Feedback & Reports

Trotting maggot. Grayling generally 10-12”; best 15”

2 Trout, 8 Grayling

Having had three very productive outings trotting for grayling of 8 - 15 " on various parts of the GPAIAC Builth waters this month (one reported last week) I fished Abernant yesterday on a beat that I have become very familiar with over the years. I often fish it from the bottom to the Edw from July until the end of October, when this beautiful beat can be so prolific and rewarding, but where I had never trotted before until yesterday, and was ticking off a "to do" on the bucket list! I was full of optimism for a day with a warm 10 degrees and the water a clear 1' at Llanstephan and 1.08m at Builth. A bit low but still affording plenty of water which should have been productive, and just a bit of a breeze but nothing detrimental. So where were the ladies? I had a 12" fish on the third trot and thought "here we go" but, unfortunately, from there on it wasn't a case of "here we go" but the beginning of a session which covered all of the bottom half of the beat that was accessible, but with the scant reward of only three more 8-12" fish and a couple of OOS 10-12" trout. So even they weren't having my red and white maggots either! I didn't try the upper half of the beat as, by then, I had decided that it was a day that had firmly put me in my place and so "retired hurt" at 3.30. Also rather wet too since, as I left the water, I slipped and, well, you know what happened next - a very wet ride home! Saw no LDOs today but the dippers were in fine voice. All good fun though, and many thanks to WUF for the bank-side work which was ongoing during the day on the top half of the beat. Undeterred, I'll be back again later in the year, chucking the fluff and hopefully staying much drier. Happy days!

2 Trout, 4 Grayling

The Wye was quite low and clear for winter and I haven't been fishing in January for years. However, the mild spell of weather tempted me out and I was pleased to land a single barbel (around 5 1/2 lbs) and a chub, both on meat.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

7 Chub

29 x grayling 6-16 inches, 3 x out of season trout 8-13 inches, trotting and Tenkara. River very clear and down now to 1 foot on the Llanstephan gauge, so quite low by mid-winter standards. Weather dull, reasonably warm, but with strong downstream winds at times. A nice range of grayling, all sizes except very large, which speaks well for future stocks.

29 Grayling

1 Pike

A lovley mild day the sun even put in an appearance for a while, River was low & clear. Didn't expect much action so was pleasantly surprised when 2 Barbel came along. Both fish were caught on pellet from the meadow, a very pleasant day will be back soon

2 Barbel

Today was my first attempt at small river fishing. I arrived at the beat at around 9:30am. It was quite breezy and cloudy. I started fishing at the pool near the bridge at the top with an orange pearl tungsten nymph. Slowly made my way down the beat. I had one good take just below the riffles by the bridge, I'm not sure what species it was as it got off the hook as I was about to land it. A bit disappointing as this was the only take I had in this session. I tried a few other Czech nymphs further down the beat to no avail, the weather got progressively worse as the say progressed, and so I decided to head home around 1pm. Today was a real learning curve for me. I will be back here in the near future.

A difficult day, with a brutal down stream wind. Nevertheless, it was great to be out, having been cooped up in the office all week. We managed to find half a dozen small fish towards the bottom of Bachawy Pool (in the deeper water). As ever, the Pink Shrimp was working best (middle dropper). A lovely beat, with safe, off-road parking and a short walk to the river. Look forward to swinging those Spiders, come the Spring!

6 Grayling

Managed 4 fish in some really challenging conditions, 40 mph wind and rain at times.

4 Grayling