Feedback & Reports

Blanked. First time to this beat. Imagine we could have done with 6" more water and a lot less sunshine. Didn't see or touch any salmon unfortunately. Both really enjoyed our day in stunning surroundings though. Plenty of fishing to go at and I think you do need to make the most of both banks.

One small out of season brown trout caught on a size 16 "red neck" (i.e. a PTN with a red collar). He was subsequently released. I also hooked one further trout and, I think, a grayling, but unfortunately could not land either. Beautiful scenery and very helpful directions to find it. I recommend this beat.

Bring on the Indian Summer if this is what is going to happen - sunny and hot all day but pretty breezy too from mid-morning until late afternoon. Early stonefly, a few PWs but none of yesterday's olives seen further up the river at Abernant. Very few rises; mainly oncers. However, we managed to catch 42 grayling between us (but very few trout). Most grayling taken on emerger patterns irrespective of whether they were rising or non-rising fish. Flies included HE, olive and PW emergers and Grayling Steel Blue (about 1/3 of all emerger-caught fish taken on this pattern). L's catch, whilst fishing duo, also included eight grayling taken on a tiny, gold tung-headed pink nymph whilst D, less productively at this time, slavishly persevered with emergers (the benefit of ringing the changes)! Fish from 8-12 inches, and a significant number in the 13-15 inch class. A good day to reward L's journey from the Dee.

Lovely day with fish rising on arrival around 11am and continued but slowed, through the day. 4 grayling and 1 small wild brown between the two rods - none taken. Biggest was grayling of around 1lb. Fish taken on dry fly, spider and gold-head nymph patterns in fast and slow water.

Great day. No fish seen or caught.

12 trout to 14 inches and 5 grayling to 12 inches. All on dry fly on a blustery day with sporadic hatches and fish rising only during short periods of sunshine. The river was in good condition with a slight tinge from recent rain.

Sunshine and storm on the upper Wye! A blustering wind, patches of sun between cumulous clouds, and a short, sharp, 5 minute shower coming regularly every half hour all through the day. More sustained and heavy rain set in before dusk. Almost no rises all day. Just one good grayling came up for a yellow may imitation at the beginning to get me encouraged (a oncer, let's say a twicer because he went for the artificial also), but then came off at the net. That was the only grayling I saw in the session. Otherwise, lots of mostly small trout and parr were in evidence, prepared to tweak away at spiders in the runs, but they wanted the flies either worked downstream and across or weighted down with a nymph on the point position. Not a very interesting way of fishing, but that was all the action I could get. (DC of W Herefordshire would be amused to know that I took no less than 3 rods down to the river, each made up for a different method, from dry fly to heavy bugs...but the grayling showed their contempt for all the money spent at Sportfish by staying well away). 13 x trout 6-12 inches.

Incidentally, referring to DC's report from Cefn Rhosan Fawr a few days ago about goosanders, the word in the pub at Sennybridge (for what it is worth) is that locals have been seeing very large numbers of these birds, particularly during recent winters. The theory is that these predators have pretty good hunting on the upper Usk and its tributaries in the upland area above Brecon, because so many of the pools have rocky bottoms without tree root cover for the fish to escape into.

Conditions: 16 degrees, overcast, showery and blustery. Time: from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Virtually no fly life observed and consequently very little sign of rising fish. I managed one beautiful grayling of around 16 inches on a parachute emerger. In the end hard going, albeit on a very lovely stretch of water.

Interested to read OB's return for yesterday from just up the river and am constantly amazed at how fickle insect activity and fish feeding patterns can be at this time of year. Today, with the river basking in almost unabated sunshine and a bit of a breeze, hardly anything moved at all. Hardly any insects to be seen, no hatch, surprisingly few late afternoon sedges and hardly a rising fish - I saw about four oncers all day! Tried emergers and things I could hardly see, on the top, in the film, dangling and down below, fished NZ style and dredged the depths as well. Just two 12" trout took pity on my HE emerger but the grayling were simply not in the mood. Well, it keeps you thinking! Answers on a postcard please.

P.S. Also seven very well equipped canoeists from up north who said that there was nothing on the canoe websites to say that they shouldn't be on the river at this time of year. Well there's a surprise! So much for compliance with the upper river access agreement.

Well I’m glad this hasn’t been my first season as I might have put the rods on ebay by now. Nursing a sore head from over indulgence at the Welsh beer festival I arrived to what looked like a promising start, some rain to freshen up the river, bright ish day but with plenty of cloud, the odd gust of wind but nothing to worry about.

Waded across to the left bank and started fishing the Gravelly Pool then worked my way up the lh bank of the Gravelly Run. Then switched to some pocket water on the rh bank of the Gravelly Run. Not a sniff of a fish, none seen rising, despite some flies coming off the water. Fished the Cillau Run, got one snatch from a small fish, didn’t connect. Finally got an 8 inch WBT on a hare’s ear emerger in some pocket water above the cillau rocks.

Returned to the beer festival, my recollection of the rest of the weekend is a bit hazy I must admit. Excellent service as ever from the W&UF team, a pleasure to deal with.