Feedback & Reports

The Irfon was very low and clear (around 0.24m on the Cilmery gauge) and the weather was unseasonably mild for this time of year (hovering around 10 C). I had decided to fish long trotting with maggots, starting in the pool just upstream of the church and below the ford. I couldn't tempt anything here so I moved up through the copse and fished the glide in the meadow above. It was around 1pm by this time and a few fish were rising to large terrestrials that were blowing in off the field. I decreased the float depth and switched to a single maggot and this immediately sparked short-term interest from the grayling,catching one at 14" and another at 17" (a thick-set fish estimated at 1.5-1.75lb).
Walking back to the car I had a last ditch attempt below the church in the glide above the riffles. There were a few small fish rising and was pleased to see that, when I caught one, they were grayling parr - a good indicator for the health of the river.
I noticed on the joining instructions that the new owner is looking for feedback on improving access. My only comments would be to improve the hard standing for the parking areas, and to see if anything could be done to by-pass the boggy part of the path mid-way through the copse. Other than that, access is excellent here.

3 Grayling

3 Grayling

Slow in the morning, picked up midday, all grayling hard on the bottom, most pools and runs had grayling of about 10" to 15".

6 Grayling

A lovely day, fished from 9.30 a.m. until 3.30 p.m. Cloudy, warm and still. River gin clear at 0.42m on the Cilmery guage. So we started full of expectation! However, we only managed to catch one OS trout of about 1.25lb and a grayling of about 14" on bugs, and two grayling (14 and 17") on a small dark olive Ducks Dun while a few fish rose to a sprinkle of hatching olives between 1 and 2 p.m. Saw five salmon (8-10lb?) and one very healthy looking mink. A perplexing day - where were the ladies?

1 Trout, 3 Grayling

Seemed like a perfect day, overcast, not too cold, no rain or wind. Used a number of methods, NZ, single nymph, lots of different dressings and depths....did not catch a thing, neither did my mate.
However, saw 3 5-8lb salmon leaping about out of the water, not sure what they were going for, but maybe they had better luck than me.
This stretch of the Irfon is beautiful and full of potential but alas, not today.

6 x grayling 14-16 inches, 4 x out of season trout 10-16 inches, long trotting. Bright sunshine, but the air temperature was rather less than we had been promised; it was minus 4 when I arrived and rod ring icing continued to hamper fishing until midday. Finally struggled up to 2 degrees by late afternoon, with shaded areas still frozen. Grayling were spread out in individual lies rather than shoaled up.

6 Grayling

2 Trout, 5 Grayling

I booked this from the car in Builth, testament to the ease of the online booking system. Although booked on Abernant originally, the Wye was still a little bit high so made a snap decision to head to Cefnllysgwynne to try and get a bend on the rod. To be fair the Irfon was till a little bit high too - the high water pushes the grayling off their usual lies and unsettles them, especially with a constant stream of leafy debris trundling along the river bed. I gave it a few hours with maggots in the usual "bankers", but didn't get a touch. Always a pleasure to visit Cefnllysgwynne, so much water to go at.

17 x grayling 8-18 inches, 4 x out of season trout 6-11 inches, 1 x out of season salmon 5-6 pounds, long trotting. Almost perfect river conditions today, although I had to use lighter float gear than usual with shy grayling in clear water. A nice healthy range of grayling sizes, including one at 18 and several at 17 inches, but also a few smaller ones included in the catch and there were some little grayling parr under 6 inches as well. The accidental salmon was a rather docile coloured grilse, which I thought was a big grayling for a while as I worked it upstream. To my surprise, it lay quite quietly while I plucked the hook out. All in all, a most beautiful Irfon day (though cold at 1-2 degrees) with snow on the hills and flaming colour in the trees over the river. It won't last much longer; the leaves are falling fast.

17 Grayling

A bitterly cold day with a sprinkling of snow on the high hills in the distance. However, the sun came out and we fished the Church Pool upwards with weighted upstream nymphs. NB caught and returned a nice WBT around 1lb. We called it a day at lunchtime.

1 Trout