Feedback & Reports

Following on from Simon Evan's superb WUF talk the previous evening at the Cheltenham and Gloucester branch of the Fly Dresser's Guild we just had to go fishing....
Gromain was 1ft 3" on the Llanstephan gauge - up 3" from the previous day following showers - but the river was clear and looked perfect on a bright sunny day. We dropped straight on to the riffle where the clonking grayling reside but little was showing. Despite this 2 14" grayling and a skinny out of season WBT rose to our flies. But nothing showing outside the hut or up by the rocks so down to The Heirag to fish the run in riffle. 6 10-12" grayling in farly rapid succesion came from here but then went quiet so back to the rocks - but still nothing there. Then wandered upstream towards the salmon boards at the top of the beat - to be confronted by fish rising to a large dark olive hatch. Several of these were obliging culminating in a total catch of 20 grayling to 15" and 7 WBT to 13", all on the usual parachute dries.
An excellent finale to the season despite the competition - otter, kingfisher, herons, cormorant and mergansers. Is that a full house? Many thanks for the usual highly efficient booking service.

Nil fish caught, decided to spend afternoon at Beacons.

No salmon seen or caught despite nice looking water height and clarity until late afternoon, by which time the river had come up to cover "the boards" by several inches - was at 1' 11" by the time I left around 7.00pm - and coloured. Five brown trout caught (by accident) and returned - three of them around the 1 lb mark. Big dog otter playing opposite the hut when I arrived. Water temp 58F, air temp 64F. Lots of opportunities to fall in - one of which I took.

Only an hour or two at Gromain. No other rods present.
Also a guest, Ben Jobling-Purser, fished briefly at The Rectory. Both blank sadly. Lovely afternoon & evening though

First time on Gromain. Wading "challenging". Nil fish seen nil caught.

River at about 10", first time on beat. Lovely fly water, but bucketed down all afternoon. Eventually gave in at 5.30 dripping wet! No salmon contacted or seen, but had a few suicidal trout. Fancy it fishes better on higher flows.

Only managed a 2 or 3 hour session in the morning with a good dozen or so trout (lost count), mostly in the 5" range, one hitting the 10" mark. Several grayling in the 8" range, with three between 10-11". The better browns taken on dry, whilst better grayling on weighted nymph. Very few fish rising. All taken at lower end of beat, very strong upstream breeze made for difficult fishing. Activity dwindled with arrival of afternoon.

Blank for salmon, although a fish rose once at the fly in the Spring Pool. Several large trout attacked a spinner later in the day below the falls.

Blisteringly hot. Fun day nevertheless. 2 grayling (6-7 inches) on size 16 olive gold head nymph and 4-5 salmon parr (4-5 inches) on same or size 18 black nymph.

Many thanks.

No fish caught.

This is a very beautiful stretch of water. Unfortunately I only had time to fish for a couple of hours in the morning. The only other angler on the beat had a couple of grayling from the faster water whilst I was there. Very hot and sunny - probably would have been better fishing in the evening. I would be interested to know if there are trout in some of the deeper salmon pools. Had one bite in streamier water on a large dry (humpy). Be careful when turning off the main road, the track down to the river is narrow and steep.