Feedback & Reports

6 plus my self gathered at Ty Newedd on a glorious autumn day. the river was a little high and fast but perfectly clear.
During the morning session we looked at fishing the slower shallower sections with the duo and a few fish where caught.
Then after an early lunch we got back to the river in time to catch a hatch of LDO that brought about a spell of activity. We spent the afternoon fishing nymphs on a French leader every one was successful in catching a few fish both grayling and the odd OS brownie. It was good to see so many salmon splashing around too, including a couple of very big fish.

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Beautiful location and good access, river looked in great condtion, level and colour...however, we couldn't buy a bite! Tried everything, didn't even see any fish, just one of those days...never mind, that's fishing! The pheasant shoot near us faired better....we'll be back though!

We were very lucky. Heavy overnight rain raised the Irfon, Ithon and Wye at Builth by over 1ft but the Upper Wye only rose 3” to a height of 0.62 on the EA gauge at Ddol Farm. The river was clear and very fishable. The weather was mild, which resulted in good hatches of olives in mid-morning and again in the afternoon. Two of us managed about 30 grayling to about 17” and 6 out of season brown trout to 15”. Most of these were caught on small olive dry flies, casting to rising fish. Fishing slowed about 3pm when the sun fell behind the hills. Nice long beat. Great day.

River low and clear. Roved along the whole stretch catching a few smaller pike on moving baits.

River highly coloured and unfishable due to overnight rain. No fish. A beautiful spot and will visit again. Please may I claim a wash out?

Well what a cracking stretch of river the fishing started off slow not a touch on halibut pellet but all changed when luncheon meat was on. The best chub of 6lb was my new pb and made my day. We will be definitely going back there cheers

Overnight rain caused problems so only a few fish were caught. We managed only one Grayling between us, 35 Dace, 8 Chub and one Brown Trout.

Mornings fishing produded 3 Pike, 8lb, 12lb and a beautiful 3llb 10oz female on dead bait.

43 x grayling 8-15 inches, 1 x chub about 5 pounds, 17 x out of season trout 7-14 inches, long trotting. A cold (6 degrees) dark day with a seemingly permanent mist hanging in the Wye valley ended in rain at dusk. The river was running high but clear, as it has all week, the level coming down very, very slowly. Grayling seemed to be properly on the feed and there are no complaints from me now about their fighting qualities in a strong current. Most of these were junior class fish around 11-13 inches, but a few of the larger ones just failed to make 16 inches. Two days before, I fished the Pwll y Faedda beat which is just downstream, and this also fished very well for grayling with the trotting rod. Generally I like to see the Llanstephan gauge at 18 inches or below for the fly rod in winter. That suggested level is mainly a matter of access (and safety, I suppose). At higher levels than that, the trotting rod is generally a better option on those beats which allow it, provided you can get into a position to cover fish. The easy wading at Abernant is usually a good bet in high water.
Generally speaking, now we have reached mid-November, I don't think the 2012 autumn of grayling fishing will go down as one of the best... and by autumn grayling fishing I mean top of the water sport with dries and spiders and the like. There were good days here and there which some people managed to capitalise on, but not so many opportunities as one flood came after another. We are still getting a few large dark olives hatching after lunch, but consequent rises have been very brief and I expect the fish will probably stay down for most of the time now.
What has really impressed me this week is the number of salmon in the river. I spend a lot of winter days on the main stem of the Wye and I cannot remember a year when so many have been showing - every 5 minutes or so one comes up with a noisy splash, in the usual places and also in some new ones. In the higher water this week I had the impression that upstream movement was still going on slowly. It wouldn't be a bad thing if the rain would stop for a bit now. And a good period of frost, I suppose, will start off the spawning process to round up what has been memorable year for salmon on the Wye.

A damp day but most enjoyable, five trout count in lovely condition and colour. Unfortunately no grayling.