Feedback & Reports

Third and final day of a long awaited fishing trip. Third day of chilly, cloudy skies, rain and a scarcity of fly life and surface action. Hey ho!
I love Dinas, easy to find, your car needs a bit of clearance to park near the river. Plenty of variety and I know it holds a very good head of trout.
Not a massive nymphing fan, but needs must. Caught and returned 3 hard fighting wbt to about 12". Then approaching the end of a short but enjoyable session it happened. Hooked into a fish that just dug its fins in and sat in the current, immovable on my 3lb leader. Then it tore off downstream, taking me down to the backing. I had to exit the river and run down the bank to recover line. I honestly thought I had hooked a salmon. After a 10 minute tussle, praying my light tippet would hold out, I netted a stunning 4lb (estimated against my other top 2 giant wbt's), 22 inch or thereabouts hen wbt.
After a quick pic I held her in the shallows to revive her. I could not believe how fresh this fish was after a such a muscular scrap. A few gulps, a few writhes then a kick of that powerful tail and off. Wonderful and her future contribution to the wbt gene pool preserved.
Still shaking as I write this, won't catch a bigger wbt this season, or indeed, for some time to come. What a river, what a fish, what a day!

4 Trout

1 Trout

Lovely beat, but only managed to net 3 fish on a GRHE. Few rises, tried few dry flies but none taken. Stuck to nymphing most of the time. Missed a few. Will be back again to try my luck.

3 Trout

4 Trout

4 Trout

River strongly coloured and a little high. Nothing rising. Fished with nymph. Caught three, all small and returned.
On a better day I am sure this easily accessible beat would offer more. Will return.

3 Trout

The water was high and dark with recent rain. Nasty squalls made the going hard and, after some hours with only one good take on a nymph, I beat a retreat. PS there are a lot of plastic bottles, probably from the river in spate, on the riverbank. I took away what I could, but it needs looking at.

Arrived at the beat at 8am and the river was very muddy after heavy rain through the night. Decided to give it a go anyway as fishing days are hard to come by these days. Found a couple of seams where the muddy flow joined clearer water gently flowing from pools so approached them with some upstream nymphing which paid off with 3 trout all around 12".
On another note I fished today in felt soled boots which I decided to try after fishing the last 3 seasons in vibram soled boots which, despite the added studs, never gave me much confidence. They were a huge improvement, I would not have been able to wade in my vibram boots today, the visibility was so bad that I could not see 2" below the surface let alone the river bed. The felt soled boots have another level of grip, I am aware of the risk of transferring parasites between rivers if not dried properly but if this is done, I don't fish regularly enough for this to be an issue, for me felt soled boots will always be the way forward.

3 Trout

All on nymphs, no rising fish.

4 Trout

5 x Brown Trout C&R. Fished under the instruction of Chris Price who was excellent and I'd highly recommend.

5 Trout