Feedback & Reports

What a stunning river! Very similar to the Clettwr (but a bigger version). And to top it off, it was running with just enough water to offer an excellent day's fishing (having taken a look at the Arrow on the way, which was very low). 15 brown trout, all released. Roughly half fell to the nymph (GRHE) and the other half to black and olive Klinkhammers. The best was a fish of 12".

Fancied fishing the big rod and hoped that the promised rain might liven things up in the evening. Thus enjoyed a couple of hours flailing away before switching to trout & Grayling. About 4 trout and 6 grayling including the smallest Grayling I have ever seen - about 3 inches!
Very little rain actually fell later on but a really enjoyable day where every rock could be seen and its position noted for the future.

5 WBT to 12 inches but had to work hard for these finnicky fish. The action came from the long flats, after fruitless searches of the riffles with nymphs. Stealth manouvres, long leaders, small flies and delicate casting were the order of the day. Took fish on #20 Griffiths gnat and #20 parachute (Pale Watery imitation). Missed a lot of rises too - in some cases I think the fish shied away at the last minute, in other cases it was my timing that was called into question! Heavy rain in the evening sent me home earlier than I'd hoped.

This was my first visit to this beat and I will definitely be back. Wonderfully picturesque and peaceful.

Nil catch but did straighten a hook on a very powerful fish. Plenty of tentative bites but couldn't hit them. I suspect that the barbel in this beat are bit cannier than elsewhere on the Wye.

The most interesting aspect of this session was the number of salmon showing. There were fish of all sizes crashing out all over the place. Most were well coloured but I did see one fresh looking fish. I have never seen so much salmon activity in one day before on the Wye.

Conditions permitting my next visit will be for salmon.

My first visit to the Wye, fished mid morning to mid afternoon, started at the top part of the beat in the morning and fished till about three, I had intended to fish the lower part but the swims were pretty high banked and precarious. Total catch was three chub to around 3lbs 10ozs and five eels, all taken on luncheon meat and pellet paste. No barbel, but lots of surface movement though, probably Salmon.

Following on from the previous day's efforts. Toni permitted 'Jilted John' to fish the 'Hot Spot' swim of the previous day. The remaining 3 rods slotted in at close quarters. The day proved much tougher than the previous albeit 3 rods did improve on their previous days catches. The weather deteriorated on the strong wind and heavy rain fell. The combination of these two elements took their toll on the two oldies of the group as they scuttled to the van. No complaints about the beat though! Final return for the 4 rods was 7 barbel between 5lb and 8lb mixed in with the odd chub here and there. Same tactics of halibut pellet, fished hair rigged over feeders was the successful method. How long will they keep getting caught in this manner to these tactics is anyones guess, but for me, a change will be made next visit. Finally, it was noce to see that 'Ton Up Toni' was human after all!!

Another very hard day, and floating weed + canoeists made keeping a rod in the water for more than a few minutes impossible, worked very hard to end with 8 Barbel and 6 Chub.

1 rod fished near the hut and only managed a small Chub, the other rod made the long walk to the bottom pegs to earn 6 Barbel and 6 Chub for his efforts.

14 barbel to 7lb+ and 5 chub between the two of us. Pleasing result on a very low river. As usual most canoeists very pleasant and friendly, though one gentleman chose to canoe up river with two very small children and then canoe back so incompetently that one of the children could easily have been injured.... It takes all sorts...

Blank. However, you should blame the angler for this, not the venue. There are some trout in the restored river Lwyd, and in fact I rose three at the bottom end and managed to become disconnected from each and every one of them - fish of 8-10 inches, I would guess. There does seem to be a reasonable amount of fly life, a few needle flies and pale wateries on the day, and plenty of caddis and shrimp among the stones - although not quite as many as in the Taf at Merthyr Tydfil, which has a remarkable abundance. It's post-industrial urban fishing, I suppose, and the bed of the stream is full of curiosities such as bits of furnace clinker and old tram-line rails, but for most of the beat the banks are part of a very pleasant and green rural park or playing fields. A nice experience, all in all.