Feedback & Reports

My first time on the Wye, we got to river at 6am after a long drive from Preston. Good directions walked the bank and baited a few pegs. River looked low but very fishy, started fishing at 7am - no bites on first stretch then we tried lower end (cut) at 9am. I had 10 barbel upto 6lb before 11am. Then it just got even better - brother in law got his 1st ever barbel and my brother (just returned to fishing) who came along sharing my rod wanted a go so he ended up with 6 barbel upto 7lb. Managed to get rod back off him and got a lovely chub 4lb+. Brother in law finished the day with a sore shoulder and 15+ barbel (stopped counting at 10),biggest 8lb and a nice chub of 3lb. I finished with 20+ barbel, biggest 9 3/4 lb and 2 chub. The baits of choice were 8mm halibut pellets and garlic luncheon meat.

We left at 7.30pm happy after one of the best days fishing ever. The weather was overcast most of the day, scenery fantastic and kingfishers kept shooting through. We saw 2 salmon rising on far bank on bend. You have got my brother back intrested in fishing. The drive back was spent planning
the next visit. Many thanks to WUF, we will be back.

River in desperate need of water. Fished late afternoon till dark. Nothing rising at all, took 1 nice grayling, plus a few tiny grayling on deep fished nymphs.

Specifically fishing for grayling.

Only 3 grayling, two at 30cms and one at 22cms, all taken on weighted shrimps. Two others lost. All fish returned. Grayling fishing is of course more productive from the end of October onwards.

Amazingly no trout, but eight salmon parr.

2 Brown trout (Up to 1/2 lb) taken on wet fly, 5 Grayling (up to 1/2 lb) taken on nymph wet fly. All fish returned.
A very nice day's fishing on the Lugg.

2 Grayling 12" size 14 Daddy, caught and returned at the top of the flats upstream of the pond.

5 grayling to 1 lb, nice weather and some fly hatching but very little activity. Caught on klinkhammer and olive nymph. This was the first time i have fished this beat. looks lovely but I thought I'd see more fish. I will return when it gets a bit cooler for the grayling.

Beat B40 - Cefn Rhosan Fawr. 18-Sep, generally very few fish were rising and there was little evidence of fish activity during the day, 2 Brown Trout caught, both less than 6” and returned, flies used Adams Parachute (#16) and Orange & Partridge Spider (#16). Fishing a BH GRHE (#12), in the deep pool on the bend approx 50m upstream of the water fall I encountered what appeared to be a substantial fish that stayed deep, but lost it (unhooked) on my light tackle – great sadness. In the early evening numerous fish were leaping the falls, great fun to watch.

Beat B42 – Penpont. 19-Sep, numerous fish rising throughout the day and evening beneath the beech trees in the upper bridge section, but they were easily spooked. There was little sign of fish activity throughout the rest of the beat, although I caught two small trout on Adams Parachute (#16) in the section around “high bank” beneath the trees.

Beat R21 – The Lugg, Pilleth Beat. 20-Sep, I have to agree this is one of the most beautiful rivers I have encountered. Unfortunately, there was no sign of fish activity and blanked. I have one major issue with the handbook guidance notes; whereas I agree wading is easy the river cannot be wadded in wellingtons as indicated. Very many of the pools were too deep for even thigh waders and the nature of the river banks along with the heavy undergrowth along the banks make it impractical to leave the river to pass around them. As I only wore thigh waders on this beat, I eventually gave up out of frustration.

General comments:
I stayed at the White House Country Inn, Sennybridge; a most welcoming and accommodating establishment.

The general WUF telephone advice was excellent and I thank you for your patience in addressing my many questions. I appreciate that the general guidance notes in the handbook advise chest waders for the main rivers, however, I believe the Beat Summary guidance notes for both B40 and B42 are wrong to suggest that these beats can be fished in thigh waders; throughout both beats I encountered many occasions where chest waders were essential.

Overall, I enjoyed my few days fishing the WUF beats and look forward to next season.

Hard work on a low, clear river. Not helped by the weather -in spite of a forcast of a mild day with plenty of cloud, it turned out hot with more or less continuous bright sun (not that I am complaining). Not much happening at the bottom of the beat but more activity in the faster runs in the top two meadows. A few small Browns rising to what looked like olives.

Eventually suceeded in hooking one on a PWO (Size 18). Better quality fish to follow - the best Grayling and the second Brown were both 1lb plus - on weighted nymphs before an early finish to try to beat the traffic on the A44.

Blank. I went through the fly box offering patterns large and small without getting a fish to take. By last knockings I was totally frustrated and had progressed to a five inch Collie Dog on the leader - why not, I had tried everything else. As I reeled it back across the surface of the Vanstone Pool before going home, one did attack it with a tremendous bang...and of course missed completely. Nor would it come again. One of those days; as I drove off at dusk, there was a cheeky salmon breaching exactly where I had been wading.

Four good sized grayling and a salmon parr caught on a small salmon fly. No salmon seen moving, river very low. All fish returned.