Feedback & Reports

4 x trout to 12". Still very hot and not much insect life about, but the odd one came up to a Klinkhammer.

Curiosities seen during the day were the biggest eel I have ever seen swimming past me (not a lamprey) and the trout I caught on the surface in the top weir pool which had something sticking out of its mouth. The object turned out to be the tail of a loach fully 4 inches long jammed in its gullet, the skin worn away by gastric juices, but the tail and barbuled head quite recognizable. (I tend to forget this now as we fuss about one fly or the other, but my experience as a lad fishing in brooks with a worm for the pot was that trout of any size in small rivers are usually making at least half their living from smaller fish). And, by the way, what a very beautiful place Mowley Wood is at this time of the year - huge fields golden with buttercups along the river.

Pete had 6 trout to 11" Cliff blanked.

We had a very pleasant day on the river last Wednesday. My cousin caught his first and second ever fish on the fly which pleased him ( one trout and one out of season grayling).

I had one trout of about a pound and five smaller trout plus a 3lb chub and one small grayling. All fish were returned to the water to fight another day.

Also fished the River Ithon Severn Arms water on Friday afternoon for a very short period of time before the heavens opened. Had three small trout and missed quite a few others on the dry fly. There appears to be quite a few small fish in the bottom beat of this fishery.

Hope to be up in your direction again in the near future.

25th of May
3 Trout all to just over the pound in weight taken on Klinkhamer extreme emerger patterns. Very few trout were rising until later in the day when mayfly and olives were emerging.

27th May
2 Grayling to about 1lb each and 12 Trout ranging from 9 to 14 inch. Initially they were taking the same emerger as the 25th but switched to drys, primarily mayfly and yellow may dun imitations. Plenty of heavy takes throughout the day. Overall an extremely enjoyable session.

Looking forward to booking this beat again in the future as it's a good challenging stretch.

Report on Monnow Valley, 2nd June: 2 x 15 inch trout.

As you know, I've been finding Monnow Valley a bit of a challenge this year,what with lost fish and the jungle etc. However, I'm now a happier man. On this very hot morning, I wasted a bit of time at the lower part of the beat on what always turned out to be small chub - they can rise with a surprising commotion. Then I came to the bottom of a reasonably decent run below the mill, a place I haven't managed to reach before, and saw a miniscule rise just below hanging branches - which really looked like small fry. But I flicked a Klinkhammer up there anyway and on the second cast a big trout came up and whacked it hard. On Simon's advice I was using a heavier tippet.

Played it, netted and measured it, admired it and released it, giggling to myself all the while like John Wilson. All this had made a fair old commotion in the run, but something made me tie on a Tungsten Hare's Ear and trundle it through just in case. You guessed it: there was a solid draw and another fish was on, which turned out to be as like the first as two peas in a pod - both beautiful, pristine wild fish with a tinge of blue in the colouring, one male and one female. Finally, to my amazement, having released the second, I saw got a glimpse of yet another large fish in the same hole. Could a brace become a leash? I was starting to feel like Mr Castwell in GEM Skues' short story about the man condemned to stand for all eternity in the same place catching the same fish, in a special version of hell reserved for anglers. Did you read that one? Anyway, I lobbed the nymph up yet again, there was a nervous twitch, but this fish was pricked and didn't come again. Back to the real world. I spent the rest of the morning trying to stalk another couple of fish at the top end, but no joy this time. Apart from that bit of action, not very much rising on the whole beat in the hot weather although a few flies about - mayfly duns and spinners, some of the smaller olives, yellow mays, a sedge I didn't recognise, damsel flies now and of course the midges. I couldn't stay for the evening.

Fished the Escley and the Eddw (again) last Friday. Misty start, cleared to bright sunshine, then a little cloud around in the afternoon. Very warm, Mayflies coming off steadily all day. Water low and clear.

