Fishing

We have 2 1/2 miles of the River Wye and 1 mile of the River Irfon plus a coarse fishing pool named Llyn Alarch. The Wye and Irfon contain both game and coarse fish and the game fish with the coarse fish close season – the grayling. This ensures we have fishing throughout the year.

The salmon fishing is dependent on rainfall to raise the river and prompt the fish to run up but once they do we have plenty of places where we can catch them. Most of the lies can be fished effectively with a fly. Keep an eye on the water levels on the Environment Agency, and Wye and Usk Foundation websites ( www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120764.aspx and http://www.wyeuskfoundation.org/conditions/index.php)

The river is also the home of other migratory fish – the Shad ( two species) and the Sea Lamprey. The Sea Lamprey will not feature in the anglers catch but its appearance can be a bit alarming when you don’t know what it is.It looks like a blotchey, stout eel between two and three feet long but doesn’t taper towards the tail as much as an eel and isn’t so flexible. It appears in the river in May and June, digs out redds and spawns, leaving depressions in the gravel. The Shad also appears in May and June but will often take a fly and zoom around at high speed. They are unmistakeably a member of the herring family and are a protected species so please return them gently.

The river has a good stock of wild brown trout but we stock some during the season as well. These are triploid brown trout which do not spawn so do not affect the gene pool of the indigenous species. The grayling are very plentiful and produce reliable sport apart from April and May when their minds turn to romance and they appear to vanish from the river. Worm and fly-fishing are equally classical methods of trout fishing in Wales but with the emphasis turning more to the sporting aspect rather than fishing for the pot the fly-fishing approach is now dominant. The advent of the seemingly endless varieties of nymph fishing has increased times of the year and the conditions in which fly-fishing is effective. A prolonged cold spell with low water will drive the grayling into the deepest parts of the biggest pools where they cannot be reached with conventional fly gear and then the long trotting gear is the only way to reach them.

Coarse fishing can be very good with the chub and grayling. The dace have been variable over the last few years with some years literally scores of fish coming to the net and then another year hardly a one. All the usual baits are effective although please note that maggots may only be used from the beginning of October to the end of February and worm is banned in October.

Llyn Alarch, our coarse fishery, is developing nicely with the fish putting on weight. Click HERE to read more about it.