Feedback & Reports

Fabulous day, river in tip top early season condition. Managed 7 or 8 barbel between us a couple of small chub and a surprise 18lb pike we found lurking in one of the pools. All fish allowed to recover properly in hot conditions before swimming away strongly. Great fishing, beautiful surroundings - thank you.

6 x Browns - to 1.5lb (all returned)
2 x Grayling (returned)

First time on the Arrow and another delightful piece of water. A hot, bright day but steady progress throughout with most of the fish coming on nymphs in the faster runs. Not much rising - as David, who perservered with drys, found out to his cost (but I will leave it for him to tell you about that).

Just to let you know I caught and released a fresh salmon last Saturday from the R. Wye at Monmouth. This was my second fish of the season. My first was an 18lb fish from Bigswier earlier on in the season (safely returned).
The beat was the upper wyesham beat (old dukes water) and caught in the pipe pool. It was a fresh run cock fish of approx. 7lb in weight.

Please carry on the excellent work you are doing as I am sure it will pay dividends before too long. As a Wye salmon angler for over 25 years I have seen the river decline dramatically. Hopefully we are now turning the corner.
Best wishes to everyone involved.

6 fish in total. Biggest about 12". Used wets on a short leader. Lost and absolute monster. Took me into a riffle and the hook pulled out. This fish would have been measured in pounds not inches. Ah well I know where he resides. Great day but plenty warm even down under the canopy.

We fished Whitney Court beat 2 on the 1st day and we had about 100 pound of good chub, smallest about 3lb, all caught just below Whitney toll bridge on the pellet. We were after the barbel but never had or saw any anywhere. Day 2 we fished beat 5 on Whitney Court with only 3 good chub caught all day. Day 3 we fished Preston Court and struggled with only 2 chub being caught, we did see a carp swimming about on the surface but again no barbel ( we will be back and hopefully we will succeed in doing battle with the ellusive river Wye barbel!!

I had a few hours in which to go fishing this afternoon, so I decided to take the WUF's beat description advice and fish at Dan Y Warren.

I arrived at the beat mid afternoon and was made to feel very welcome by the landowner. The conditions were not as had been forcast, bright sunshine and a blustery wind as opposed to overcast with the threat of heavy showers.
This wasn't going to spoil my afternoon fishing though. The water itself was fairly low and crystal clear.

I studied the water for approximately 30 mins before putting a line out but understandably there was no surface action taking place. Despite this I was filled with hope when I brought a fish to the surface with my first cast. I was fishing a duo and even though I brought a further 10-15 fish to the surface over the next few hours I was unable to bring any to the net.

I will visit this beat again when water levels and conditions are more favourable.

Seven brown trout caught on a Klinkhammer and Iron Blue, all were small fish, up to 8 inches, the big ones kept getting away! There was very little fly life.

Back to Ty Newydd and the sun was shining - no wash off - hurrah!!

Fishing with son James and S.G. 30 fish between us plus a lot of parr - in some areas of the river these are now a dry fly pest - but they are the future fish. In some areas the density is very high which is excellent news.

Best brownie 16", best grayling 14" which fought really powerfully. Lots of grayling in the 9" size group - also a good sign, they have been breeding well! Could wade in to areas that are difficult when water is higher - waded out so could cover run at top of first pool on RH bank, first time the fly went down up came fish - made noise like water running out of bath when fly disappeared! All went very solid - he pulled, I pulled - and the fly came away. Ah well, good ammunition for more "one that got away" stories.

Another big lamprey redd at top of bottom pool. And to cap an excellent day Mr Otter came to inspect both James and Sandy's fishing techniques - they both got a shock when his head suddenly appeared out of the water no more than a rod length away! Wonderful wildlife and fishing as always. Many thanks.

Started off on in the middle of the beat, in the wood, on dry fly but very few fish rising. Worked my way upstream and fished the pool below the weir. Having switched to a caddis nymph I caught a trout of about half a pound. A change to a self-tied Teeny nymph led to another three; one again of around half a pound and two smaller. Funny how much more satisfying it is to catch on your own fly! All returned safely. Lost four others.

Still can't believe water like this, in such a beautiful setting, is available for such a reasonable cost!

Total 5 brown trout caught, 3 of which best part of 1lb in weight. 1 Fish kept, also 1 grayling caught. All fish taken on nymph.

Beautiful stretch of water in beautiful country.