grannom throughout the day. Fish not really switched to either but they did prefer a sedge pattern over a LDO pattern. Had about 10 on dries and the rest on nymphs fished with a French leader. River in good condition and quite low which is how I like it on the main Wye beats. I had forgotten how dicy the wading can be on Gromain and ended up with a double arm dunking in the water.

15 Trout, 5 Grayling

Very warm sunny day. A hatch of blue wings started about 11.30 and lasted for bout an hour. Landed one of 2 pounds then hooked into a big bruiser around 4 pounds. Played him for a few minutes trying to keep him from reaching fast water, put brakes on and we had a mexican standoff for a split second, he won hook straightened, adios amigos. First time on Usk, good size of fish rising in this hour period then river fell silent.

1 Trout

Caught 5 trout to half pound on a bead head under a dry and to a dark olive Klink pattern, finally the fish seemed to have started to rise to the Dark Olives and Grannom (light but steady hatch of both from 11:00) too after 3 quiet days.
Fished 10:30-15:00, very hot, very bright.

5 Trout, 1 Grayling

The day started slowly with little rising and bright sunshine. During the afternoon nymphs were fished progressively deeper until about 4pm when the fish were found. A size 16 Copper John being the pattern doing all the work.
A lovely wbt of approx 15inch and 3 graying in the 10 - 12inch bracket were then taken in the next hour or so. At 5:30pm I called it a day.
Another good day's fishing assisted by the helpful staff at the WUF.

1 Trout, 3 Grayling

3 small rainbow trout returned, 1 rainbow removed.

4 Trout

The river was a little high, but unusually very coloured for most of the day (perhaps there was some river work further upstream?). The weather was clear and sunny, around 15 degrees, no wind. The water was still very cold and there was only a small hatch around the middle of the day, with no fish rising all day. The fish did respond to deep nymph tactics, with the best trout around 12 inches and a bonus grayling over 2 lb. Lovely day to start a late season.

2 Trout, 3 Grayling