Feedback & Reports

Firstly a thank you to WUF for telling me Abernant was fishable in parts - if I had been offered a washoff I would have taken it. River was 1ft 9" at Llanstephan and Erwood was showing 1.20. At this height 2 weeks ago Ty Newydd had been virtually unfishable.
Water was up to the croys in Lady Alexander's Catch and flowing fast - but the saving grace was that the water was reasonably clear and there were distinct areas of lesser flow alongside the main stream. Started off fishing these edges klink and dink and had some splashy attention to the large klinkhammer. Switched to a small grayling steel blue and had a 10". Changed to a couple of heavy nymphs fished along the crease of the fast water at the head of the pool and had 3 more grayling to 12". Back to the dry rod and a couple more grayling.
Abernant Stream in the afternoon was a harder proposition. Impossible to wade but managed to edge out far enough for space for a backcast in three spots and fished stock still braced against wading staff jammed in downstream. Probably should have not been out there by myself. GSB kept sinking - but still picked up fish. Added a tiny pink bead head to deliberately keep gsb sub surface and picked up grayling all afternoon. Best fish easily 14" which gave a good tussle in the fast stream. Had one 10" grayling fight like a fish twice its weight - and then discovered I had a 10" trout on the nymph as well.
Last hour was back at Lady Alexander's - back to dry fly and had 5 more to get me to the 20. Most grayling were 8" to 10", 3 at 12" and 1 at 14", the wbt was 10" - didn't include the parr which took the nymph. All in all a very satisfying and confidence building day fishing in quite tough conditions. Lost quite a few as well on this season's barbless hooks.

1 Trout, 19 Grayling

Fished Lady Alexanders as a break from Rectory for an hour or so. Great water at 1'10" but no pulls and no fish seen.

Best fish was about 30cm. Four were caught using a team of three spiders. Two rose to a grey Klinkhammer.

6 Grayling

Water level looked encouraging but did not touch a thing all day, despite fishing at all levels until the fast sinker started to catch the bottom. I have been to this beat a few times & I have never once seen a salmon moving? It would renew the batteries if one knew there were fish lying there. Resorted to the trout rod at lunchtime & had a few speculating with a No:18 grey duster pattern. Saw an Osprey cruising down the river 11ish & then an hour later a Peregrine handing over a dead pigeon to a juvenile in mid flight just over my head, along with a lot of squawking. Ended the day wet through above the waist (rain) but happy that I still had my wallet this time.

Thanks to all at WUF.

3 Trout, 6 Grayling

Best of my 3 days here. River low and clear with good flow. Worked up from bottom of LA pool with small grayling taking emergers like DHE. Lovely to see fish rise in brief moment before taking. Upper pool fish unresponsive. Worked back down with 2 spiders and had more fish.

6 Grayling

Another enjoyable day. This time the river rose nearly a foot while we were fishing. Lots of debris in the water not so good for fishing. Going to Whitney court the next day, that might mean some salmon might move up the river

2 Trout, 2 Grayling

2 Trout, 9 Grayling

Llanstephen Guage 8". Fished 10 till 6.30 on a generally calm, warm, partly cloudy day. Perfect! Became even more perfect at about 11.30 with the "catch of the day" - an osprey above us, heading down river on its way home. But back the fishing - a few PWs, but not many, was about it apart from some sedges late afternoon. Some fish rising all day, but not many. 75% of the fish we caught were non-risers. Given that fish were looking up, we fished emergers pretty well all day and all of the fish caught were off the top. GW used small olive and brown parachutes, and latterly a brown bodied Duck's Dun. DC had just about every fish on a size 16 pale hare's fur Duck's Dun, with a few on a HE parachute as well. The best trout was 13" but every grayling, bar four, was 9-10" - that's 70 single year class grayling! We've never experienced anything like this before on the Wye where one year class is so prolific and so dominates catches. The other ladies were 11, 12 and 13", and more the sort of fish that in recent years have formed a significant part of catches on this beat. Where are the older fish? Whatever the reason for their absence, the 9-10" grayling spawning year was clearly very productive in the Wye catchment. What was so good about conditions that year? Let's hope that the FEBs don't feast on these fish. If they don't, a few years hence, the quality of grayling fishing should be something to behold? All round, not a bad day.

4 Trout, 74 Grayling

Please see report already submitted by DC. Wonderful trip and the number of small fish bodes well for the future.

33 Grayling

Day started 12 degrees and overcast/light rain. Forecast was to brighten up. Water was low, but pushing through with the faintest of peat stain to colour, so fish in depths were hidden. The only issue was a blustery downstream wind, which was cold. Weather turned bright and cloudless about 2pm. there were soome insects hatching and a very few rises.

Stuck to dry: para's and a mixture of grey, brown and even the odd black. Size 14 worked best. Tried to cover the whole beat, but the wading on the lowest part was a real ankle breaker and I gave that up. The best pool turned out to be the 'main' field pool, which is some 300 metres long and a great glide. Action in tail and head. Middle 100m almost dead.

I fished 2 sessions. The break (to stock up with flies and tippet: Thanks Sports Fish, but they do a good impression of a wounded rhino...) didn't improve my reaction times. I literally lost count the number of times my fly was taken and I managed to miss them. Maybe 40? The ones I got were 3 in am session and 2 in evening. Most were 7" to 11", but the prize of the day (week?), from the rough water at the head of the productive pool, was a stonking 21" grayling that was only just hooked in the lip on a HE dry of my own tying on a Moser barbless hook. which any will tell you are bloody useless as hooks... They are effectively bent pins and have a tendency to revert to type under any pressure... Lucky me!

The day ended cold. My car said it was 11 degrees (from a high at 4pm at 17) at 8:26 pm. That is why the rise was so pathetic I guess...

Another great day out. Thanks WUF!

1 Trout, 4 Grayling