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Post by weatherman on Oct 12, 2021 22:41:53 GMT
On my local river this season, it has desperately fallen into the patterns of the last few years of fish caught to the amount of water that has failed when duly expected. I suspect that this is mostly the story for many of our South Wales rivers.
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Post by daiben on Oct 14, 2021 14:39:40 GMT
I agree. With the loss of summer spates this year, the opportunity to catch Sewin during the day has been very limited indeed. Even reports (or lack of) night time catches have not been encouraging. So we can assume a reduction in overall fishing effort and lower catch returns.
My hours of darkness spent on the river these days is limited, so some reports and views from other forum members would be very welcome.
Your comments PLEASE.
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Post by sewinboy on Oct 14, 2021 17:11:00 GMT
There has not been the best weather for fishing this season. April was bitterly cold. The Tywi was very high through May, then we had a drought until the end of September. This curtailed my fishing effort this season. However, there appeared to be a good head of summer salmon in the bottom river, but they were stale fish. I have not fished for Sewin at all this year.
Extreme weather conditions are likely to become more prevalent in the future, so we should expect more poor fishing conditions.
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Post by lovestheriver on Oct 14, 2021 20:35:27 GMT
I basically agree with the above posts.
I only spin, so the water has been poor for me most of season.
May was very high but I did manage some fresh Sewin between 4 and 6lb, which was pleasing as I have struggled for these silver May fish last few seasons.
June to Aug was dire, hardly fished due to lack of water.
Sept a couple of very small rises produced Salmon for me, and managed a few last week when the water was dropping.
Lost some good Salmon as well.
Agree fish catches will be down due to lack of effort, plus more fish being lost on single barbless ?
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Post by lovestheriver on Oct 16, 2021 11:06:58 GMT
I agree. With the loss of summer spates this year, the opportunity to catch Sewin during the day has been very limited indeed. Even reports (or lack of) night time catches have not been encouraging. So we can assume a reduction in overall fishing effort and lower catch returns. My hours of darkness spent on the river these days is limited, so some reports and views from other forum members would be very welcome. Your comments PLEASE. Looks like the other members don’t want to share their experiences ! Shame as it would give a better insight on how the river fished. |
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Post by henben on Oct 16, 2021 13:08:22 GMT
I started fishing the Towy as a boy in the 1950s. I then went away for 50 years and came back to fish full time again circa 2008. For all those years there has never been an "empty" season - except for this season, with 1 day to go! It is undoubtedly the worst season that I have experienced over all those years
I confess that my options are limited because I only fly fish and no longer can fish at night. Having said that however, the seasons up to this year have brought some good bags to my rod.
This year it was a time of going from one extreme to the other - water too high (rain and Welsh Water) or water too low (no rain and no Welsh water). For me it was either impossible or a waste of time to fish from June until late September - prime time.
I thus record my worst season (by a long way) ever - this over a period of 65 or so years.
I also suspect that the extremes of weather and river conditions are here to stay and are not a one-off annual event. We must prepare ourselves for much slimmer pickings in the future, unless...........
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Post by weatherman on Oct 17, 2021 0:17:02 GMT
Another thing I have noticed is the amount of effort put in on my local, 10+ years ago there were more than 250 anglers attempting to catch the sewin, today there is at most 25 trying to achieve the same. A sign of the times or a total lack of interest? I assume it's the former & not the latter.
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Post by lovestheriver on Oct 17, 2021 9:33:10 GMT
Agree weatherman, I’d say the fishing effort has come down by 40 to 50% over the last 5 years.
I know many who used to night fish for sewin but no longer do.
Plus members of fishing clubs have dropped off over the last 5 years or so.
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Post by leominster on Oct 17, 2021 15:43:25 GMT
Fished Llandeilo water from the beginning of june one night every week until the end of july,always saw fish showing 50+ seatrout one night on the baskets but never even had a pull. Hooked a lot of fish but only landed one.Then fished Abercothi from july until october much better results caught fish every trip hooked 11 one night landed 5 between 2/5 lbs and 3 good fish from the Cothi. I think that seatrout just trickled into the river rather than large shoals because of low water.Cyril Fox at Abercothi reports 300 seatrout this season not far short of last year as reported fishing effort is down.
