Feedback & Reports

Salmon nil, shad x2 ( returned) flying C.

Apologies for the tardiness of this return. Had escaped London and the tediousness of the Jubilee celebrations for a week in Wales with the family. At very short notice Alyson managed to get me a rod on the beautiful Rectory beat and was most helpful in directing me to the booking office to collect beat maps and information. The Wye can at first be a daunting task for the fisherman (I usually fish the smaller Usk) but the beat information supplied was extremely detailed with hotspots, notspots and dangers clearly indicated. Because of this I always felt "in with a sniff" and although the fish were not co-operative that day other than one possible pull this info acted as a virtual ghillie and made me feel if I was fishing with an unusual degree of confidence, if not any actual competence. The beat itself is arguably the most 'complete' section of the Wye I have fished with a wide variety of water and relatively straightforward to fish in low-medium water conditions. Particular stretches of note include all sections of the The Rock Pool, The Bridge Pool, just upstream of and through the Mill Stream to the Rectory pool itself. Weather ran the whole gamut of optimistically overcast to hopelessly but gloriously sunny and it was a great place to while away a day on the water. I will definitely be back.

River high, flowing very fast and murky. Heavy rain! Good conditions for a first timer!!!! Only waded knee deep as I was a bit intimidated by the speed and height of the water. Fished for three hours but ...... caught a small brownie of 6 inches on a olive nymph and another about nine inches on an Adams dry. Both returned. So all in all had a great time.
Thanks W&U Foundation.

A delightful little stream with many interesting pools and riffles. The total catch in hot sunshine for 2 rods was 6 trout in the 7-10 inch bracket, but many more missed or shed the hook. There was an incident half way up the beat where the house owner on the right hand bank insisted that we had no right to wade up the river, so we moved up two fields on the right bank before resuming fishing.

Another very attractive beat, slightly easier to fish than most of the upper Monnow tributaries. It was even possible to overhead cast in some places. Our total catch for another day of hot sunshine and little cloud cover was 18 trout for 2 rods, with two trout of about 1lb apiece. The day was slightly marred when 3 other anglers appeared on the beat, none of whom seemed to have much understanding of angling etiquette. I would guess that they did not put any vouchers in the box and they vanished after about 1 hour. There was a good Mayfly hatch and about half our catch was taken on various Mayfly patterns.

No fish. River had risen quite a bit overnight and had covered the stone walkway around the lower pools.

Big, deep, dark and a bit too much for me! Fished drys for most of the day with no success!

Rained all day and water starting to colour by time I left, no sign of any salmon so decided to focus on trout. Steady sport on wet fly all day despite weather, 6 or 7 small trout (1/2 - 3/4lb) on GRHE and red-arsed green peter, one better trout 2lb+ at top of run below the bridge, all returned.

A wonderful day on this stretch. At first few fish moving in spite of a delayed arrival, but around two a few different species of olive started hatching and fish were showing in a couple of pools - especially below Waterfall pool. My friend missed a couple then with an over-enthusiastic strike broke on a fish. The rise subsided. We had some lunch and then started again and another good rise started probably about five. One lovely trout of around 12" caught on olive pattern.
Many dippers (a pair feeding young near waterfall) and two families of nuthaches. Thought I saw a black redstart (anyone know if that is a possibility around that part of the country?). A lovely day on the river - especially as the predicted rain really didn't come to much.

Water clarity getting better after the recent rise in water. However no salmon caught or seen, just suicidal shad and brownies.