Feedback & Reports

1 or 2 mays about a few upwings and midges about. Returned 19 trout and 6 out of season grayling up to 12" on pheasant tail nymph & black klinkhammer. First class fishing on a beautiful stretch of river in glorious countryside. I was very lucky to have an otter feeding/playing in a pool i was fishing, he never knew i was there. Booked online what a great idea.

I recently had the pleasure of hiring the services of Andrew Cartwright as a guide, whilst on a fishing holiday in mid-Wales. Andrew was not the first guide I contacted, but was the first that gave me a sense that his priority was what I needed.
I had planned to get the most out of my 2 days with him, and he helped me achieve all of my objectives, including reservoir, small river and larger river fishing, and learning a variety of techniques. The only problem for me is trying to remember it all. To that end, Andrew was kind enough to permit me to video him tying some of the flies he uses (a good sample of which he provided on the first day). With his local knowledge, the flies he ties, or his variations on established patterns, will get you into fish way ahead of shop-bought generics.
I can honestly say that the only times Andrew picked up the rod was to demonstrate a technique, or to patiently unpick one of my many tangles! He was on my shoulder at all times to give advice, which he did without ego-tripping in the slightest.
Andrew will take you where he is confident of the best chance of catching, rather than personal convenience - I would strongly recommend a chat with him before booking any fishing beats (he is also a mine of information regarding suitable accommodation!).
I can unhesitatingly recommend Andrew to anyone; he carries a quiet confidence which puts you, the pupil, at ease, and enables a relaxed but effective learning session.
Tight lines!

A very good days fishing, caught five Brown trout (four returned in good condition). All caught on dry fly fished up stream. The flies started hatching around 10am and continued untill I left early evening.
Mostly midge and grannom flies but I also saw two yellow upwing flies that I think were mayflies, and there were small daddies on the grassland next to the river.
Many thanks to everyone involved with WUF, my day fishing made all the easier due to the ease of booking using the online sevice and the excellent description of the beat and directions to it.

Here's a picture for you:

On Sunday I had struggled to get a take for a few hours in the likely spots on the lower reservoir, so headed up to Craig-Goch about 4pm to see if I could find a fish or two. Couldn't pull over or turn round so ended up at the pull-in where the Elan River enters the system and was pleasantly surprised to read on the noticeboard that the previously restricted top-end is open to fishing for the 2008 season.

Thought I'd give it a go and found fish quickly where the river enters the reservoir proper. After about 30 mins fishing and with a couple of fish in the bag I noticed that a sizeable bat was patrolling up and down picking up insects close to the water (in bright sunlight!). After another quarter of an hour or so I hooked into what I thought was the mother of all Elan Valley trout but which turned out to be 2 reasonable fish, one on the point and one on the middle dropper with both fighting hard in opposite directions. Having struggled to net the slightly larger fish on the dropper I was on my knees trying to do something about the fish on the point when it became obvious that the fly on the top dropper was gyrating about in a manner which was proving irresistable to the errant bat. There I was with one angry fish in the net, another going mental on the point and me flapping about like a mad thing trying to stop the bat hooking itself on the top dropper! Incredibly and somewhat fortuitously I managed to not fall in, scare the bat off and land the point fish although the video would not have made pretty viewing. I will always remember this session for almost having a full house of two brown trout and one bat! To even things up a bit it has to be said that I did go arse-over-tit once later on and shipped some water over the top of both waders. I also caught a total of 9 fish, lost 3 others and pricked a few more before 7pm - an eventful 3 hours and much better than watching boring Chelsea against Newcastle on Sky Sports!

Weather warm, overcast, with occasional shower. Client, Rob Ormond, fished from 09:30 to 12:30. 8 fish caught and released, biggest, 1.5, 1.75 and 2lbs. Water clear and height 10.5? (webcam gauge) temperature 52F, old currency. Plenty of fly life, sparse hatches of Large dark Olives, Grannoms, a few larger sedges, and ?Olive Uprights?

Client delighted with the river and the fishing.

Lovely day, the first I have been able to book using the on-line booking system. I only thought of going late on Friday and was out of vouchers, so only the on-line booking system made the trip possible. A really lovely beat with plenty of interesting pools and runs to explore. All 12 trout I caught were of a decent size (around the half pound mark). Few signs of moving fish during the day, but they were obviously feeding below the surface. I shall have to go and take another look at mayfly time...

We enjoyed some sensational Olive fishing on the Usk over the past few days despite the cold NE winds. Thank you very much for your pre-trip guidance and your excellent and friendly service.
I have attached one or two pictures of our trip. I managed to wrestle a monster brownie on the last day that gave me a run for my money! The fish was carefully returned to fight and more importantly spawn another day. I am writing an article about fly fishing on the Usk for fly fishing and fly tying and Trout and Salmon so I will give you notice of a publishing date in case it is of interest.
Finally if you talk to the nice gentleman who oversees the fishing at Fenni Fach could you let him know that we did very well and caught a number of nice fish on Olives - he came and had a chat with us and was very friendly and gave us some great advice - I imagine that he is wondering how we got on.

Here is the catch return:

Cefn Rhosan Fowr 17th April: 2 Brown Trout (both 2lbs)
Fenni Fach 18th April: 10 Brown Trout (up to 2lb)
Pentscallog 19th April: 4 Brown Trout (all over 2lbs + one monster!)

As you can imagine the fish (4lb8oz) gave one hell of a scrap. I hooked the fish right in the head of the pool and she steadily charged down stream right to the tail (some 40 or so yards - you can see how far it ran from the picture). Chasing fish downstream reminded me of fishing in New Zealand where sometimes you have to follow a big fella over various sets of rapids and through pool after pool..... At one point in the fight the line got snagged on a big boulder towards the back of the pool and grated back and forth until suddenly (and miraculously) it sprang free and the battle was back on.... I just managed, thanks to a lot of side strain, to steer the fish away from the tail of the pool because I think it wanted to plunge down the rapids. My 4 weight was bent in a horseshoe and somehow the light tippet held just long enough to coax the clonking trout to the net.....

Once again I turned up without a pen today so apart from leaving my vouchers I was unable to leave any catch return details. This was my first visit to this beat and it was absolutely fantastic. In three hours I landed 22 beautifully marked brown trout to 14" and lost countless others. After some rain, presumably, up the valley the water colour changed from clear to strong milky tea the sport switched off and I contentedly stopped fishing.

Thanks for all the updates on the river conditions first thing this morning. Things were not looking good on the drive over. It was raining heavily and the Usk below Usk was bank high and brown.

However, the river above Crickhowell was coloured but fishable. There was a huge hatch of Grannom from about 11.30am and some LDOs in the afternoon. In between the frequent heavy rain showers, there was a decent rise of fish. It was one of those days I was glad to have a good waterproof. I found it hard work with dry fries when the Grannom were about.

Two of us managed about a dozen trout between 10" and 16". There was one overwintered stock fish, but the rest looked wild. The beat has not been stocked yet this year. Half and half between dries and nymphs. Saw one March Brown floating past.

Things went quiet about 3pm, and we packed up just before 4pm.

Overall a fantastic springs days fishing. One minute belting rain and high winds, the next the air was filled with flies and fish are rising.