Feedback & Reports

Lovely stretch of river. We started on the lower section dabbling in the gutter and although we scared a couple of good sized fish lingering in the shallows we were unable to tempt anything from the gutter itself. 2 grayling of 10" taken on copper john and hares ear nymph over a gravelly section before moving up to the upper section where we had 2 nice brown trout of 14" and 16" on Black Magic and red tungsten head hares ear. Light was running out as we got to the top and after taking one too many tumbles mid-water we decided to call it a day. Great fun and what a way for my pal to get his first fly fishing experience...a 16" Wye Brown!

2 Trout, 2 Grayling

An very interesting day, albeit not as productive as expected for this time of year. Lovely weather - a light breeze at times, mainly overcast and warm at 18-19 degrees but the water very low at 0.28m on the Ddol Farm gauge. There wasn't too much fly life, just a few small olives, and the odd stonefly and sedge, but enough fallen leaf on the river to get terrestrials onto the surface (lots of little spiders and greenfly on the trees) and fish looking up......or so I thought! However, there were very few rises all day and the grayling were unusually reluctant to rise to standard go-to surface and emerger patterns for this time of year. Nymphs either fished duo or tandem were unsuccessful and just one grayling took a red tag spider. Three trout of 10-14" were taken on a hare's ear emerger as were four grayling of 10-16", the latter a fish of just over 1.5lb. As usual at Doldowlod, the 8-10" year class grayling that seem to predominate further down the river didn't put in an appearance. What was odd was that the water was quite cold at 13 degrees, which surprised me, given day and night air temperatures of late so, somewhat perplexed, I rang Severn Trent this morning who confirmed that, given lack of rainfall and low water, about four times the usual amounts of compensation water are being discharged from the Elan Valley reservoirs. I suspect that this may have been the problem given that Doldowlod is so close to the Elan confluence. Friends who fish the Dee and Severn catchments are always telling me how their fishing is affected at times like this. Bring on the rain please!!

3 Trout, 5 Grayling

Largest grayling approx 1.5lb, all fish to nymph. Nice location but it would have been good to see more surface activity.

1 Trout, 4 Grayling

Very bright, low water conditions. Fish to half a pound rising to small CDC Emerges in pools.

1 Grayling

A good morning with 8 Trout up to 2lb but it died a death after lunch, once the river had dropped back down after a few days rain, with only 1 small fish to mention. Not a grayling to be seen. It's a challenge up here, sometimes forget how hard it can be, casting backwards all day whilst struggling with the bedrock. But I'll be back for more. Fish taken on heavy jig patterns.

9 Trout

A return to a favourite stretch of mine, not an easy stretch with difficult conditions underfoot and being left handed would be an advantage...which I'm not. But I love the challenge it always provides. Struggled for a few hours but stuck to the plan, my reward being a 2.5lb grayling plus over 10 fish in the 6-10 inch bracket. All returned.

5 Trout, 8 Grayling

River looked perfect but very difficult and no rising fish or visible hatch except a few BWO.

3 Trout, 3 Grayling, 7 Other

All fish caught on size 16 black or grey dry flies - largest fish 13 inches. Staying at Craig Llyn Estate cottages - comfortable and very convenient for fishing and touring around Wales. Excellent and simple booking service - all completed over the phone and permit sent by email to my mobile.

4 Grayling

8 and 14.5 inches.

2 Trout

An excellent afternoon/early evening's fishing on my favourite beat. River very slightly coloured and the Rhayader Gauge at 9'' , pretty much perfect.
The Sedge hatches were pretty much constant though the time I was there, and at times incredible. However, as is the case on this part of the river, very few fish interested with surface feeding, why I have no idea.
I fished New Zealand Style with an Elk Hair Brown or Yellow Sedge with a small gold head GRHE with a pink thorax (deadly for Grayling and the Trout love them too) fished about a foot and a half deep. This set up works well through the beat, with very little need to change depth, in fact I didn't all day!
Saw 2 trout feeding close to the near side of the channel and took one first cast, which came off close to the net, about a pound and a half. After this the fish kept coming, mainly 8-10 inch grayling but a few bigger ones, the best being a fish of 18 inches, beautiful dark coloured fish which didn't fight much until it saw me and the awaiting net, after which it decided to try and get to Builth Wells!
Moved upstream targeting pocket water and the many features such as single rocks which offer a perfect hiding place, taking grayling and the odd trout.
Then got to a spot, which I feel is one of the best on the whole Wye (I'm not giving that one away!), where I have caught many sizable trout up to 3.5 lb. On this occasion, the resident was a trout of 2lb, actually I little disappointed as I had hoped for much bigger.
All in all, a great days sport, probably more fish than I normally take here, but no real specimens, which was a surprise considering the amount of fish caught. Only 3 fish took the dry, one trout and two grayling.

5 Trout, 25 Grayling