Just one fish reported yesterday from upper Bigswier. A five pound fish on fly to John Dawson.
Otherwise everything else seems to be lying doggo witha return to low water and rising temperatures for a while midweek.  No rain in the offing apart from the odd possibility of a  thunderstorm.


Wyesham 12lb to Mike Timmis on a riffle hitch fly -apparently.

Water temperature are again over 20 degrees on the lower river.   Courtfield has already suspoended its salmon fishing until further notice.

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Please read the below and act upon it as suggested if you value your Welsh fishing.  Might make WUF sit up and take notice with canoeing perhaps affecting their own beats during the salmon season instead of just someone else's

Dear SACC Supporter,

Welsh Assembly Government has recently launched a consultation entitled “Taking Forward Wales’ Sustainable Management of Natural Resources” which contains little about addressing the many unsustainable ways in which natural resources are being managed, but some very concerning suggestions regarding access to water by canoeists and others.  There is a very real risk that this could include an open access model similar to Scotland which has caused significant problems to a number of fisheries, and there is much more space there.

Our organisations will be responding in our own right, but we believe that it is very important that as many individuals as possible respond to this consultation to try to maintain the status quo.  It is particularly important that businesses such as hotels, tackle shops and angling guides respond to highlight the importance of angling for employment and economic activity and how this might be damaged as a result of unfettered canoeing.  Individual responses will have much more influence than standard templates, but we have provided some points below to help you respond.

The deadline for consultation responses is 13 September 2017.  Please also send a copy of your response to your Assembly Member (find out who that is HERE).

SACC organisations believe that sustainable access to land and water must:

1. be agreed locally between the relevant parties to reflect the particular local conditions and pressures rather than being generally imposed by national regulations;

2. be managed to avoid conflict between users;

3. respect the rights of people to continue to enjoy existing legitimate activities without disturbance;

4. not cause unreasonable interference with the rights of landowners and lessees to enjoy their property;

5. not damage the natural environment or the ecosystem services it provides by causing unreasonable damage to wildlife and habitats.

It might be worth making the following points as well (if possible in your own words):

1.       Any evidence of the economic benefits of angling: how much you spend as an angler, or if you run a business how much it turns over and how many people it employs;

2.       The fact that anglers pay a rod licence ranging from £30 to £80 a year and this pays for fisheries management.  Many also donate funds and their voluntary time to support River Trusts who use this money to generate substantial additional external funding to restore rivers. We also pay subscriptions to clubs and day tickets to get permission to fish short stretches of river;

3.       Canoeists pay no licence fee and want free access;

4.       Wales and its rivers are much smaller, and much nearer large population centres, than Scotland. Canoeing on small rivers has a very big impact on fishing and even one or two canoes can make fishing pointless for hours.

5.       Our community has tried very hard to reach agreements (and renew existing agreements) which allow some canoeing, but the resistance of the canoeing governing bodies to sign up to agreements with reasonable restrictions, coupled with their erroneous claims that the law is not clear, have frustrated these attempts.

6.       Salmon, sewin and trout stocks are in decline across most of Wales.  Our sector wants to see action to address the widespread and endemic problems of agricultural pollution, habitat damage, over-abstraction and unsustainable predation rather than having our fishing damaged by yet another threat.

Please send your response to them by 13 September and encourage every other angler who cares about the future of fish and fishing to do the same.

Kind regards,

The SACC organisations.