Feedback & Reports

First time out this season and Abernant is a great place to be. I was optimistically targeting salmon, not with any great hope this early on, so I was surprised to get a strong take that stripped a yard or two off the reel before letting go. I wished I’d taken the trout rod with me as there a brief hatch around mid-day which resulted in some surface action from trout. Very reassuring to see that the owner is investing in bank-side maintenance and counter-erosion measures. River was running clear and at 1m on the Erwood gauge.

First time out with the salmon fly rod for a couple of years, forgot how physical it is. My aching back.
Fished through from Abernant down to the start of the Stone Catch.
A nice trout of about 18 inches was the only return. A repeat later on produced nothing.
About midday, the sun triggered an intermittent hatch of LDO, so got the trout rod out and managed 4 oos grayling, lost a couple of airborne trout, all up in the faster water of the stream.
There were a couple of guys spinning from the croys on the beat below the Stone Catch. Dont know if they were successful, but did see a salmon show between the croys after they had gone.
Water was crystal clear and at a lovely height the fly.

1 Trout, 4 Grayling

Float fished red maggots on very light centre pin tactics. Weather was unseasonably warm at about 11degrees with some light rain and very blustery conditions.

Very enjoyable day, booking was very easy via website and Alison, my guide for the day Oliver Burch was outstanding and very good company, I will be back!

30 Grayling

I’ve been wanting to stand in the river trotting a stick float ever since I started fly fishing and brought myself a pair of waders but have never got round to it until today.
The river was far from ideal being low, clear and icy cold but bites came from the off and we were soon catching Grayling on a regular basis trotting a stick float through the swim using a centre pin and maggots as bait. I had hoped to build the swim steadily through the day but it got too cold after 30-40 minutes wading, so it was out onto the bank for a cup of tea and a warm up before getting back at it. The Grayling seemed to ease off but a few OOS trout made an appearance before the cold got the better of us.

A very enjoyable and productive way to fish in the depths of winter…but roll on spring now!

5 Trout, 21 Grayling

Spent a lovely afternoon on this beat with nymphs and was able to find a few willing fish despite chilly temperatures. All fish were caught with tungsten beaded pheasant tail nymphs (orange hot spot is the ticket!) Beautiful stretch of the upper Wye and would love to return during warmer weather. Highly recommend!

2 Trout, 4 Grayling

19 x grayling 6-14 inches, mostly in the 10-12 inch range, 2 x out of season trout 11-12 inches, long distance trotting. Bright sun and a hard ground frost this morning, dull later.

19 Grayling

The weather was against us being quite windy with the river up by 2.3m at Builth Gauge so not conducive to a productive day. No fish but a superb location and lovely piece of water

A chilly and misty morning, but arrived to find the river looking lovely - perhaps a touch high at ~135 on the Erwood gauge but crystal clear having been falling all week. I thought I might be on for a bit of a red letter day when a grayling snaffled my nymph on it's first drift, but in the end it didn't seem that the fish had really shoaled up, and I had to work quite hard for my 7 fish (and 3 oos trout). Six nice 10-12 inch fish, and one handsome 16-incher. All on tungsten bead nymphs.

A party of ~8 kayakers floated down early afternoon, and happy to report they were very considerate, asked from well upstream where I would like them to pass, and were in general very friendly.

3 Trout, 7 Grayling

3 Grayling

Not great

5 Grayling