Feedback & Reports

1 grayling (10"), 1 brown trout (12") both returned safely.
Nymph fishing in the morning and early afternoon produced 1 grayling plus several delicate takes by grayling but no brown trout. Minimal fly life until mid afternoon when the occasional mayfly, spinner or olive appeared.
Rising trout no where to be seen except in one flat 150 yd long section when I estimate a max of 10 fish could be seen rising. Finally caught one brown trout on a BWO and missed another. The pools provided no sport on nymph (GRHE, PTN) or dry fly. The river was in good physical condition and the weather was warm and bright. The scenery is spectacular. The access between bank and river is very poor - I lost count of the number of times that I had to crawl under barbed wire because there was no stile (following the path of previous anglers). I was wading whenever possible. Overall an interesting experience if slightly disappointing. The lack of visible fish and poor response to nymphing in the deeper pools was disappointing compared to earlier season reports.

2 small trout and 4 salmon parr. Trout to coch-y-bonddu.

3 Trout to 1lb caught and returned. Only fished lower part of the beat where good numbers of fish were evident but mainly feeding on small dead fly (spinners) which neither of us had a decent imitation of! Those we did catch took Ginger Quill or Tups. River condition was low and weather was hot and sunny.

5 x lovely trout to 14", 3 x Grayling to 16" caught on mixture of small tungstone hares ear nymph (with touch of sparkle)& small cdc,s & klinkers. Scorching day, fabulous beat. Fishing at its very best. Directions a bit vague for us dumb Devon boys!! Thanks to all at W&U for a memorable day.

An accessible beat offering a very pretty piece of water. Very hot day with a steady hatch for most of it - mainly olives and a reasonable amount of mayfly. 5 trout caught on small dry patterns - Adams / Klinkhammer (olive) - 5" to 10". 1 caught on the lower beat, 4 on the upper. All returned. Really enjoyable day, peaceful and remote.

4 x trout to 12". Still very hot and not much insect life about, but the odd one came up to a Klinkhammer.

Curiosities seen during the day were the biggest eel I have ever seen swimming past me (not a lamprey) and the trout I caught on the surface in the top weir pool which had something sticking out of its mouth. The object turned out to be the tail of a loach fully 4 inches long jammed in its gullet, the skin worn away by gastric juices, but the tail and barbuled head quite recognizable. (I tend to forget this now as we fuss about one fly or the other, but my experience as a lad fishing in brooks with a worm for the pot was that trout of any size in small rivers are usually making at least half their living from smaller fish). And, by the way, what a very beautiful place Mowley Wood is at this time of the year - huge fields golden with buttercups along the river.

Pete had 6 trout to 11" Cliff blanked.

We had a very pleasant day on the river last Wednesday. My cousin caught his first and second ever fish on the fly which pleased him ( one trout and one out of season grayling).

I had one trout of about a pound and five smaller trout plus a 3lb chub and one small grayling. All fish were returned to the water to fight another day.

Also fished the River Ithon Severn Arms water on Friday afternoon for a very short period of time before the heavens opened. Had three small trout and missed quite a few others on the dry fly. There appears to be quite a few small fish in the bottom beat of this fishery.

Hope to be up in your direction again in the near future.

25th of May
3 Trout all to just over the pound in weight taken on Klinkhamer extreme emerger patterns. Very few trout were rising until later in the day when mayfly and olives were emerging.

27th May
2 Grayling to about 1lb each and 12 Trout ranging from 9 to 14 inch. Initially they were taking the same emerger as the 25th but switched to drys, primarily mayfly and yellow may dun imitations. Plenty of heavy takes throughout the day. Overall an extremely enjoyable session.

Looking forward to booking this beat again in the future as it's a good challenging stretch.

Report on Monnow Valley, 2nd June: 2 x 15 inch trout.

As you know, I've been finding Monnow Valley a bit of a challenge this year,what with lost fish and the jungle etc. However, I'm now a happier man. On this very hot morning, I wasted a bit of time at the lower part of the beat on what always turned out to be small chub - they can rise with a surprising commotion. Then I came to the bottom of a reasonably decent run below the mill, a place I haven't managed to reach before, and saw a miniscule rise just below hanging branches - which really looked like small fry. But I flicked a Klinkhammer up there anyway and on the second cast a big trout came up and whacked it hard. On Simon's advice I was using a heavier tippet.

Played it, netted and measured it, admired it and released it, giggling to myself all the while like John Wilson. All this had made a fair old commotion in the run, but something made me tie on a Tungsten Hare's Ear and trundle it through just in case. You guessed it: there was a solid draw and another fish was on, which turned out to be as like the first as two peas in a pod - both beautiful, pristine wild fish with a tinge of blue in the colouring, one male and one female. Finally, to my amazement, having released the second, I saw got a glimpse of yet another large fish in the same hole. Could a brace become a leash? I was starting to feel like Mr Castwell in GEM Skues' short story about the man condemned to stand for all eternity in the same place catching the same fish, in a special version of hell reserved for anglers. Did you read that one? Anyway, I lobbed the nymph up yet again, there was a nervous twitch, but this fish was pricked and didn't come again. Back to the real world. I spent the rest of the morning trying to stalk another couple of fish at the top end, but no joy this time. Apart from that bit of action, not very much rising on the whole beat in the hot weather although a few flies about - mayfly duns and spinners, some of the smaller olives, yellow mays, a sedge I didn't recognise, damsel flies now and of course the midges. I couldn't stay for the evening.