2 of us fished R37 on the Escley from about 8am. Lost a good fish to a nymph early on. Had 2 belting fish (1-2lb) rise to the dry but didn't connect. Saw several fish around the 2lb mark, very spooky though. Great fishing, but eager for the evening rise as spotting the fish not rising in the day was tricky.

Went to the Eddw (R16) just for some sport after lunch. Quite a bit of flow and colour. Fish rising right through. I had a dozen or so to 10". None taken.

Returned to the Escley (R37) for the evening rise, after stopping in Hay for a look at the tail attending the festival. Spooked many rising fish from quite a distance away. Hooked and lost a good fish to the Mayfly last cast. All in all I hooked, lost and saw fish that have been in my dreams since and will have me returning sooner rather than later.

Fantastic river and some fantastic fish in there. I will return...probably tomorrow!

Bit of feedback on a weekends fishing in some cracking surroundings. Been wanting to fish these waters for some years now and finally made it though probably the wrong weekend. In spite of great weather I saw only one fish rise all weekend. Under advise from the booking office I took a booked beat on Saturday as I wasn't going to be there before 10am.
B45 - Cilwych - hard work and seemed pretty dead. Catching a 1.5lb fish on 3rd cast was a mistake as it set the expectations. Three hours later got a 6oz fish to go with it. Adjourned to the pub at 1:30, The Star in Talybont-On-Usk (excellent beer) to consider my options. Decided to drive around and try and find another beat. Opted for
R38 - Longtown - fancied the idea of mayfly. Only saw two lonely mayfly spinners looking for friends. Again nothing moving on the surface but did catch 33cm grayling from one run and had a follow from a good sized trout. On copper bead nymph #16.
Used White House campsite (Builth Wells) overnight, good clean facilities and cheap. Stones throw from pubs which was good but couldn't find anywhere decent to eat.
R19 - Llynfi Dulas (Middle) - couldn't fish as someone else already there at 8am !
R20 - Llynfi Dulas (Upper) - fished this from 9am to 1pm. Bit overgrown in places and took a while to work it out. Copper bead nymph on short leader produced 13 fish and lost/missed a few. Also got one to come up to a smallish CdC mayfly. Only saw one fish rise, got that with the nymph. Fish were good size 7 of them between 23 & 29cm the other 7 below 20cm. Loads of fish at very top where it is open and the bottom a most unappealing red silt. Must have been 50 fish in the space of 20yds but all hugging the bottom and moving out of the way of my nymph. Some surprisingly deep holes, two were close to the top of my chest waders and I'm 6'3". Really feel that I should have caught a lot more than 14 as there were fish all the way up through the beat. Surprisingly only once caught 2 fish from the same pool/run.
The Griffin (on the walk back to the car) was a good pub with good beer & food.
R45 - The Honddu (Usk) - being close I had a look at this. One fish visible from bridge so took a walk downstream but again nothing moving or visible in the water and little fly life so opted not to fish it and have a look round Brecon before driving home.
Some nice waters and I have tickets left so will be back but disappointed at lack of fly life and rising fish. Fished two beats that are noted for mayfly but only saw a handful. In Somerset and Wiltshire they've been coming off for a couple of weeks now. On the Dove in Derbyshire the first week in June was always excellent so I thought they should have been showing last weekend, are they later in Wales?

4 Brown trout (3 over 1 lb) and some small salmon par. Black Klinkhammer and a small PTN fished kiwi style until dusk then just the klinkhammer. Conditions were very bright with the hot sun forcing the fish in to the deeper pools. The breeze was predominantly upstream and the river was a little murky from debris and silt. Hatches were very patchy right up until 2100 hrs when some olives and black sedge took to the wing. The evening rise was good with some very confident takes on the klinkhammer. Great sport!

Several missed fish, but 3 successfully caught on Mayfly imitations. approx weights = 1x1 lb, 1x1.5 lb, 1x 0.75 lb.

2 x 8" browns (released) 1 on an Adams other on olive goldhead.