Feedback & Reports

Fished the Escley and the Eddw (again) last Friday. Misty start, cleared to bright sunshine, then a little cloud around in the afternoon. Very warm, Mayflies coming off steadily all day. Water low and clear.

2 of us fished R37 on the Escley from about 8am. Lost a good fish to a nymph early on. Had 2 belting fish (1-2lb) rise to the dry but didn't connect. Saw several fish around the 2lb mark, very spooky though. Great fishing, but eager for the evening rise as spotting the fish not rising in the day was tricky.

Went to the Eddw (R16) just for some sport after lunch. Quite a bit of flow and colour. Fish rising right through. I had a dozen or so to 10". None taken.

Returned to the Escley (R37) for the evening rise, after stopping in Hay for a look at the tail attending the festival. Spooked many rising fish from quite a distance away. Hooked and lost a good fish to the Mayfly last cast. All in all I hooked, lost and saw fish that have been in my dreams since and will have me returning sooner rather than later.

Fantastic river and some fantastic fish in there. I will return...probably tomorrow!

Bit of feedback on a weekends fishing in some cracking surroundings. Been wanting to fish these waters for some years now and finally made it though probably the wrong weekend. In spite of great weather I saw only one fish rise all weekend. Under advise from the booking office I took a booked beat on Saturday as I wasn't going to be there before 10am.
B45 - Cilwych - hard work and seemed pretty dead. Catching a 1.5lb fish on 3rd cast was a mistake as it set the expectations. Three hours later got a 6oz fish to go with it. Adjourned to the pub at 1:30, The Star in Talybont-On-Usk (excellent beer) to consider my options. Decided to drive around and try and find another beat. Opted for
R38 - Longtown - fancied the idea of mayfly. Only saw two lonely mayfly spinners looking for friends. Again nothing moving on the surface but did catch 33cm grayling from one run and had a follow from a good sized trout. On copper bead nymph #16.
Used White House campsite (Builth Wells) overnight, good clean facilities and cheap. Stones throw from pubs which was good but couldn't find anywhere decent to eat.
R19 - Llynfi Dulas (Middle) - couldn't fish as someone else already there at 8am !
R20 - Llynfi Dulas (Upper) - fished this from 9am to 1pm. Bit overgrown in places and took a while to work it out. Copper bead nymph on short leader produced 13 fish and lost/missed a few. Also got one to come up to a smallish CdC mayfly. Only saw one fish rise, got that with the nymph. Fish were good size 7 of them between 23 & 29cm the other 7 below 20cm. Loads of fish at very top where it is open and the bottom a most unappealing red silt. Must have been 50 fish in the space of 20yds but all hugging the bottom and moving out of the way of my nymph. Some surprisingly deep holes, two were close to the top of my chest waders and I'm 6'3". Really feel that I should have caught a lot more than 14 as there were fish all the way up through the beat. Surprisingly only once caught 2 fish from the same pool/run.
The Griffin (on the walk back to the car) was a good pub with good beer & food.
R45 - The Honddu (Usk) - being close I had a look at this. One fish visible from bridge so took a walk downstream but again nothing moving or visible in the water and little fly life so opted not to fish it and have a look round Brecon before driving home.
Some nice waters and I have tickets left so will be back but disappointed at lack of fly life and rising fish. Fished two beats that are noted for mayfly but only saw a handful. In Somerset and Wiltshire they've been coming off for a couple of weeks now. On the Dove in Derbyshire the first week in June was always excellent so I thought they should have been showing last weekend, are they later in Wales?

4 Brown trout (3 over 1 lb) and some small salmon par. Black Klinkhammer and a small PTN fished kiwi style until dusk then just the klinkhammer. Conditions were very bright with the hot sun forcing the fish in to the deeper pools. The breeze was predominantly upstream and the river was a little murky from debris and silt. Hatches were very patchy right up until 2100 hrs when some olives and black sedge took to the wing. The evening rise was good with some very confident takes on the klinkhammer. Great sport!

Several missed fish, but 3 successfully caught on Mayfly imitations. approx weights = 1x1 lb, 1x1.5 lb, 1x 0.75 lb.

2 x 8" browns (released) 1 on an Adams other on olive goldhead.

A great beat with great access. A very hot and sunny day with varying wind direction saw the bigger fish parked up in the deeper, more shady locations until well into the session. The evening did however produce 2 x brown trout, 1 being approx 6oz (taken on nymph) and the other just over a 1lb (taken on orange klinkhammer). Both fish returned to fight another day.
I would also like to mention and thank the booking office staff who were very helpful in sorting out my fishing 1st thing on a Monday morning.

No fish caught. No fish hooked! One fish missed!
The river conditions were good - clear and not too low, the weather was sunny/bright with slight breeze. No fish were rising until mid afternoon.
Nymph fishing produced no takes (GRHE, PTN). The fly life was minimal with very occasional mayfly, olives, spinners. Rises were few and far between.
Had one rise to a Grey Wulff after trying numerous imitations. 3 trout were chasing minnows in the shallows. The fish density in the river is extremely low. A black American mink took a brown trout (~ 9") close to the bank. A local worker decided to go for a swim in the pool below the bridge! The access through (over!) gates along the right bank (when facing upstream)is poor and potentially hazardous at the last gate before the downstream beat limit. Unfortunately a very disappointing fishing experience.

Catch return: 3xBT 1-1.5 lbs, a couple around 0.5 lb.

Vey hot sunny day, river clear and low. Dead from lunchtime
until I ledt around 1930.

Morning 3xBT 1-1.5 lbs, 2 on woolly buggers fished on a deep sink tip in fast water, and one on a mayfly emerger fished fairly deep. Couple more around 0.5 lb one dry one nymph.

9 Grayling - to 2lbs
1 Trout

A hot, bright day. Grayling taken in the morning on beaded PTN/GRHE. They were realy having it - lovely slow unmissable pulls (so how come I missed so many?). Sporadic Mayfly hatch in the afternoon with the odd trout rising.
No doubt the evening rise was something to behold but, sadly, by then I was back on the A44 heading east (one of the perils of being a wage slave)

A delightful section of river