Feedback & Reports

Fished all afternoon but didn’t see any fish. The highlight of the day was looking over a bridge to see a kingfisher looking up at me. It stayed there for about 10 seconds before flying off down river.

Caught on dry fly under the bridge. Approximately 1lb.
Very few fish seen on this beat. The water does not look healthy, with lots of that slimy olive green weed.
When we came to live in Herefordshire 50 years ago, you could walk along the river Teme and see thousands of trout darting under the banks. I was even able to catch them by hand. These days I see almost no fish in the Teme by Brampton Bryan and there is also that slimy weed similar to the Edw. As a lad, I could catch little trout in really small streams and brooks. These days I see nothing. What have we done to our environment? The tragedy is that those who remember what our rivers and streams used to be are becoming fewer and younger people are accepting the status quo as normality. It makes me angry, but the only way we can address the situation is to realise that there is a major problem.

I hope someone reads this. Please give me a call if you have anything to say. My next fly fishing exped will be Slovenia or Estonia, where the streams are still pristine.

1 Trout

Beautiful remote spot. Lots of bird life. Busy dippers, kingfishers, flycatchers, tree creepers etc. River low and clear. Small fish darting about. So easily spooked. Lots of clambering, crouching, kneeling casts. Obviously going to be a lot of vegetation this time of year. Surprised I didn’t lose a fly.
No hatch or rise throughout the day. Speculative dries saw several missed small fish on a PA. Hooked and lost a slightly larger one on a balloon caddis. Caught a tiddler on a spider but not much opportunity for wets with river in current condition. I’d wait for some decent rain before booking.

1 Trout

What a river.

Fish absolutely everywhere, in places you’d deem too shallow or not fishy at all, but very fussy and spook easy.
It took me about 10 different dry flies to find out what they were eating, and even then some fish were spooking.

I caught and returned 4, countless takes and lost a nice fish of about 1lb in weight right at the bank.

4 Trout

Beautiful day walking the river. Saw one or two little ones pop up but nothing more to report . No bites and no catches and no sightings. Tried various methods of dries and nymphs.

Carried on where I left off yesterday. Not warm and an upstream breeze made things a little tricky. But I managed a few by the end, half on dries, half on nymphs.

11 Trout

Having driven up I only managed a couple of hours at the bottom of the beat. Not a huge number of bugs hatching but there were still fish rising sporadically and, despite my usual incompetence, I managed to catch a few on dries and one on a nymph. Pretty cool in the valley with a gusty upstream breeze but the river looks good and not as thin as I feared. Lovely to be back.

7 Trout

Perfect May conditions, even if water a little low. Slow start but fish got their heads up from about mid morning, feeding on a steady mixed hatch all day.

Only the deeper pools / runs were fishable given the low water, but plenty to cast at with a mix of barbless dries. Managed 7 wbt to around 12", most in the 6" to 9" range. All plump and feisty. First fish of the year so a bit ring rusty resulting in numerous missed takes. Lovely beat, simple wading, probably about 5-6 hours to cover it nicely.

7 Trout

My final session for a few days on the wild streams !!! Thankfully a change of weather Is due in ... hurray!!!!! Mountain llyn time......Fished the lovely Aberedw beat, half twelve till four ... slow going initially!! Not the lovely "wallop" splashy rises of yesterday!! A totally different kettle of trout !! Fun though... as usual I stuck on the tiny dries ...
Weeeeeeeell, when the average depth of the river at the moment is probably twelve inches, dry fly tactics certainly reign supreme ...Lots of insects on parade by one , and, two of the trout I had today were to risers ...nothing huge, in fact the best of four was maybe pushing nine inches !!! Fun though..Although the usual pools didn't produce so much as a boil to my dry ...The fish were in the faster stuff, I did see trout in the deeper pools they seemed spooked... maybe the fresh otter prints along a lot of the beat ....Tarka may have had an afternoon stroll !!!!
I did spot another oil beetle walking down to the beat.... Many of this species are getting quite rare do placed him well off the road!!! Another lovely session on one of my favourite streams....Nearly stopped at the Wye at Builth, but, garden jobs to get nailed, before a pint in The Crown ...Happy Days !!!

4 Trout

Strewth, a school boy error on my behalf, bowled up really an hour or two early today....Knowing its shaded in the Aberedw valley and takes a bit to crank up !!! That's exactly what happened today... Insects didn't really get on thd go till oneish, a mix of olives and Large brook duns. They're similar to the March Brown's, with a slimmer abdomen....
I've got to proof read my reports, as some of it looked gibberish on yesterday's efforts !!! Bloody predicted text ... about as useless as our government !!! Well, not that bad ...... lol !!
Anyway in other news, the fishing , again in the broken riffley stuff , nothing huge to my dry fly offerings....Lovely aggressive splashy takes though..
By half one a good few insects on parade ....Not as many as yesterday, but not a bad show. That nasty easterly wind ...yuk !! Seems it's here for a while. That and low rivers are making it very very challenging!! Twas only the two and a half hours here. I had a meeting with two clients who want a mountain llyn day, then a big reservoirs day in the Cwm Elan .... Here's hoping we get some rain and south westerly winds in April !!!
Five brownies,and two long range releases..... only little chaps but great fun. Amusing watching the dippers... great to see....
Some stone turning revealed lots of young bullheads, masses of baetis nymphs and stone clingers.
A fun session, on a favourite beat ... Things are perking uo folks, get out there, while there's water in them ... it'll be the Elan for me when they get really low ....So come on rain gods ...Three days of the wet stuff please !!!!!! On another stream soooooooooooon .......

5 Trout