Feedback & Reports

2 Trout

Good river flows but not a huge amount of activity in shallower runs today. Some flies hatching in the afternoon but the fish weren't taking these. The 3 trout were caught in the deeper holes using a contact nymphing method. Good size fish - 29cm, 28cm and 25cm. A beautiful stretch of wild river set in a stunning valley.

3 Trout

4 Trout

Nothing caught, lost a little one, and saw no rises. Was a bit cold and had just rained.
Saw something very briefly appear from a gap in the bank but not sure on identification, could have been a pole cat or mink? Was very dark brown/black, 30cm ish and not obvious where face/chest?

The beat was as beautiful as ever although the level seemed a little low. I think the recommendation for a 7-8ft rod in the beat description might need revising - I fished with a 6'6" 2wt and still found plenty of parts tight and never felt in danger of not being able to cast far enough.
There was a vast amount of fly life around from the time I started (10am) with upwings of all sizes and shades as well as some stonefly. I started with a very small olive CDC pattern which induced a rise from something very small but after 90mins I hadn't seen a single rise to the naturals so switched to nymphs. A lot of the beat is only shin-deep so I tried all colours and sizes through the odd deeper channel and pockets but only had a gentle pull on a black magic nymph. About 2/3 of the way along the beat around 2pm I finally saw a fish rising to a large, pale-coloured upwing so I switched leaders and went for one of Jonathan Barnes' soft hackle dry flys which immediately got a lovely 7" trout. Dries are so much more fun to fish so I kept the pattern on for the rest of the beat and covered the ankle-deep as well as the knee-seep sections. This resulted in perhaps 15-20 more splashy rises from very small fish even though they were not rising to anything else. Most didn't stay on but I had to unhook a couple of 3" tiddlers and one at 5". I only saw one more fish rising to naturals and, once I covered it, it turned out to be a really lovely, hard-fighting trout of about 11".

This is a thoroughly gorgeous beat and the river is obviously healthy - every stone is covered in caddis larvae and mayly nymphs. I may have seen an otter at distance sliding very quickly out onto the bank ahead of me about half-way up but I definitely saw a mink trotting around bold as brass and working the pools in the lower half of the beat, at one point it jumped onto a rock 5ft from me with a trout in its jaws and we stared at one another. It might be that which makes the trout population maybe feel a little more juvenile than when I used to fish it a few years ago. Aside from the one decent fish, everything I saw was quite small.

3 Trout

Stream very low for time of year.No rises or fish seen moving,but still a great way to spend an afternoon.

Didn’t see a single fish. Nothing. Very disappointing. Was chatting g to farmer who told me there are otters on this stretch of the stream so maybe this has made an impact on the fish. Also lost a lot of flies do to all the over hanging branches. This will only get worse as the leaves grow in though Spring.

1x Six inch brown trout caught in a small pool about 100 yards up from the bridge, fished with a Dragontail Mizuchi Tenkara rod, 7ft level line 2ft of 6x tippet and a copper John kabari on a size 12 hook. I only had a couple of house to fish this beat as I could only escape the wife and kids for a short time. The water was beautifully clear , sky overcast with occasional light drizzle. This beat can be very tight in places and is perfectly suited for tekara fishing. If like me you have limited time, skip the first 200 yards as it looked much more promising further up stream . I will definitely return on my own and fish the beat again when I have all day. Very enjoyable.

1 Trout

Water up and a bit coloured; all taken on dry sedge.

4 Trout

A magic setting!
Straight away saw some mayflies coming off & plenty of empty nymph casings on the rocks. I fished about 4-8pm only covering about half the beat. Little moving (at least that I spotted). I very much felt that you had one shot per pool & my skills would likely not have been up to scratch even if I were less rusty! Sure there'd have been trout in some of the quick runs but I found it hard keeping track or touch with nymphs or sighter-klinkhammers. Surely something to practice!
I'd never been up the valley before &, the following day, walked up to Grwyne Fawr reservoir alongside some army people on training & a friendly team of National Park volunteers doing repairs on the pathways. I wish WUF could get control of the reservoir as it is a wonderful spot but only available through Glenusk (& definitely not cheap to book!).

1 Trout