Feedback & Reports

Pleasant day out on the Wye which started out with an upstream wind, which obviously didn't inconvenience me enough so it changed to a downstream wind later in the day. The weather was warm with occasional cloud, and sometimes the wind dropped enough for the odd fish to take off the surface.
I fished a heavy nymph under a an indicator and slowly made my way up stream, but only on the right bank. Which is very easy due to the path and occasional steps to the runs.
I saw a nice salmon in the pool below the house, I managed to get a good look before it spooked and shot off into the depths.
Overall a very relaxing beat, that is very well maintained and accessible, there are some more difficult runs and pools to get to for those of you want to risk a soaking though.

2 Trout, 3 Grayling

The Wye is a very wide river at this place. It wouldn’t look out of place in a David Attenborough documentary on Canada. All that was missing was the grizzly bears. And the salmon. (The latter not showing themselves today, due to the low flow I suppose.) The water was running very clear and it really is a lovely looking bit of river to spend a sunny spring afternoon.

In contrast to yesterday’s experience on the Rive Usk, very few mayflies were in evidence, put off hatching by the bright sunshine no doubt. No fish were seen to be rising either. Never before have I fished such a large river. A long beat too, at roughly 1 ½ miles. To be honest, without any rising fish, I was unsure where to start. Hiring a local guide for the day wouldn’t have been a bad idea. The beat map and information on the pools from Wye &Usk Foundation / Fishing Passport were detailed enough, albeit more suited to salmon fishermen I’d say.

I set off downstream towards the Llanstephan suspension bridge, listing to the sounds of the Wye in spring: The rush of the falls, the splashing of mallards, a blackbird singing for a mate, motorbikes using the A470 as a racetrack…

I looked into the gloom of the deep Heirag pool. No fish were visible, so I plumbed its depths with some weighted flies – a cone-headed woolly bugger and a tungsten-beaded shrimp – hoping for a big trout. If any fish were present, they showed no interest in my offerings.

I tied out a gold beaded Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear. Ten minutes of casting got no response, but the water here just ‘looked right’ for trout. I persisted. I was just about to lift off into another cast when a fish took the fly. It put a good bend in the 6wt rod, before throwing the hook. I estimate it would have been around the one-pound mark. Next cast, another tug without a hookup. Then nothing. A cold wind started to blow upstream.

Back to the river. Moving upstream again, I waded out some distance onto a section of gravel. With no luck here, I returned back to the place where I had some interest earlier. I stuck with the gold beaded GRHE, and cast it out into the run.

With the most delicate of takes, a brown trout took the nymph. It was well hooked and I was able to bring him to the net. A plump little fish of about ten inches. With its large bright red spots, I have to say it was a better looking fish than its Usk cousins caught yesterday. It swam away strongly.

Having found a productive spot, I’m sure I could have brought more trout to net. Unfortunately, I had to be elsewhere later that day, so I followed my principle of finishing on a good fish, and called it a day mid-afternoon.

(full report and more photos on my blog: afishingdiary.com)

1 Trout

The weather was not too bad and as B had a fish on the fly of 12lb on Friday 19th we were in good spirits. As I am a relative beginner with the salmon rod you will probably have a laugh now. B S was with me to help and guide me down through the pool under the bridge with three long boards, we fished the top of the run and down on to the first board, half way down that board B said "ok pal you're fine now, no problems" and went to tack up himself with the spinning rod.
I reached the end of the board and a fish took! Now the fun part, I was told do not strike like a trout just let the fish take it and raise your rod, I did this with B shouting "Give it some wellie! Hit it!" by this time my rod was at twelve o'clock and I had no where to go, as you can guess off it came.
With a rollicking in my ear I started again, finished the second board on to the third when wham my rod went over, well I hit this one but it felt totally different to the first fish. I landed it and it was a shad. I do know what it feels like to have a salmon on the fly having played a fish B hooked and playing fish on the spinning rod.
So one salmon lost, one shad caught and confirmation of B catching one on Friday for all the doubters out there.

1 Other

A lovely day was had, with changeable weather and good hatches of flies including yellow may dun and white mayfly. The hatch lasted a good 2-3 hours during which there was a purple patch for the hapless fisherman - me! In fact I lost count of how many fish I hooked... several got off, a few of the smaller fish - parrs - I let off in the river without bringing to the net. There were a few larger fish, trout and grayling up to 1lb and several smolts too.
Strangely though, even though the mayfly continued hatching, the fish seemed to all but stop rising around 16:00 and I didn't get any interest at all. No sign of salmon.

10 Trout, 5 Grayling, 10 Other

Very beautiful beat, nice fishing hut (especially in the rain), no fish.

1 Trout

River below summer levels which perhaps opened up more water to access?
A pedantic approach to "dry fly only'' to rising fish left one rod blank, the majority fell for an olive shell back nymph fished NZ style through the faster water. Slab rock very slippery, water crystal clear. The young boy in the group sends his thanks for the fly vest "on offer to a good home'' in the fishing hut. Great day on a cracking beat.

15 Trout, 12 Grayling

Overcast and no wind to speak of, river clear and low, again, but a good few fish showing. Fish came from the Heirag, Herons and Bridge pool gutter. The type flies used didn't appear to matter, nor their size - everything from a Grannoms #14 to size 10 Connemara Black. One very big fish, either a huge brownie or a small grille lost at the tail of the Bridge Pool Gutter - estimations of 3 to 6 lb. Some would say "character building"!!! Shortly after 5, the heavens opened and it was like a tropical storm - and we called it a day, a very good day.

15 Trout, 1 Grayling

Hottest day of the week and we catch the most and the biggest of the week. First came in the morning to a gold shrimp at the cottage pool, then nothing till after lunch. 2 from the Heirag to a tungsten bead hares ear and the remainder from the Herons run. Biggest just over the pound. By far the best beat in low water

9 Trout

Hot day and low water. Fish taken in the main on wet flies with a GRHE . One additional smolt, with a further 6 missed. Entertaining but few large fish seen. My thanks to Jon Morris for an excellent day's tuition/guidance.

4 Trout, 3 Grayling