Feedback & Reports

Caught more in my last 3 trips to the Wye than ever on the Bristol Avon.

I have just had a pleasant afternoon catching 3 Chub to 4-1/2lb and 5 barbel between 5 & 9 lbs. I also saw salmon jumping, kingfishers, buzzards, and deer and in fact it was a very pleasant afternoon!!

Just to inform you of our catch returns for our day at Cefnllysgwynne yesterday. We arrived at 7.30am under a blanket of cold fog which soon lifted to reveal clear blue skies. The river was slightly up but running clear which for this time of the year was ideal.

The day started well with the 2nd cast producing a 16" brownie falling to a heavy olive bug, this was later followed by a similar sized grayling which was in perfect condition, although things slowed down during the day the pure beauty and wildlife of this river in the summer is more than enough to overwhelm any angler.

During the late afternoon we were fortunate enough to witness a rise on one of the slower stretches, the likes of which I have personally never witnessed before. The whole of the 200+ yard glide suddenly erupted with rising fish and once we had found the right fly (brown or orange bodied klinkhammer) the sport was tremendous, although as with all rises, short lived. Most of these fish were grayling of a size in excess of 12" and its hard to believe when you wade through a pool that you think has few fish in it that there could be so much surface activity.

At the end of the day we totalled 34 fish between the 2 of us, caught on both nymphs and dry flies, but more amazing was the quality of the fish, the majority of both the trout and grayling were exceeding 12". All fish were carefully returned back to the water to fight another day.

We can't wait to return again soon and thank you for the ease of which it is to book these waters it means we can all get on and enjoy the fishing!

Thank you for the up dates on the rivers, please keep them coming. I'm in the forces and I'm away a lot, but it is nice to come home and see how the foundations doing. Haven't had much time to fish at all lately, but when I do I would love to fish the wye and usk. I'm based in Scotland at the moment, and I think the fishing is overpriced and over rated. Good luck with your excellent work and hopefully when I'm based back in the west country I can support you more.

Fishing in the wooded section and starting fishing at first
light I can only describe this as a real red letter day on this fantastic stretch of Wye using a pellet feeder with elipse pellet and paste on the hook. Within the first hour 2 barbel and 2 chub came to the net finishing the day 15.30 with a total 10 barbel with wieghts between 7 and 8 pounds and 15 chub between 3lb with the largest going 5lb 1oz.
After 37 years of barbel fishing this ranks up there with the best and one other great part of the day was meeting Don a real good guy.
who realy cares about the fish and this river.

Thanks for your help and advice for our first visit to the River Wye which turned into one of our best fishing trips ever! The countryside and river was beautiful and the wildlife was amazing Owls, Hawks, Falcons, Kingfishers and a Otter to top it all (Heaven). We caught 36 Barbel to just under 9lbs and numeus Chub to nearly 5lbs over three days between the two of us, all returned safely. Also being keen on photography it was great to be able to take a break from the fishing and photograph the natural surroundings. It was such a pleasure to be able to spend some time on a river that is not over fished and in such good condition, your work is greatly appreciated.

I tried to access fishing on Llyn Bugeilyn, but with the recent rains found that the track wasn't suitable for normal road vehicles, there were lots of large pools and water running off across the track. I went quite a way down then chickened out as I was afraid that if it rained again that it would make the return journey even more hazardous. Not having local knowledge I didn't know how deep the pools were, and although I tested some by walking in, I wasn't sure if they would become impassable.You might like to point out the difficulties of negotiating the track in a mail or in the next booklet, although you say the track is rutted I didn't expect it to be that bad.

I was a bit disappointed as I had travelled from Northampton early that morning, but the beauty of the passport system means there is usually a viable backup and all was saved by a good day on Rhyader AA Craig Goch where I caught six brownies, all around/over 10" and one to 1.5 lb on Bibio and Olive Bumble.

Keep up the good work, will be back soon.

Numerous small brown trout and one grayling at Gofynne on the 11th July 2007.

One hen salmon approx 9 lbs and one cock salmon approx 13 lbs caught on a rapala in the gullies at The Rocks on the 12th July 2007. Both fish returned safely to the water.

Many thanks for a great time.

Hope to come back soon.

Just a quick not to say thanks so much for your advice last Wednesday. My friend and I went down to Penpont and had a very successful evening. There was a rise for Olives going on at about 4pm when we arrived but this tailed off a bit and all went pretty quite for a couple of hours. As the evening went on fish began to head and tail in small pods of about 2 or 3 fish - some quite large. I caught a couple of beauties on size 18 F flies and then some more on olive emerger patterns as the light began to fade. For about half an hour before dark we had excellent sport taking several fish that pushed the 2lb mark and lost a couple of other more substantial fish.

The following morning we had an early start on Glen-a-afon (I think this is how you spell it). Anyway we had a great day. Early morning (c. 6.30am) there was a decent rise underway for - I think - spent olives. That tailed off and then everything went quite. Looking for a change of tactics we put our dry flies and small nymphs away and switched to a 3 fly Czech nymph set up. This change was met with immediate success and we proceeded to catch a number of fine trout up to around 2lb. Again, we lost some larger fish that must have been 3lb+ (but I suppose we will never know.....). Are sea trout partial to the occasional Czech nymph if it is swung strait into their mouth???

Anyway, really just wanted to thank you for persuading us to come down from Oxford. We had a brilliant 24 hours of fishing.

I fished the Wye 5 days last week & both Chub & Barbel were feeding well. My son & I had chub to 5lb + and barbel of 7,8,9 lb & in one session two doubles of 10lb 2oz & 11lb 12oz.

Brilliant.