Feedback & Reports

Fished in the afternoon, bright blustery day, very occasional fish rising, caught nothing, but lovely stretch of the river.

River very low and clear. Fly fishing only - mainly using dry fly. Small grayling caught on dry fly.
Very few fish spotted - contrary to years ago when the river held a good stock of trout and grayling. We wondered whether the prescence of otters in the river is having a detrimental effect on fish stocks?
WUF Note: We would caution against assuming low stocks of fish if nothing is seen. This is quite often the case in low, clear water conditions, especially when nothing much is hatching.

1 Grayling

What a beautiful place to spend a day. Easy directions to follow. River low so wading easy most of the length. Very bright. Downstream wind so dry fly difficult. Resorted to wet. Got three fish on and returned but more than that missed. Two a very good size - 1lb and 1.5lb perhaps. Felt very lucky to spend a day on the river here.

3 Trout

Fly fishing using a Cascade tube fly and a Silver Stoat's Tail. Fished the left hand bank on beat 4 and the top of beat 5. Low water conditions, bright sunshine and a stiff, chill breeze. No fish takes.
Superb remote location with secure bankside parking and ease of access to the river. Anglers devoted to their mobile phone will need to drive to Hay-on-Wye to obtain a signal.

River low and fairly clear. Access quite easy. I fished a dry Parachute Adams. 1 or 2 fish rising, and a few flies about - small upwing. Weather was mainly sunny with a chilly west wind. The fish were in the range 3 - 4 ounces, in good condition. Fishing accompanied by mock battle on the military ground nearby, didn't seem to faze the fish.

6 Trout

With low water and strong sunlight early on this was not going to be a day of big catches. Fortunately cloud came in by mid-morning and I was lucky to get a fish of a pound and three quarters on a grey shrimp near the bottom of the top section, so to speak. As in the past the lovely pools up here then refused to yield further trout so after a walk back to the car I later concentrated on the middle and bottom sections. There were steady risers after lunch in one pool but the downstream wind that prevailed today made extension of the dry fly leader difficult so I soon reverted to nymph and shrimp or a cast purely of PTNs, and might have added to my score with trout hooked and lost or simply bumped in the way the down-and-across fisher risks. Cold winds and night temps made for meagre rewards on the river but it was a pleasure to be away from the very Roman city of Bath for a few days.

4 Trout

Managed a days fishing on the Upper Taff (Merthyr Town water). Despite the very low water there was a Lot of ldo's and the occasional bwo on the water too. The fish were in the faster water rising. Managed to catch two dozen or so fish ranging from 1/2lb up to colossal 4lb plus fish on an ldo pattern. Even though the river has been stocked I only caught one stocked fish.
I also managed an hour on the lower Taf Fechan and managed a dozen fish on a single klinkhammer in the fast pocket water.

24 Trout

Rough weather, green damsel sinking line 1st time double 1 fish on point 2nd came up and snatched the dropper both landed.

8 Trout, 5 Other

Lovely stretch of river. Water low but plenty enough for the purpose. Downstream wind so mostly wet fly. Black Pennell took the majority. All small - in fact, suspiciously similar in size. Wondered whether it may have been the same fish five more times. Anyway, he's hopefully going to get older and wiser and much, much bigger.

6 Trout

Cool overcast morning followed by sunny afternoon. Water dropping very slowly at about 8" and 50F - no significant rise /rain since end of March. 3 Salmon showed in Vanstone Stream & Vanstone Pool, but nothing caught.
50 canoes between 11:00 and 14:00 = mostly extremely courteous and well behaved.
Huge improvement to the access to the pools compared with 2 yrs ago - well done Mick!