Feedback & Reports

A lovely fishing day on a beautiful beat. Even when the water is low, there is plenty of it. There were quite a lot of fish rising - trout, grayling, chub and salmon smolts. We caught some of everything, totally about 15. Largest was a 1lb grayling.

7 Trout, 1 Grayling

Lovely start to the day with mist in the valley and bright sun above. Mist burnt off quickly and the rest of the day was a mix of cloud and sunny spells with a gentle to fresh breeze. Very little in the way of insect life until the early evening when a very few small upwings were spotted, so we spent most of the day fishing nymphs and a couple of hours with dries.
Five trout between 4-8" came on weighted caddis nymphs around lunchtime while the 5 grayling ranged from 7-15" and were all taken in the early evening. Two fell to CDC olive patterns, the other three to hares ear and polyphaetus nymphs. The largest was from the pocket water just below the bridge.
A fine day out.

5 Trout, 5 Grayling

This was my first visit to Gromain and Upper Llanstephan. What a beat! If you designed a beat to look "fishy" it would look like this. Beautiful surroundings, pocket water, classic salmon pools, flats, falls and gutters. Such variety. I was also delighted with the effort that has clearly been put into giving visiting anglers the best chance of success. The beat was well tended, not massively overgrown which some WUF beats are and the notes for the beat were detailed and helpful - giving some guidance for all the pools. Its a credit to WUF! A small suggestion would be a few more notes for those targeting trout. The beat can be a little intimidating in its size and its a little difficult to know where to start. There were some small mentions in the notes but a little more would be appreciated. Much is made is previous reports about the difficulty of wading on this beat - and to be sure there are parts that are definitely not easy. But if you have a wading staff and studded felt soles and the flow is not too high (gauge was 1 ft for me) then you should not be put off the beat. Sadly, not only didn't I catch anything but I didn't see (or touch) any salmon and didn't really see any trout either. Curious. I fished from 12pm til sunset. A great day though.

Gosh, this is a magnificent beat...so much water and variety. When I booked the water was low. When I went it was nearly 2ft on the Llanstephan scale, but falling. I fully expected to see salmon everywhere, but didn't see a single fin. Another fisherman was there and he said he hadn't seen any either.
I only saw a few trout and the 4 that I caught I did not see and all took a nymph. They were all small.

4 Trout

Morning was difficult with down stream/cross river wind that always seemed to blow as I was about to cast. Started by the hut, but no joy and no sign of fish rising. Headed down to the bottom of the beat by the bridge and had a 12" trout from there. Tried all the usual places on the way up river but only managed 15" Grayling from the pool down from the hut.
After a break for lunch again fished through the pool by the hut and nothing going. Repeated my steps from the morning and headed to the bottom of the beat. By now cloud had set in but luckily the wind had died down.
Fished differently this time and had more success. 2 Brown Trout (best 15", though skinny), 1 8" Grayling and a Salmon Parr enjoyed grabbing a skating fly in the fast water.
Nothing else until I again ended up in the pool below the hut. Have had nice fish from this run before, but wading is somewhat difficult with flat rocks that can be very slippery and the fast water makes seeing your feet difficult. Didn't see the fish take the fly, just heard it. Almighty splash and the line went tight. Took a good few minutes to get the fish to hand, a fat 18" Grayling. Wondered up back to the hut and thought I would give it one more chuck there as it is unusual to not catch from this pool. Nothing rising at all but managed to find one 8" Grayling who was looking skywards. All fish caught on various sizes of Parachute Adams. Two Salmon seen in the very top pool. Fantastic day out as always, thank you WUF!!
Note for WUF - booked two rods but second could not make it last minute so only 1 rod fished.

3 Trout, 4 Grayling, 1 Other

No fish taken. No salmon seen. 1 salmon parr caught and 1 brown trout 1lb both returned. River level approx 1 foot. Very bright sweaty conditions. Lovely beat and nice fishing hut and facilities. Fished for trout and grayling with 10 foot 3 weight rod with elk hair caddis and red tungsten bead nymph. Both rods fished for salmon on sink tips and cascades.

1 Trout, 1 Other

Very enjoyable days fishing on one of my favourite upper Wye beats. Fished down behind 2 otters moved fresh salmon about 8lb in spring pool gutter & caught a colouring hen fish of 10lb from the spring pool. very lightly hooked on flying c hook which came out in net. Connected with another briefly in same pool. Seen good fish show in Bridge pool.

1 Salmon, 1 Trout

Third time on this lovely beat. Weather sunny and warm, river 1ft 6ins on the gauge and running clear. Fished full floating line, with 15lb leader and a Cascade. Took the fish at about 10.30am in the Bridge Pool standing on the rocks between the two sets of boards. Fish was c.12-13lb cock, and was quite coloured, good fight, no net so walked it into the bank and beached it there. Unhooked it and held it in the stream to recover; it swam off strongly. Also hooked and lost a fish in the Ferry Pool later in the day, caught two greedy trout which were also returned. Met a couple of fellow rods who were very helpful, had a good chat and learnt a bit more about the beat (local knowledge is gold dust!). All in all a very enjoyable day on superb beat.

1 Salmon, 2 Trout

Blank for salmon. A nice warm dull day, rise in level from 10 inches to 1ft 5 inches after rain last night; one might therefore have hoped for some action. But nothing seen or touched. I hope the other rod did better later on. On the plus side, I fished some lovely fly water. This beat, which is about as rocky and wild as the upper Wye gets, may not be easy to wade but everything possible has been done to facilitate access. The new boards are a delight.

Lots of small brown trout about all taken on a flying c. No sign of any salmon. River about 1'. great day out. Had the whole beat to myself.

4 Trout