Back On An Old Favourite

We all have rivers/streams that hold a special place in our hearts, well one of mine has to be the River Edw which is a small tributary to the River Wye and enters the river just downstream of Builth Wells.

I headed off there Saturday and having seen high levels in both the Irfon and Wye had hoped to find it with more water in but unfortunately it was still running pretty low.

The beat I fished was Aberedw, the lower of the four under the Wye & Usk Foundation roving voucher scheme, this beat is split into two sections and although the top section is relatively short it's definitely worth a visit with a couple of stunning looking pools.

Fish came instantly from the bottom of the beat and although mostly small fish these brown trout are just beautiful and totally wild. I like to think my stealthy approach when I walk up these rivers is as good as I can be but I think I would have needed to be invisible to realistically target some of the trout that were lying in the shallow tails of some of the pools. They caught wind of me long before I could delicately drop a dry fly on there noses and bolted upstream to warn the others.

I did manage to find plenty of obliging fish from many of the deeper, faster pockets that seem to have trout queuing up ready to take either a dry or nymph.

Fly life is also a bit special on the Edw with a steady stream of late season flies hatching throughout the day, coupled with the beauty and remoteness you experience here then it is easy to see why this can become one of those 'special' places.


Autumn Dun (Ecdyonurus dispar)