Feedback & Reports

The water was low and clear, and a stiff breeze (which changed direction throughout the day) made casting a challenge. We saw flies coming off throughout the day, but nothing was rising to take them so we persevered with nymphs and spider patterns, managing to take fish throughout the length of the beat, and primarily from the faster runs. Small bead-heads and spider patterns proved most successful (PTNs, Snipe and Purple, GRHE, and Greenwells all tempted fish). We had a great day out, and will certainly return to this stretch.

13 Trout, 5 Grayling

My dear wife woke me at 4.30am and got me to the riverbank in time to cast a fly by 5am! Unfortunately we were greeted by a murky, heavily algae stained and very warm river Wye. However, we still enjoyed a beautiful morning with lots of Salmon cartwheeling about and one even generously snatched at my fly but nothing took hold properly. The opposite rods on Cadora were spinning away by 8am and we stopped to enjoy the scenery and a cooked breakfast on the bank but no champagne. We carried on till 10am fishing hard with fly and spinners and finally the opposition caught one on a flying C. We went off to enjoy the glorious sunshine elsewhere and returned at 6pm to fish the Alders pool and wonderful Cadora run once again. The opposition were now filming and still honorably casting away with the flying C's! Despite our best efforts the Salmon were not interested other than trying to jump out of the hot soupy muck and we left at 9.30pm by which time the Cadora pool was filled right across to the stream on the opposite side with a scummy foam! An interesting and short beat which requires some application to work the fly other than Cadora run and some major holding spots more easily fished with spinner. Loads of fish showing and wonderful scenery but not a good day for catching fish in that water, although the opposite side did manage one - such is Salmon fishing!

Water was low, warm and sunny day. saw one salmon at the bottom of beat 2, could not walk from beat 2 to beats 3 & 4 due to barbed wire, signs were non existant.
WUF Note : The barbed wire fencing has stiles erected at all the relevant places. Beat maps are issued and advice offered to anyone visiting.

Two lovely trout in idyllic surroundings with great company. Mikes first trout for 30 plus years.
largest was 3/4 lb on GRHE from Wally's cast. Nice raffle prize.

2 Trout

Pleasant beat with easy access to the water which had a reasonable flow. One salmon showed in the nearby pool but not a great day for fishing as temperatures reached 26.5 in the afternoon. Caught 4 Shad which fought well- all returned.

4 Other

Arrived late morning to find little sign of hungry fish but managed to catch two trout around 8" in length in the first half hour. Thereafter no success for an hour so I decided to go to Upper Grwyne Fawr which is a short drive from Lower Stanton.

2 Trout

This a challenging beat in the sense that the water is fast moving and in parts it is a bit tricky underfoot. However, it is a very nice stretch of water that I have fished a bit in previous seasons. I spent about 4 hours picking my way upstream through the small fast running pools getting plenty of interest in my Grey Wulff fly but failing to hook much. Pretty much every pool produced a strike but for some reason I did not manage to actually make contact. This said I did manage to catch 3 small trout of the order of 5-6" and one a little larger. Thus at the end of a long afternoon and feeling tired and a bit frustrated I reached a rather deep pool nearer the top of the beat. On first cast I made contact and wow, what a splash! After a substantial fight I landed a trout that must have been 16" in length and very fat; a great end to the day and the best fish I have caught this season. Interestingly, all of the fish caught were dark in colour with relatively small spots; not sure why but maybe something to do with the lack of light on this beat?

5 Trout

The river was a good height and clear but the bright sunny day made fish hard to find. Never the less we managed a few small WBT and a lovely 12" oos grayling using various nymph paterns (olive and greens seeming to be most popular).
Fished better in the morning and became slower as the day moved to evening. A few mayfly about but not much rising for them. We lost a couple of better fish, which managed to spit the hook after a brief battle and brought salmon par to hand throughout the day.

3 Trout, 1 Grayling

Difficult day due to bright sun, fish were rising occasionally but whatever they were taking must have been very small as we couldn't match it. The barbed wire fencing is a bit of a bind but there are places to get over, pity the new gates are wired shut, it would be easier to use the than climbing fences. There were a few mayfly lifting but the fish didn't seem to be interested in them. It was interesting to hear from a local resident that several years ago there were some spectacular mayfly hatches.
Thanks to all at WUF and fishery owners for providing such lovely places to visit.

3 Trout, 2 Grayling

The day was hot and bright, with little evidence of fish or fly until the evening. But at about 7.30, after dinner at The Bell, we stood on the bridge and offered a libation (in the form of a small quantity of bitter) to Adipe, the Fish Sage, who was revered and consulted by the ancient Mesopotamians (Adipe is believed to have been a giant Tigris carp, said to have come from the waters beneath the waters).
Soon a few mayfly, yellow may duns and smaller flies began to leave the water, and there were occasional splashy rises. By 9pm, the air was thick with yellow may duns, though the rising was still quite sporadic. We caught some beautiful and hard-fighting fish (though up to only 3/4lb) on mayflies, duck's dun, yellow may imagos and emergers. The action slowly tailed off, but there was still the occasional rise at 10.
I now see that I should have tipped the whole pint in. Then there would have been a spinner fall and a feeding frenzy.

8 Trout