Feedback & Reports

Managed a couple of hours mid morning before the height got too much. First time out for salmon this year, hopefully not the last.

Not such a good today. Last time I was here a couple of weeks ago there was a good hatch of yellow may dun and mayfly and there were fish everywhere. Today was bright and hot and not many flies about. I attempted some salmon fishing. Withing 10 minutes I rose a 10lb salmon. For the second time in 3 weeks I've risen a salmon with it leaping straight afterwards and sticking two fins up at me!! B*****d!!

2 Trout

Great day, first time we'd fished this beat. Startd below the suspension bridge and worked up. Lots of fish on 'Klink and Dink' - brown Klinkhammer and size 18 nymph unerneath. Most fish caught on nymphs but a fair few to the dry. Biggest brown about 12 inches, biggest grayling about 14 inches. Deep nymphing by boards just below the suspension bridge worked very well. This is an amazing beat, so glad we booked it - thank you WUF.

17 Trout, 8 Grayling

Temperatures up in the high twenties. We fished from 9am through to 1pm and then back again at 6pm for three hours in the evening when we fished the top section of the beat which we very much enjoyed. Little activity throughout the day. One brown trout around 10" put back and a number of small trout.

1 Trout

No salmon seen but enjoyed the day's fishing on a beautiful stretch of the river.

Could have been August - very hot and very little movement all day. One 10" trout from fast water above hut on emerger.

1 Trout

The day was really hot so I choose to fish in fast flowing water and caught lots of trout and grayling on nymphs. There were couple of rises in the evening but nothing came on the end of the line. I caught a big fish under the bridge (couldn't see the fish) but lost it as it broke my 5 lb tippet. I think a felt/studded boot and a wading staff is essential as the river has predominantly bed rocks.

17 Trout, 4 Grayling

Very low ( 6 inches) and bright sunshine. Caught one 2lb shad

1 Other

Pleasant day out on the Wye which started out with an upstream wind, which obviously didn't inconvenience me enough so it changed to a downstream wind later in the day. The weather was warm with occasional cloud, and sometimes the wind dropped enough for the odd fish to take off the surface.
I fished a heavy nymph under a an indicator and slowly made my way up stream, but only on the right bank. Which is very easy due to the path and occasional steps to the runs.
I saw a nice salmon in the pool below the house, I managed to get a good look before it spooked and shot off into the depths.
Overall a very relaxing beat, that is very well maintained and accessible, there are some more difficult runs and pools to get to for those of you want to risk a soaking though.

2 Trout, 3 Grayling

The Wye is a very wide river at this place. It wouldn’t look out of place in a David Attenborough documentary on Canada. All that was missing was the grizzly bears. And the salmon. (The latter not showing themselves today, due to the low flow I suppose.) The water was running very clear and it really is a lovely looking bit of river to spend a sunny spring afternoon.

In contrast to yesterday’s experience on the Rive Usk, very few mayflies were in evidence, put off hatching by the bright sunshine no doubt. No fish were seen to be rising either. Never before have I fished such a large river. A long beat too, at roughly 1 ½ miles. To be honest, without any rising fish, I was unsure where to start. Hiring a local guide for the day wouldn’t have been a bad idea. The beat map and information on the pools from Wye &Usk Foundation / Fishing Passport were detailed enough, albeit more suited to salmon fishermen I’d say.

I set off downstream towards the Llanstephan suspension bridge, listing to the sounds of the Wye in spring: The rush of the falls, the splashing of mallards, a blackbird singing for a mate, motorbikes using the A470 as a racetrack…

I looked into the gloom of the deep Heirag pool. No fish were visible, so I plumbed its depths with some weighted flies – a cone-headed woolly bugger and a tungsten-beaded shrimp – hoping for a big trout. If any fish were present, they showed no interest in my offerings.

I tied out a gold beaded Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear. Ten minutes of casting got no response, but the water here just ‘looked right’ for trout. I persisted. I was just about to lift off into another cast when a fish took the fly. It put a good bend in the 6wt rod, before throwing the hook. I estimate it would have been around the one-pound mark. Next cast, another tug without a hookup. Then nothing. A cold wind started to blow upstream.

Back to the river. Moving upstream again, I waded out some distance onto a section of gravel. With no luck here, I returned back to the place where I had some interest earlier. I stuck with the gold beaded GRHE, and cast it out into the run.

With the most delicate of takes, a brown trout took the nymph. It was well hooked and I was able to bring him to the net. A plump little fish of about ten inches. With its large bright red spots, I have to say it was a better looking fish than its Usk cousins caught yesterday. It swam away strongly.

Having found a productive spot, I’m sure I could have brought more trout to net. Unfortunately, I had to be elsewhere later that day, so I followed my principle of finishing on a good fish, and called it a day mid-afternoon.

(full report and more photos on my blog: afishingdiary.com)

1 Trout