Fly Fishing in Powys

The Fishing Passport is an online booking system run on a not for profit basis by the Wye and Usk Foundation. It doesn’t own or lease any water; each beat stays with its owner, so book ahead. A few beats, among them Dufnant and Llanwysg on the Usk, can’t be booked on the website: the owner agrees each booking first, and an answer can take 48 hours or more. Wild Streams are small wild brown trout waters, booked online or by phone, with bookings closing at 6pm the day before. A Wild Stream beat nobody has booked is open to holders of a Wild Stream Season Permit, £100 for one rod or £140 for two.

The Usk holds salmon, wild brown trout and sewin, and the early season is usually best for trout, April to June. On the Passport beats we list, salmon go back at all times. Cefn Rhosan Fawr, below Sennybridge, is £20 for salmon or trout, and Buckland, near Bwlch, is £49 for salmon or £39 for trout. The Breconshire Fishery in Brecon is £15 online. Crickhowell and District Angling Society’s beats are for members only. The Cilieni, Crai, Tarell, Bran and Honddu are small Wild Streams for light fly rods, and the upper Tawe and Twrch are club water booked through the Passport, with March Brown and Large Dark Olive hatches in spring.

On the upper Wye, Craig Llyn and Dolgau, south of Rhayader, are fly only and catch and release, at £38 for salmon or £27 for trout. Doldowlod, above Newbridge-on-Wye, is known for grayling, best from the end of August to November, at £24. The Irfon is a trout and grayling river, with Colonel’s Water at £22 for trout. On the Ithon, Disserth Ithon is £19. The Edw has four Wild Stream beats, the Llynfi and Llynfi Dulas hold a high density of trout and a spectacular mayfly hatch, and Ty Mawr, the furthest upstream beat on the Wye, is a Wild Stream too.

Rhayader and Elan Valley Angling Association sells one permit for its Wye, Elan, Marteg and Claerwen river water, £15 a day or £40 for a season, and a Natural Resources Wales rod licence is needed. At Builth Wells, Groe Park and Irfon Angling Club sells visitor permits at £15 a day for trout or salmon, and anyone over 11 needs a rod licence. Caersws Angling Association has about seven miles of the upper Severn at £22 a day, and Llanidloes and District Angling Association sells river permits at £10 a day.

The Elan Valley reservoirs are four lakes covering 850 acres, and Claerwen is 900 acres on its own. Both are fly only wild brown trout waters with no boats, open from 20 March to 17 October, at £20 and £18 a day for 4 fish, then catch and release. Llyngwyn, 16 acres and stocked with rainbows, is £27 for 2 fish and closed from July to September. Llyn Clywedog, 615 acres, is fished mostly from boats at £29 a day, and Lake Vyrnwy is a loch style boat water at £45 a day for one rod. Cray Reservoir is £15 a day, paid at Cnewr Farm. Through the Passport, Talybont (318 acres, bank only), Beacons Reservoir and Llyn Bugeilyn add wild trout water in the Beacons and on the moor.

It suits an angler who will book a beat ahead and fish a small stream on a light rod, and who doesn’t mind that most of the river water is sold by the beat.