Feedback & Reports

Quite a challenge working out the best approach to get to the water without breaking your neck, but once this was sorted out, very wild fishing indeed, water was a little to low for it to fish well, and as a result no fish were caught, lovely quite day, would definitely go back.

Set in a steep (vertical in places) sided gorge with moss covered rocks and many fallen trees criss-crossing the stream, this was exactly the sort of fishing I was after.
Care needed to be taken when accessing the beat as some of the path had eroded away, no doubt after the recent heavy rains. These rains however meant that the water appeared to be at a normal levels.
I fished the beat from 7am-9am, fishing Tenkara style with a short (for Tenkara) 10ft rod which was perfect. All fish fell to a GRHE spider variant and all were returned.
I lost count after the first 10 fish or so. The largest two were 10 and 14 inches. The later a cock with kyped jaw and striped flanks, taken in a relatively small pool at the end of the beat! Fantastic!

10 Trout

Great days fishing on this magical stream. Seemed to catch it just right; river fairly low but with a tinge of colour after the previous days rain. Caught countless trout in the 6-8 inch range, with 3 trout in the 10-12 inch range. Every likely looking pool produced a trout. Fished a black magic nymph under an elk hair caddis. Fish came to both.

15 Trout

River at bare bones level, at least I could check out the make up of the deep pools for future use. Trout very wary, caught 7 up to 7" from the now short faster streams. All on small paras.

7 Trout

Home decorating responsibilities met, at last able to get out again! Went for the extreme in canyon Clettwr to find varied fly life all day but only saw one rise. Many pools changed with old trees gone and some more recent additions, its a new experience every time. Caught 10 between 5 and 10", mainly on PT and Hares Ear nymphs under a klink, with 3 off the surface. No sign of the bigger brethren.

10 Trout

My first time on the Clettwr and having read the catch returns it felt like I was about to embark on an expedition into some unexplored rainforest.
I initially struggled to find the start of the beat as I could only find one of the white posts that were meant to lead down to it. This was right by the car so from there had to rely on the maps provided, an OS map and the footpath to get down to where I assumed I could start fishing. Even then it took a while to find somewhere with a gentle enough slope to safely climb down to reach the water. This I eventually achieved but I am sure I missed out a good chunk of the beat.
Once I was down in the gorge I was in my element. To me this really is the epitome of wild stream fishing. Down there you feel like you are miles away from civilization, the only footprints seen belonged to Otters and the challenge of making your way upstream, sometimes past quite daunting obstacles makes it even more satisfying. To top it off the fish were feeding and over the course of four and a bit hours landed 12 fish. The first and biggest fish was a cracker at 16 inches which absolutely smashed into my Parachute Adams. It was taken from a deep pool which I shortly afterwards very nearly slipped into as I tried to get past it. I also had a 13" fish further up and lost another of a similar size. The rest were mostly between 6 and 8 inches. Most were taken on the Klinkhammer and a few of the smaller fish were taken on a spider fished New Zealand style. Takes were really aggressive and I missed goodness knows how many and lost even more.
It was a warm, still and humid day and as a result the place was teeming with insects, many of which I have never seen before. There was also a small but steady trickle of Mayflies throughout the whole time I was there.
All in all an amazing day. Unfortunately a limited amount of time and the challenging terrain resulted in me only covering about half the beat. For this reason I will definitely be back but as I have now experienced first hand why so many other anglers have reported getting wet. I will next time bring along a waterproof bag for my phone, wallet etc.

12 Trout

Still very low despite some rain of the previous day and night. Managed to tempt a couple of fish but only fished for an hour in the end. Still a magic place to go fishing.

2 Trout

River low and gin clear, only had time to fish between 12.30pm and 2pm, so fished a few of the pools up to the first footbridge bridge only. Tried klink and dink with no luck, then wading through one pool spooked a few fish lying hard on the bottom so tried a single heavy nymph to get down to them. Lost one after a short fight.
n.b when I was leaving someone else was parked up looking distinctly like they were about to go fishing. As I was leaving I didn't say anything, but I thought W.S. beats were booked by one person only per day.

A grand day out in the sun. Nothing was moving to small dries/paras, so switched to klink and dink. 4 trout to a tiny flashback ptn, and 1 (the smallest) to the klink. 4 were 7" to 10",and one at 12/13" was my best from the Clettwr. All in great condition.

5 Trout

Plenty of water in the river, and clear with only a slight tinge. Fished the afternoon and found some trout willing to look at and occasionally take a para adams. Landed 6 between 8 and 11", all in excellent condition. Hard wading and casting as ever, but very worthwhile.

6 Trout