Feedback & Reports

After taking a gamble and making the journey in far from ideal conditions I was treated to the most beautiful scenery in that part of the world. About 5 inches covered the ground and made the whole area look like something out of a natural history documentary. Looking more like a green Michelin man than an angler i made my way across the fields towards the river. What a beat! Absolutely beautiful, especially with all the snow. I fished the majority of the upper half of the beat and not surprisingly found fishing a bit slow. Fortunately I did manage to find a few fish Czech nymphing and was rewarded with two beautiful, fin perfect Grayling of 16" and 18". These two fish combined with the scenery and the snow made it all very much worthwhile. Sadly by 4:30pm the looming darkness, frozen fingers, frozen rod rings and line forced me to head home. Look forward to trying out the beat when everything's a bit greener and warmer. As always thanks WUF!

Snow on the ground and snow falling steadily through the day. Levels low and clear. We trotted maggots in a nice run downstream of the weir pool - landed two cracking grayling and bumped one off after a few seconds. Fished a few more runs down to the bridge but didn't even fool a trout. Called it a day here and just about made it home through the snow. Wonderful couple of hours on a wonderful river.

Plenty of snow on the ground making some swims a bit to risky to fish. Unfortunately a blank with no action to myself and my mates rod. Will try again in the next few weeks.

Beautiful winter's day. Had some amazing views of birds of prey up close, unfortunately no fish seen or caught.

17 Chub on bread and Cheese paste. River level low and clear. Fished several swims but couldn't find fish in the usual winter spots. Caught fish from fast shallow water.

First time out on this water. A spectacular winter wonderland after the snowfall. River slightly coloured. Fished the afternoon(4hrs), picking out only 2 grayling from the deeper pools with the best fish approx 12-13". Fishing was made difficult by a number of overhanging/fallen trees in some of the more likely grayling sections. Worth another visit with shorter rods next time :)

Five inches of snow made access difficult. All fished Boat/Ferry pool with deadbaits - no fish.

3 fished deadbaits from pumping station down to wood. 1 lost fish at end of day back at peg 1.

Walked the beat with the owner, very helpful but no fish.

5 x grayling 13 - 18 inches, on leaded wet flies fished in a team: Red Tag, Yellow Bumble, Grayling Steel Blue. The upper Wye looked to be in good condition (0.61 at Ddol), although I can't say anything very complimentary about the weather which was around 2 degrees all day with alternate showers of rain and sleet. And I found Craig Llyn a most attractive and interesting beat, with different types of water where you could practice almost any style of fishing you could wish: pocket water, runs, gutters, gravel flats, and some sumptuous deep salmon pools, all neatly labelled. Only the wading (with the exception of the bottom end) is not exactly dangerous, but hard work for us folks in our sixties - lumpy boulders rather than gravel for the most part.
This was in fact my first experience on Craig Llyn, which made such a good reputation for itself throughout 2012. I would have liked to try for its grayling during the cream of the season, September and October, when fish are rising, but other commitments and the floods kept me away until now. So I was starting from a position of ignorance and it's more or less a given that fishing a strange water for grayling in January is going to involve a lot of searching. So it proved, because I probably wasted time on unproductive water and I never came across a large shoal. However, I did eventually find a couple of small pods of grayling after lunch which included some lovely fish.
Some large fish have been reported from Craig Llyn and on this day mine were, in order, 18, 16, 17, 14 and 13 inches. Which is very nice of course, and I don't wish to seem to be looking a gift-horse in the mouth, but I would have been happier to have caught a few smaller ones as well. Where are they, those grayling we need for future years? They were certainly hiding on this day and 3 of those 5 nice grayling had the dreaded cormorant scars, which makes me a bit suspicious - like so many areas of the upper river, there isn't much cover at Craig Llyn. Anyway, a very nice day despite the weather.
One dead salmon kelt on the bank at the top of the beat - foxes or otters had most of it already.