Feedback & Reports

2 rods fishing a team of three, only one grayling caught of about a pound, sun shone not much wind, so a great days fishing on the upper Wye.

1 Grayling

Rain, thunder storm, rain, sun. 2 trout, 3 grayling all super fit fish. Small dries and nymphs caught. Will return.

2 Trout, 3 Grayling

First time on this beat. River chocolate brown and too high to wade if you are not familiar with the beat. Dropping and clearing at 5pm all fish on olive tungsten nymph close to the banks.

3 Trout, 1 Grayling

First time on this beat. First tried the upper access near the footbridge but found it very difficult to access the water further than about 100m downstream of the bridge. After an hour of bushwhacking I drove down the lower access by the mill. No bushwacking necessary here. Made my way up from the bottom of the beat as far as I could go. Condition seemed perfect. Not a sausage.

Chech nymphing. Largest grayling: three and a half pounds. Trout between one and a half & one and quarter pounds.

6 Trout, 2 Grayling

My second time to Doldowlod, and this time I took a friend who had never fly fished before.I did warn him that as I'm self taught that my casting tuition would be up to much. I chose Doldowlod because of the relative ease of wading and the fact you don't have to cast far on the lower end of the beat.
We nymphed and indicator nymphed using loads of different flies and didn't get a touch until we reached faster water, then it seemed that a gold head copper john was the only pattern I could get a take on.
Overall we found it hard going and I guess that the sun in the morning didn't do us any favours.
I tried my best to get him is first fish on the fly and he lost a couple, but alas I failed. Despite this Andy enjoyed himself and will probably try again next year.
PS. Next time someone fishes there can you please tell me what method to use on those very fishy looking gullies? I'm sure they're full of fish, but I can't seem to buy a bite from that area!

3 Grayling

This beat was fished by two members of the Grayling Society on this occasion. The river was running clear at 12C and was well up owing to compensation water from the Elan Reservoirs.

1 Trout, 7 Grayling

River was in spate about 2 feet higher than previous day etc, due to the rains etc no fish taken in the morning session as pools etc were frothed up and detritus around etc. Lovely morning tho, will return to your wonderful river. Barrie Cooper

On a day that went from dead still to increasingly very windy and with the Ddoll Farm guage at 10", there were essentially no insects and no rises all day. One female adult and four large young goosanders kept me company for much of the first half of the day, leading the way as I made my way up the beat. Tungsten beads were therefore the order of the day (I had another heavy metal in mind for those birds!) and, with the depths duly dredged, eight grayling of 12-16" (the best 1.5lb) and two trout of 10-12", obliged. Half as many grayling again were long-distance released. A 3.5mm tunghead flashback PTN variant, and a smaller Duracell nymph on the dropper, did the bizz on the day. Oh for some surface activity again.

2 Trout, 8 Grayling

A warm day with some rain and sunny spells, river running very clear. As the wading was described as "tricky" I persuaded my friend Mike to accompany me on this one, we're both beginners but I've been out more than he has.
For the record we found that access on the top of the beat was better from the right hand bank, whereas the lower from the left. The lower beat is easier to wade, and the top difficult with big slippery rocks.
On arrival the river was running very clear, I can't comment on it's level as this was my first time to the upper Wye. We started off nymphing using ptn and grhe but apart from one grayling, we were struggling. All the likely gullies coming up blank. Then I put on a czech nymph on the point and a red bloodworm fly on a dropper, that did the trick! I guess I didn't have enough weight on before to get the files down in time. After that I caught steadily from gullies, fast runs and tails of pools. There was huge hatch at around 7pm but I saw only one fish taking under a tree, I managed to cover him and he took it immediately a good sized fish too. All of the grayling were of a good size ranging from 1.5lb to nearly 2, the trout about 9".
Sadly Mike blanked despite me giving him the choice of where to fish, I even caught fish from areas he had already tried. I guess all the practice I'm putting in is paying off, might have to start calling myself a novice :)

1 Trout, 6 Grayling