Feedback & Reports

Water temperature 58F, water clear with a brown tinge (water from the Elan valley reservoirs?) Little (very little) fly life, mostly Yellow may Duns and Olive Uprights, but a few sporadic rises from grayling and trout.

3 grayling from the top beat of Llangoed in the morning, all on a dry fly. One trout caught and several hooked and lost on the lower beat in the afternoon.

Highlight, views of a mother and cub otter, swimming down through Orchard, plus kingfishers and a dipper. Beautiful weather all day. River looked ravishing.

1 x trout 14 inches, 1 x grayling 6 inches. You wouldn't believe how hard I worked for that trout; I was at it all day, dry fly and nymph. I always find Monnow Valley challenging, but persevere on the grounds that it contains some (not very many) large trout.

I did shake hands with another one, slightly larger I think, which jumped itself off after taking a Czech nymph in a fast run. I also spent some time watching a pair of basking chub like zeppelins.

This time I had borrowed my son's waders and - guess what - those were leaking too. Somebody has already said leaking waders are as inevitable as death and taxes. So I squelched off to the car wondering whether I was developing trench foot and if the bank manager can be persuaded to lend me enough for a set of Simms.

My day on this attractive beat was sadly cut short by unforeseen commitments, but I still managed a few hours in the lovely autumn sunshine. Some good hatches of fly earlier this evening and a fair few small brownies to about 12" to keep my attention (all returned). No salmon seen.

27 x grayling to 15 inches, 6 x small trout, a few on North Country spiders, but mainly dries.

My first try on the new beat and this is where I got my come-uppance, because I struggled. The voucher book is quite right to state that some of the wading on bed-rock is difficult. In fact I would say that some parts of the upper beat are No Fishing For Old Men. At any rate, if, like me, you are around bus pass age, bring a wading stick because algae covered slate has a friction co-efficient similar to that of wet ice. I am sure it has potential and it looks like nice dry fly water, but I was in trouble without a stick. And the spare waders also seemed to have sprung leaks. I did manage to find a small pod of grayling in
the more civilised gravel run at the lower end, which saved the morning by taking a high sticked Tungsten Nymph trundled along the bottom. So 3 x grayling to 15 inches.

8 x Trout, 2 x Grayling, 1x Chub. All fish returned

Chub from just above the bridge early on - the only fish of the day that I needed the landing net for and a bit of a disappointment as, when I saw it turn as it took the nymph, I had it logged as a big Grayling. A run of small Trout from the weir - some of which looked disturbingly like Salmon Parr - and a couple of better Trout from the deep water above the weir. Pleasant banter with the Mill owner over lunch followed by a couple of Graying and more Trout from the fast runs below the weir. Broken just before packing up above the weir by what I think must have been a pike: the leader was cut - as opposed to snapped - very much a case of there it was gone.

All fish taken on small gold headed nymphs (although there was a sporadic hatch in the afternoon - with the odd fish taking dries above the weir)

Mystery of the missing ticket solved when my wife phoned with the missive "did you mean to leave your fishing ticket in the fridge?". Could have been worse I suppose as it could equally have been my lunch that was left in the fridge but ... it is surely only a matter of time before she stops me from leaving home with proper supervision.

Beat again. No sign of salmon and very few trout about. Saw an otter though. You have JAPANESE KNOTWEED establishing itself half way down the left bank. Nonetheless, a beautiful stretch of water.

Six Brown Trout in total, 1lb - 1lb 12oz each. Good condition and all released for another day.

2 fish - F Fly
2 fish - Klinkhammer
2 fish - G&H Sedge

4 good trout to 10 inches on the Cammarch all at the lower end near the railway bridge all on the nymph.
1 trout (small) although it was a fantastic days fishing with fish rising all over and slashing at the fly. Penpont is a lovely bit of river with beautiful surroundings.

We had a lovely day no fish caught, no fish seen and water level just under 2ft on marker board river looked very fishable.