Feedback & Reports

7 trout and 2 grayling caught and returned, most on dry fly. River was low, weather was fair but with a cool easterly breeze.

Second day on Ty-Newydd. Frustratingly the wind had picked up from the day before and made the fishing difficult throughout. Thankfully however, it was an upstream wind so casting wasn't an issue. The fishing was harder than the day before but I ended up with 10 Trout and 7 OOS Grayling. Lost two good fish, one of which was a nice Trout around 1.5lb - 2lb. My last fish made up for it, walked downstream and spotted a number of rises occurring repeatedly in a flat glide. After an initial Trout around 9 inches, I managed to get another one to take and after a strong fight I netted a lovely brownie which was around 1.25-1.5lb. Great day again, many thanks.

Few rising fish but with a variety of deep and shallow fast runs and long wide pools - lots to explore. Caught 10 plus trout 8" - 12" and many smaller fish, on small green nymph and a variety of small green or black dry flies. Plenty of sedge activity and a small number of yellow mayfly but neither (or my imitations) triggering any attention from the fish.

A wonderful first day on the Wye. Despite the harsh wind the fish were quite willing to feed. Lost count of the exact number of fish I caught but it was around 15+ Trout (to around 12inches) and 12-14 OOS Grayling to a similar size. Caught on a variety of methods and flies. Part of the beauty of this beat is that there is such a variety of water - you can experiment with different methods and flies until your heart is content! Lost a good fish in the evening which sipped down a Klinkhammer variant in a flat glide. The day ended with a fleeting sight of what I'm certain was a nightjar flying quickly above the river, a first for me and a lovely end to the day.

Good day on the water. Decent wind brought some terrestrials onto the water and reasonable success given the very very low water. About 30 fish caught in total biggest 1lb brown trout. Some out of season grayling. Wye looking beautiful as ever...Czech nymphing (caddis patterns), NZ style (klink, hawthorn, black gnat, elk caddis)and size 18 skinny nymph and PTN and GRHE.
Pray to the rain gods to improve fishing prospects!

A beautiful beat on the Upper Wye, which was less productive than I had expected. It was a windy day with bright sun; very few fish were rising so I fished mainly with nymphs. One had to work hard for the fish - 5 were caught and returned (2 trout which were less than 1/2 lb each, 2 small grayling and one salmon smolt). A better fish was hooked and lost after a brief tussle. However, it was a lovely day in beautiful countryside.

Mixture of trout and grayling to mainly nymphs. Best trout around 30cm. Rising fish seem to be taking black gnat, a few sedge about early in the morning. Interesting days fishing fish mainly in the faster broken water.

Lots of salmon smolts still evident in desperate need of some water to get them to sea!!!

The day started with a glorious drive from the Rumney valley to meet Frank Williams and a small number of other anglers for a days instruction in wet fly fishing techniques on this stretch of the Upper Wye.

I arrived at my destination for 09:20 and briefly introduced myself to the other members of the party before Frank demonstrated some of his tackling up methods. Even at this stage I was picking up tips and it was quite obvious how Frank had picked up his "Pro" status. Some casting tuition followed and we were led towards the river around midday.

Despite the strong sunshine and very low water levels quite a few fish appeared to be moving. Frank demonstrated the "Across and down" method of fishing a team of flies that included a small copper head PTN on the point, partridge spider on the middle dropper and a traditional wet on the top dropper.

On our first solo session using this method I managed 2 X brown trout of 6 and 10 inches. The set-up also attracted the intrest of a few other fish but none were brought to hand.

Our second demonstration took place in faster water and was based around fishing wet flies/nymphs, upstream on a shortened line. Frank only managed to winkle out a few small fish during this period which I was really surprised about as the stretch in question looked very fishy.

The rest of the group led by Frank headed back to the car park for a spot of lunch. Meanwhile, armed with my new found knowledge I carried on fishing. I'd swapped my rig to some heavily weighted PTN's and tied a killer bug to the point. Working the deeper channel just downstream of where Frank had given his demo an 11inch grayling and 1 other small WBT were brought to hand.

At the top end of the beat another small WBT was caught using this method before I called it a day at approx 4:30pm.

Altold it was a very enjoyable day and I would certainly recommend Frank's services to anglers of all abilities wishing to develop their fishing knowledge.

Bright sunny day with temperature in 20's on arrival!
Both rods adopted traditional wet fly - team of three flies - tactics with more success in the morning than afternoon.
One rod had two trout and lots of parr and the other 4 trout (2 @ c.14") and one grayling (12") and lots of parr.
Fabulous surroundings but hard fishing in such low water-levels.

Warm and sunny, river very low, just a dribble of fly life. No, not August but the middle of April. No really, what's going on!
In these poor conditions I was grateful for a fun and productive day. Keeping to the faster, broken water took 11 wbt and 1 out of season grayling. Typical wildies, 6"-10", all returned unharmed. Every fish fell to the weighted point fly (gold head ptn, green). No fish caught on my dropper (spider variants). Strange, my point and dropper usually share the fish.
There seems to be a really good head of trout on this beat and I know from experience that it is stuffed with grayling later in the year.
Thanks as ever to the WUF.