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Post by henben on Oct 18, 2021 10:20:38 GMT
Fished Llandeilo water from the beginning of june one night every week until the end of july,always saw fish showing 50+ seatrout one night on the baskets but never even had a pull. Hooked a lot of fish but only landed one.Then fished Abercothi from july until october much better results caught fish every trip hooked 11 one night landed 5 between 2/5 lbs and 3 good fish from the Cothi. I think that seatrout just trickled into the river rather than large shoals because of low water.Cyril Fox at Abercothi reports 300 seatrout this season not far short of last year as reported fishing effort is down. I must have been mistaken then....................... |
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Post by leominster on Oct 18, 2021 16:55:03 GMT
Amazing how different our fishing experiences are thats what so great about a sport in a natural environment
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Post by weatherman on Oct 18, 2021 23:58:29 GMT
With a reduced effort on fishing, will the NRW statistics at the end of this season, be a true reflection of migratory fish entering river systems, especially those devoid of fish counters? An organisation very dependant on anglers catch returns.
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Post by daiben on Oct 19, 2021 15:40:46 GMT
With a reduced effort on fishing, will the NRW statistics at the end of this season, be a true reflection of migratory fish entering river systems, especially those devoid of fish counters? An organisation very dependant on anglers catch returns. Other than Fish Caught/Fishing Effort, I have no idea what other factors or variables, if any, are taken account of, or thrown in to the 'equation', in assessing fish stocks. At best, I can't see it being more than just an 'educated guess'. Have Catch Returns ever provided a true reflection of migratory fish stocks? I'll be very surprised if this season's Catch Returns show anything positive. N.B. Good to see some debate on the Forum at last. Long may it continue. |
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Post by weatherman on Oct 19, 2021 21:24:52 GMT
Many years ago, the trend of many migratory anglers was to be "very" conservative when completing & returning catch returns. They were convinced that if their local river was shown to be successful then the cost of a migratory licence would be increased or maybe popular beats would be purchased by wealthy syndicates. It's a shame that the EA/NRW aren't at the spawning redds doing some research, we all have an idea when the fish are there....but do they?
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Post by henben on Oct 20, 2021 8:48:17 GMT
"Other than Fish Caught/Fishing Effort, I have no idea what other factors or variables, if any, are taken account of, or thrown in to the 'equation', in assessing fish stocks."
I think they used to do some smolt counting at different locations, comparing the counts over the years and using simple statistics to predict the numbers of returning fish. Perhaps that no longer happens?
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Post by daiben on Oct 20, 2021 15:29:24 GMT
I think they used to do some smolt counting at different locations, comparing the counts over the years and using simple statistics to predict the numbers of returning fish. Perhaps that no longer happens? Ah yes, I forgot about that. I believe they still carry out smolt counts. Weatherman said:- 'It's a shame that the EA/NRW aren't at the spawning redds doing some research, we all have an idea when the fish are there....but do they?' I've heard it said, that many years ago, on the upper reaches of the Towy and its tributaries, when Salmon and Sewin redds where counted and protected by Water Bailiffs, it was impossible to count individual Sewin redds as they all ran into each other. Imagine that! |
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Post by weatherman on Oct 20, 2021 22:56:59 GMT
Sadly, both agencies are now very undermanned, with a priority mainly directed at fly-tipping & other such menial tasks, pollution & fish welfare etc. are well on the back-burner. The governments' sudden interest in climate change will probably mean these environment agencies will react to a different directive well away from fishing & healthy habitats. After all, fish can be farmed!
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alwyn
Forum Member
Posts: 58 
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Post by alwyn on Oct 31, 2021 19:09:13 GMT
I would guess that I had 10-12 sessions on the middle Tywi this year and some of those just for 3 hours or so. My total was 10 fish, but most nights were blank or just one fish. There were a couple of better nights in there which pushed up my total. But on the whole, a tough season for sure. Fish seemed to be around and on quite a few nights fish were showing. Getting them to take was a whole other challenge. Was it the low water, the water temperature perhaps? You have to think that the low flows were a big factor this year. I had my first ever Tywi double this season which made my year!
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