Feedback & Reports

10lbs freshish fish on Red Francis tube/sinker. Strong fight.

Could only fish the morning due to work but touched nothing and saw nothing.

One salmon 10lb, very fresh on ally conehead. Saw several other fish.

2 fish landed, 10lb and 13lb, both fresh; 2 other fish lost. All on fly. River started the day at 2ft 3" and had dropped to 2ft by end of day. Visibility was perfect for the fly.

A tough day for me on water that was in perfect order with other rods able to winkle a fish or two out. Tried alsorts and it would have been advisable to fish between 8-10pm but the drive home forced me away. Great beat which I will get a fish from. Thanks WUF.

Very wet and rising river resulted in an almost inevitable blank.

Apologies for the tardiness of this return. Had escaped London and the tediousness of the Jubilee celebrations for a week in Wales with the family. At very short notice Alyson managed to get me a rod on the beautiful Rectory beat and was most helpful in directing me to the booking office to collect beat maps and information. The Wye can at first be a daunting task for the fisherman (I usually fish the smaller Usk) but the beat information supplied was extremely detailed with hotspots, notspots and dangers clearly indicated. Because of this I always felt "in with a sniff" and although the fish were not co-operative that day other than one possible pull this info acted as a virtual ghillie and made me feel if I was fishing with an unusual degree of confidence, if not any actual competence. The beat itself is arguably the most 'complete' section of the Wye I have fished with a wide variety of water and relatively straightforward to fish in low-medium water conditions. Particular stretches of note include all sections of the The Rock Pool, The Bridge Pool, just upstream of and through the Mill Stream to the Rectory pool itself. Weather ran the whole gamut of optimistically overcast to hopelessly but gloriously sunny and it was a great place to while away a day on the water. I will definitely be back.

Very bright hot day nothing rising but loads of fly life.
Numerous trout and grayling caught on little wet spiders in the riffles. Fish showing in various pools but not interested in anything we could show them.

Highlight of the day a 4lb cock brownie early in the day took a black salmon fly by JP. "Biggest trout off a river in 37 years."

Other highlight a pint in the Bridgend Inn

All fish returned.
Lovely day on a super beat.

Another great afternoon on this beat with hatches of sedges, olives, mayflies, yellow may duns, hawthorns and gnats leading to some terrific dry fly fishing. Ended up with around 25 hard-fighting trout and a few grayling, the best two trout again were in the 1.75lb region. All fish were released.

River was clear and 1ft 8" only dropping 1" during the day. MS had a 14lb slightly coloured hen fish from Ty-Mawr on a spinner. Another 2 were lost; Ty-mawr and tail of Rock pool. Fish seen in Rock and Gravel catch. Half a dozen trout and 2 shad on salmon flies.