Feedback & Reports

Always optimistic when I set out to fish, the weather forecast had given me even more cause to be so: the warmest day of the year so far, temperatures in mid-Wales expected to reach 15 or 16. Maybe they did somewhere in Wales, but not at Gromain. The sun did break through eventually, but it wasn’t very long before it started to sink behind the hills and left much of the valley in shadow. You can see where this is heading, and by the time I left at around 5:00 I had not seen or touched a fish all day. No sign of any fly life either. But who cares? It was a long time since I’d fished this beat and it was so lovely to be reminded of its subtle beauty. While I was searching the tail of the Heirag pool, a sudden chirrup alerted me to an otter on the other side of the pool. It seemed quite unafraid, looking at me inquisitively before diving down before popping up only a few feet away to get a better look. I saw another higher up the beat in the afternoon too. Frustrating, fishless days can be made truly memorable by moments like those. I must be sure to head back there in the spring.

Fished with another member rod today .A nice height at 10” and clear. The river appeared completely dead with not one offer for either of us trying various nymph and sink combinations. A worrying trend with recent reports from flyfishers on other beats having similarly lean returns. Hopefully fishing will pick up when we have an increase in temperatures but it didn’t seem particularly cold today.

10” on the gauge. 9 degrees + overcast. Good clarity. Nice flow.
Goldheads, spiders and other bugs couldn’t tempt a single take in over 3 hours.

One OOS Trout. Beat looking great

1 Trout

Trotting maggot. Erwood gauge at 1.1m, which is probably the top end of what I would call fishable. Grayling came fairly quickly from just above the hut. Failed to find any fish in the other likely areas. Still - nice to get out after all the floods.

1 Trout, 4 Grayling

The river dropped 6” since last week and I thought the rise in temperature would result in a bit more fish activity today. A very quiet session though with only 4 takes all day. An Usk Nailer with a small copper bead caught all of the fish. No interest shown to any bugs or nymphs that were tried.

1 Trout, 2 Grayling

Flow still a bit quick today with the river only falling back slowly after the spate since Christmas. 1’10” but clarity reasonably good. All of the fish were good chunky adults 10-14” bar one juvenile grayling.
Almost all came to heavy grayling bugs and nymphs in a 45minute spell after midday, below the bridge when they switched on.
They switched off just as quickly and takes were few elsewhere .The temperature didn’t get above 3 degrees ,but worth getting out on a lovely crisp day.

5 Trout, 5 Grayling

Water high but clear. Had hoped for crisp and chilly but sadly had damp drizzle on and off, but never a bad day on the river!
Struggled to find the fish, stayed on a relatively short stretch around the hut - there is a nice gravel stretch just upstream.
Caught two very small grayling either side of lunch, same spot, same size.......probably the same fish! Both times on small (18) gold headed nymph.
Great beat, masses of options, mainly over bedrock and generally access very straightforward with a path along the right bank.

2 Grayling

Nothing caught today in a high and coloured river, which rose by a foot between 11.00 and 2.30 when I packed up.

Great morning. Thank you. A couple of OOS trout didn't seem to realise they shouldn't be on the grayling flies. I did tell them. ????

2 Trout, 3 Grayling