Feedback & Reports

Amazing day on a brilliant beat. Cloudy and bright, water very slightly coloured. Incredible hatches. Mayfly and Yellow dun coming off for most of the day. It became cooler with a shower towards 6.30pm. First fish caught at about 12noon on a Mayfly nymph. Caught fish regularly thereafter proceeding up the beat; mayfly nymph in the rougher water produced more fish including a magnificent wild brown trout that was 16 inches and deep, also a fair sized grayling. Dry flies accounted for the rest - (including one trout with a blue mark on its belly - stocked?) para Adams, a CDC yellow dun (a la Davie McPhail) doing the damage and then towards the end of the my own Mayfly pattern took three more.

14 Trout, 1 Grayling

I found this beat hard work as all the easy access is where fishing is prohibited leaving a lot of undergrowth and quite a bit of barbed wire to battle through. One trout on a shrimp pattern and a salmon parr on a PTN.

1 Trout, 1 Other

What a lovely river! Had a wonderful afternoon. Sunny spells and a bit windy. Lots of insect life including mayfly. But surprisingly very little in the way of fish rising. Had one trout come up to inspect my fly but no takes. But who cares?

This is a really good beat with several very attractive pools which I remembered fondly from a previous visit. There were freely rising fish all the way up and mayfly patterns worked well. We caught a few salmon parr as well as a very nice grayling and 16 trout was a great reward for a relatively short session.

16 Trout, 1 Grayling, 4 Other

Gusts of wind and slightly coloured water made things tricky, but I was determined to cover as much surface of this lovely beat as possible with dry flies. Caught two small but beautiful brown trout on the lower part. Twice during the afternoon, during lulls in the wind, the river almost started boiling with hatching flies. Not much surface feeding activity to go with it though. I retreated happy to the Hay festival and cocktails at Groucho Club :)

2 Trout

In the morning, at the tail of Blue Pool (on the bend), massive quantities of fly swarming: gnats and sedges mostly, then the wind got its act together and cleared the air! Although there were rises, the fish were playing hard to get, until late afternoon, when three fish were taken in quick succession, on a dry Adams, close into the far bank....best fish was 1.5lbs. We saw 2 salmon jump out, one in Blue Pool, and a large fish in Chain Pool, near the top end.

3 Trout

No fish this time. Cold and windy lots of leaves on water. Nice day out thanks.

8lbs spinning from Rapids pool. Water conditions near perfect for lower reaches.

1 Salmon

Fly
Returned
8lb

1 Salmon

Forgetting about the Hay Festival I was among a lot of canoes but managed to be pleasant. Good hatch of just about everything but little on the rise. My good humour with the holiday makers was rewarded by a huge slashing rise at my mayfly that resulted in my best brownie on a dry. Est. close to two pounds. More out the water than in. Phenomenal fight on a 4wt with a 3lb cast, in spite of my springers best attempts to 'help'. Returned with a flourish.

1 Trout, 2 Grayling