Feedback & Reports

A bitterly cold day and wading more than thigh deep for fifteen minutes at a time was more than enough.
Most of the session was spent guiding my young nephew, a newcomer to river fly fishing. He did get his first grayling though, a nice fish of 1lb or so on a cased caddis. We did hook half a dozen other fish, most of which failed to reach the net.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

The off-season trout took a goldhead pink shrimp. Two grayling a general nymph pattern, with tunsten bead, orange hotspot and blue straggle string highlights.
Lots of colour/ flash was working but elsewhere on the beat fish were taking more traditional hare's ear patterns.

1 Trout, 2 Grayling

There was a small armada of canoes going in at Boughrood bridge on arrival at 11.15. To be fair though I don’t think they were the cause of an unusually very quiet session throughout the beat. A few fish, probably trout, were on and off, but a blank today.

Gauge up and down last two days. Despite more water the river was running clear at 1'5".
Two anglers worked the water with nymphs down from the island to below the bridge. Not much moving. The gravel catch much the same. Arrived at Mill stream quite late in the day where a trout and grayling were hooked on pink shrimp. Last half hour from rectory downstream to end of beat - one or two knocks in the run below rectory pool.

1 Trout

Not the best weather to fish in but as I was going to Hereford for the WSA meeting I thought I would have a few hours. Cold and a blustery wind, but the grayling didn’t seem to mind. Action was sporadic at the top of the beat with two small grayling but also with two chunky OOS trout of 12” and 14”. I did seem to bump into a significant shoal of grayling at the very bottom of the beat though ,where heavily weighted perdigons and small shrimp patterns took the fish. No real specimens , all fish 4””to 11”, and all quickly returned. The usual nymphs worked elsewhere.
I fished with an ancient Hardy rod today which was given to me by a good friend who has passed away and belonged to his father. There’s something very satisfying about fishing with an old rod that once belonged to a loved one who has passed on and it’s nice to give them an airing now and again.
Even nicer to get a few fish with them as well.

2 Trout, 11 Grayling

3 Grayling

Good fishing at the top of the beat today with four of the fish in the 10-12”region. A short very chilly session and with it not being a day for changing a fly with numb fingers, all were caught on a#14 gold head GRHE.
Sadly, we saw a badly diseased cock salmon in the island section which wasn’t going to make the spawning area.

8 Grayling

Clearing water, fewer leaves in the river and 1'2" on the gauge. Surely there'd be grayling about! There were. Had eight between two of us. Two bumps all day for me... but my fellow angler got all eight of them!

8 Grayling

Overcast day, very still with minimal wind. River running well but quite deep to get across most parts. Tight line nymphing for grayling was productive with 4 fish plus an out of season trout. Very slippery at the moment so take care when wading.

1 Trout, 4 Grayling

First time fishing this stretch of the Wye. Weather was overcast and the river was largely clear.
Our aim was for Grayling so we parked upstream of the bridge in the field near the rock pool, but finding canoeists already there we relocated downstream towards the fishing hut. By the time we'd got to the hut and tackled up the canoe team had drifted downstream and where still in front of us, so a quick walk downstream to the Rectory Pool/Rectory Pot section. I hadn't realised just how deep this section would be and trotting through the swim close in at 11ft depth I still wasn't dragging bottom (Waders beware.) We didn't manage to locate the grayling today but still caught 6 perfect trout on trotted maggot that were unhooked and released straight from the net. 4 small dace completed the day for us. One other note, as the canoeists drifted further downstream through the rectory pot they acknowledged us, kept well out of our way on the far bank and were very polite - no issues for us today. Great water WAU we'll definitely be back for more.

6 Trout, 4 Other