Feedback & Reports

Water had come up a bit from last week which was a help. Within about 15 minutes of starting the old man had caught a shad on a submerged dry fly from below the bridge so we left that bit to avoid running into anymore.

Rear of the day was quiet with the odd fish coming from here and there, no real rises. Most of the fish came from the very top of the beat where fishing last week on the beat above we’d seen them rising but they were out of range.

Another good day, thanks very much.

10 Trout, 1 Other

Fished 10.30-4.00,river low even after some recent rain, occasional drizzle and chilly. Fish came steadily from mid way to the bottom of the beat. Dolmeudwy is a bit of a precarious wade now in the low water and increasingly slippery conditions. You never feel that you are far from a fateful slip there ,and as there are going to be thousands and thousands of silver tourists flooding into Tweed next week, the last thing I wanted was a broken wrist, which despite a couple of stumbles ,was avoided.
Hardly saw a fish rise today, nothing caught on the top, and nearly all fish taking various nymphs, Rang the changes with the dropper but only a few caught on a Partridge and Orange and, surprisingly, didn’t hook any OOS Grayling. Lost count of the number of small 6-7”trout today, probably 20+ along with 3 or 4 around 9”to 10”. An evening rise wasn’t likely with the conditions, so an earlier finish than I had intended.

2 Trout, 1 Grayling

Tricky gusty winds at times but a lovely day out with plenty of fish obliging but more lost than landed unfortunately. All fish caught on nymphs with the highlight of the day being a cracking fish of around 2lb which put up a great scrap in the current on light tackle.

5 Trout, 2 Grayling

Cloudy day with sunny intervals, variable downstream wind that was very strong at times.

Had a slight accident while walking to my preferred staring spot twisting my ankle, I wasn't as mobile as I am usually so didn't fish much of the beat.

Both fish taken on a PTN

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

Perdigons in fast water under the bridge surprisingly brought no response. Unweighted duo of hare’s ears only attracted had and a tiny trout. Small gold head brought a better trout and a small grayling further upriver. Walked to hut for a meal and watched trout rising in the flats directly in front. Tied on a caenis and approached flats in stealth mode with baby steps on the bedrock. No takers despite the fly fishing well along lines where the rises were happening. Kept the rod strung up for the walk back to the steps near bridge cottage. Spotted splashy rises (there were plenty of upwings about by 7.00) on the far side. Waded back in through shallow fast water and cast Deer hair emerger into a pocket. Immediately grabbed by 12” b t . A good way to end a less than stellar day.

3 Trout, 1 Grayling, 2 Other

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

Didn’t arrive until tea time and then got side tracked fiddling around with different lines on a new rod purchased for Argentina and Chile in the new year. Must have looked very silly casting a 15ft 11wt in the current conditions but so be it.
There were a number of rising fish when I actually started fishing at 6ish at the bottom of the Spring Pool. Klink and Dink down to below the bridge, Klink Greenwell, Adam’s ,and PTN variants all taking fish, then single dry fly back up, finishing almost in darkness at 9.45. There were a lot of flies on the water this evening. 4 or maybe 5 species( albeit just based on size), of sedge, a good number of upswings, and a fall of spinners which were still over the water at around 9.00 o’clock.Small trout seemed to be mopping up the spinners, and a small yellow spent spinner pattern accounted for some of them. The best fish, a lovely 14-15” specimen clobbered a #12 Elk hair caddis in the last couple of minutes of light to round off a very nice evening in sultry ,still conditions. Fortunately, I had just changed up to a heavier tippet as well as I would have almost certainly been snapped off otherwise.
There was one other surprise this evening. I expected a slimy, slippery wade down Heirag and Heron’s, but was taken by how clean the bedrock and the large boulders were given the long period of low water. Perhaps Welsh Water have started behaving themselves and stopped releasing effluent into the river in low water conditions, unlike some of the disgraceful incidents that have been well publicised on the Usk in recent years. Or the very low rainfall of late has resulted in less nutrient leach from adjacent farmland. Either way, that, along with the number of insect species seen , was a bit of a pick-me-up especially after another dire star to the salmon season.

14 Trout, 1 Grayling

Tough conditions. Wye as low as we've ever known, bright sunshine. And due to having to decamp from the Dee in the morning and set up camp here, we didn't wet a line until 1.09 pm. Still winkled out a few fish. One 3lb chub, 25 odd trout (a couple over 1lb) and one 1lb plus grayling. 90% came to an olive but a few to the nymph when we couldn't find anything rising. All returned safely.

25 Trout, 1 Grayling, 1 Chub

Other was shad, difficult fishing today. Abundant fly life all day.

5 Trout, 2 Grayling, 6 Other