Feedback & Reports

Eyeing up the catch returns for late August had us licking our lips in anticipation. Starting in fine drizzle, mid-morning with an intermittent northerly breeze it felt chilly. As the day wore on the cloud cleared. By the afternoon it was bright and warm. The river had a slight brown tinge but was clear. Wading was relatively easy with the aid of a staff. As anglers so frequently comment this is a stunningly beautiful place to spend a day fishing.
Fish were rising occasionally in the pools but they tended to ignore the variety of small dries we offered. When they did rise the flies weren’t taken. Weighted nymphs were more successful accounting for three good Grayling, each over a pound and a couple of trout one of a pound, the other much smaller.
It all goes to show that catch returns are just history and as they tell investors, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.” It never stops us getting excited though does it?

2 Trout, 3 Grayling

1 small BT on a dry fly , only one other rise and one small take on a GH nymph all day.

1 Trout

Lovely well managed beat, with some excellent salmon pools
water perfect height & colour. had an enjoyable days fishing. No salmon seen.

Started 11 0 clock on the flats bottom end of the beat, picked up two trout's in the tail on a Klinkhammer special, followed by one grayling. One coloured salmon showing in the first pool, bottom end of the flats probably just run up the fast water below. Changed to klink & Dink with a holy grail nymph on dropper all grayling came to the nymph with 3 foot dropper. Middle beat fished better with water on, tail of Ashtree pool had a lot of fish showing, but did no good on the dry. Next time probably fish French leader in that pool.

4 Trout, 18 Grayling

Another excellent day on the Craig Llyn stretch. I fished as a guest of Shaun Watkins who very kindly let me loose on this excellent stretch of river. Shaun had a very nice trout of a 1 1/2 and nice grayling about 3/4 to a 1lb. We fished klink and dink with a small natural weighted nymph under a klinkhammer. Shaun also was fishing wet spider patterns casting across and swinging the team around with some great success. There is a superb head of fish, set in beautiful countryside, access is good with the new stiles and all the strimming of the banks. Wading is good. In a couple of swims I would take a wading staff just to be safe but otherwise wading is fairly easy with felt or foam studded boats and chest waders.

4 Trout, 11 Grayling

I fish a duo with the river slowly rising and caught 3 on a small prince nymph and 1 on an elk hair emerger. 2 were around 1lb and the other two were tiddlers. I also lost a better sized fish, that took the dry on the second cast.

4 Trout

The trout were definitely on their summer holidays but the cool water from the Elan dam has kept the grayling active. Quality fishing with large fish falling to nymphs and dries. The best two of 19" and 18" took a tan Klinkhammer.

1 Trout, 20 Grayling

Three inches on the Ddoll Farm guage but what a difference a day can make to fish behaviour. Compared with yesterday just upstream at Dolgau, we had to put up with incessant bright sun plus a strong downstream wind for most of the day. Even before the wind got up though, the fish weren't as obliging as yesterday, but the wind killed it for sure for most of the day. Some midges were around from the off, a few olives during the day and sedges as usual, but by and large not too many rising fish, and those which didn't rise seemed not too keen to do so either! In spite of this we managed to catch fish on hare's ear and olive emergers and Duck's Duns, Grayling Steel Blue, Elk Hair Caddis and just one on a PTN. Most of the grayling were around 12" with a couple just a tad bigger. Very hard work for sure but not a bad result given the conditions. We tried all sorts of water and found fish in most and seemed to be most successful where there was some shade. Sight of the day for sure was Glyn seeing a large common carp towards the bottom of the beat. Cormorants around as they were yesterday.

2 Trout, 28 Grayling

Lovely Day on Craig Llyn. Started at the lower limit where I met the new owner. Nice to see someone who clearly will take care of the place. New styles and benches in place and bank clearances made to make life easier. My thanks to him for still allowing the WUF to use the beat, it's a personal favourite of mine.
The river still has the peaty tinge it has had for a few weeks, and the water temperature seemed cold for this time of the year, can only assume the dams have released some water. Level pretty low though.
No fish from the bottom section, which is normally such a good spot but picked up 4 four grayling in the pool below the island, all around 10-12 inches.
Moved upstream and waded right through the stretch up to the channel with limited success, only a couple of small fish in the pocket water. That was until I got to the section directly below the channel, where a lovely grayling measuring 19 inches took a weighted nymph in a foot of water and took off downstream. Took over 10 minutes to get in the net.
The channel, which is not somewhere I have had a lot of success before, also fished well, took 6 fish mainly from fish coming from depth to take my dry fly, and a couple on deep fished nymphs. The top section was a bit slow and the fish all seemed to be in broken water, where a took a few more up to 16 inches.
Lovely day in a lovely place!

2 Trout, 13 Grayling

Had a superb day on this beat. The river was low and the weather was warm but overcast. Because of the depths of the pools on this beat the low flows do not make to much difference and if anything makes it easier to reach them harder runs at the back of the pools. Fished with an 8ft 3 weight for maximum fun. Caught most fish in the top 1 foot of water drifting home tied black and olive spiders which I was testing for a trip to the river Wharfe in September. Also had a few straight off the top on klinkerhammers. Wanted to pick up a few more bigger trout but the grayling were getting there first. All the grayling were around 10-15 inches and the few trout I had were a bit smaller. Most of the fish I caught were from Ash Tree pool which seems to be stacked with grayling. I must have fished that pool for about 4 hours straight and the bites and rises still hadn't dried up when I finally decided to get out and have a walk further down. Came back later that day and caught a few more before I went home. All in all another brilliant day here and I will be returning for some winter grayling in the new year.

4 Trout, 27 Grayling