Feedback & Reports

My first time on the beat. Not a good beat for a man who drives a Hairdresser's car - with the turning around of said car in the parking area being a spectacle deserving of a wider audience. A pleasant day on a low clear river. Like other correspondents, I can confirm the Gromain beat is full of small fish; with the faster water at the bottom of the beat producing all but a fish a cast throughout the morning. Mostly small Trout and Salmon Parr. Some of these fish were seriously small - I must have caught bigger Minnows on South Newington brook as a boy. Concentrating on the deeper water above the hut produced a some better Grayling in the afternoon. In spite of a sunny afternoon, next to nothing on the top - with everything falling to a tungsten nymph.

20 Trout, 6 Grayling, 10 Other

Day was planned to target grayling on another Upper Wye beat having fished Pwll y Faedda and Abernant over the past week.
Used a small wispy brown fly (not sure what) and had 6 wbt in the 1st hour - all 6" or smaller. Persisted with dry fly all morning searching for grayling from the hut to the top of the beat with not another fish. Did have an otter playing around and staring at me at one point.
Chatted to the other rod on the beat at lunchtime who had been catching steadily all morning French nymphing.
Reluctantly switched from dry fly to a small tungsten hares ear and searched the faster water below the hut to above the bridge. Ended up with at least 25 trout and 2 grayling. Most of the trout were small but two were 10 - 12" and both grayling were 12".
Gromain is stuffed with small trout - which bodes well for the future.

25 Trout, 2 Grayling

River running low and clear so I decided to use a French nymphing set up. I lost count of how many fish caught after a while, so numbers estimated. The majority of the fish were small but with a few around 10"-12". Most took a size 14 copper tungsten head hares ear. Catching lots of juvenile fish is not really my thing but it was perfect for practicing long leader nymph fishing, which is a new style of fishing to me.

35 Trout, 10 Grayling

Fishing with nymphs & wet flies, quite a number of small trout, nothing large, best 1/4 brown and same size grayling.
Really nice beat, will come again.

12 Trout, 1 Grayling

Good day with the weather but fishing was difficult. A few small but welcome brown trout. After lunch things pickked up with a nice size chub 4lb worked my way back up the beat to the hut to find two other people fishing same beat one looked to have a spinning rod with him not sure about that.

3 Trout, 1 Grayling, 1 Chub

Fun day, nice weather, saw some fish rising including one massive one that came up for a fly 40 ft in front of me - tried for it for 30 mins but unfortunately no luck. Still, the fish are there, just gotta pick the right fly (and probably get up a little earlier would help too).

A lovely Autumn day on the Wye but fishing still was challenging. Very little by way of a hatch - just a few olives and no silver tourists to be seen so the salmon rod was waved more as a statement of intent rather than with serious expectation. The fish have had a tough year looking at their current condition - all the sizeable trout up to 16" were underweight for their length and both they and the grayling carried significant numbers of lice. Still a great beat though - we hadn't really fished the bottom end before but there is some fantastic water for dry fly. Best grayling also 16".

13 Trout, 7 Grayling

After a slow start, caught fish most of the day on Tungsten patterns and a few good grayling up in the water but it dropped right off in the afternoon. Still caught a few but not in the same numbers. A lovely stretch of river, well looked after and a joy to fish. Biggest fish of the day being a grayling about 1 and a half pounds.

15 Trout, 10 Grayling

Very coloured. 18 inches.

First time on Gromain and it is a beautiful place. Heard the warnings of deadly wading which meant I acted with caution, but even with a bit of water coming through and a bit of a hangover found it OK! Clearly an excellent salmon beat, there are a lot of trout and grayling here too. Caught fish everywhere, actually stopping fishing in a couple of areas where I was getting constant fish around the 6-10 inches mark. Best fish of the day being a 1 and a half pound Grayling. All on deep fished Heavy Nymphs.

25 Trout, 5 Grayling