Feedback & Reports

A warm day with a downstream cross breeze. A few olives duns in the air and spinners too but very little in the way of fish rising. A challenging day but we managed to winkle out 8 browns to 1.25 lbs, 6 on gold head nymphs and 2 on dries. Unfortunately another 2 fishermen turned up at Midday having booked via the landowner. We have had increasing challenges of this nature on recent visits, coming across people who 'have the owners permission to fish whenever I like', people spinning, and folk who just think they can fish without a permit. In my view this stretch can not usually support 4 anglers and is a challenging but sometimes rewarding beat which requires subtlety and delicacy of approach to get the best out of it.
Whilst it states on the website that the landowner can allocate 2 rods this is not made clear in the Passport Booklet. It is on other beats which have the same issue.
The bottom field on one side is a caravan/campsite and now it looks like the other side is being used as a campsite as well with barrels put down for log fires. In amongst the debris there I found long lengths of monofilament - not flyfishing leader. Also a digger has been used in the river bed at one point leaving a big hole in the gravel and thoroughly wrecking what was one of the best dry fly stretches on the beat. It looks like gravel abstraction to me - is this allowed ? It seems at odds with the Wye Usk stream enhancement programme. In effect the bottom 400 yards at Penpont now has so much alternative activity it is close to a write off for fishing purposes. Today one of us encountered a stick throwing, dog swimming family in this stretch too.

WUF note - The gravel removal was nothing to do with WUF but we have reported the incident.

A good day with around 20 trout between the two rods and almost as many missed / lost. Best was a lovely 14" fish to H.W. Most came to G.R.H.E in the faster, more oxygenated water. Parr almost became a 'nuisance' but great to see so many in the river for the future!

Two rods caught 5 brown trout - best 1.2lbs. All on dry fly.
A lot of camping going on spoils a lot of the fishing. We don't see as many fish here as we used to!

Two small trout, both to Copper Johns fished in the fast water. The rest had fled. And I found out why. This is usually an excellent beat. I've been fishing it for years and have always enjoyed it. However the campsite which once only partially encroached on the beat has gradually spread to the other bank and now (alas!) adjacent fields downriver. My fishing was punctuated by children on rope swings, dogs swimming, holidaymakers skimming stones and a family having a bbq. My favorite moment, though, was the young couple who had sneaked away for some privacy only to be disappointed and embarrassed to find me lurking in the undergrowth tying a fly on.
Time to find a new beat...

7 or 8 trout in the 7 - 10" range to the net and as many lost as well as a few parr. Fished mainly duo with most of the fish coming to a small nymph. Very few fish showing at the surface and sport totally dried up between 1.30pm & 6.30pm. A nice day & some beautiful water.

NIL

40+ trout nymphing with the best getting on for 2lb :) Tricky wading, will take a wading staff with me next time.

Cheers Dai / WUF.

WUF note - Wading is tricky in places but predominantly this is one of the easier beats over all to wade.

River was coloured but falling with very little surface activity. During the day 3 fish to nymphs with another couple in the evening on a Sedge. Largest fish just over a pound.

A bright, warm day. The promised rain failed to arrive, instead occasional showers. Nevertheless, we had a most enjoyable, if hard, day on this wonderful beat. Fishing for almost 8 hours one of us took 9 wild brown trout, including 2 beautiful fish at 12+ inches, the other took 5. The most productive tactic was New Zealand dropper style, with a size 20 nymph under a size 14 klinkhammer.

Had a great days fishing in a beautiful location. it was warm and sunny, although the wind did pick up in the afternoon. There was not much fly activity during the day so I fished a PTN under a Klinkhammer and took about 15 fish ranging from 6" to "10, 2 of 12" and one of 14". All fish were in immaculate condition and put up good scraps. Despite really good hatches in the evening there was suprisingly little surface activity, but managed to take a few on a sedge. Also saw a couple of salmon leap out of the water during the afternoon. The upper section of the best is hard to fish and access but saw some good fish rising, just couldnt get top them.