You are reading a single comment by @jupiz and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@jupiz
On a train so thought I’d write this up a bit more:
Hay on Wye:
We fancied going somewhere a bit different from around Bristol and through poking a finger on a map around the fishable bits of the Wye and Usk, ended up on Hay on Wye - just in Wales. @Bobble drove us and we camped out on the other side of river from there. It was cheap and well set up, hot showers, drinking water and good size pitches + fire pit for £16pp/night. We were just after the book festival and before school holidays so it wasn’t too busy and ideal weather. The area itself is fantastic - beautiful views and the town is lovely - great beer, food ok (although they massively take the piss on prices). There’s a pop up wood fired pizza place which is great (£10/pizza) and otherwise would prob stock up from the co-op in town. 3 tuns is a nice pub with good beer, and the local tapas/gin place gets quite busy with the locals too. Butty Bach is great on cask, and there’s a local craft brewery place which has confusing open hours but served in the pubs.
Cycling:
Amazing rides pretty much anyway you go. Directly south is the Brecon Beacons (can’t remember new name) and riding out takes you straight up gospel pass for 6miles with fantastic views and little traffic. Horseflies are plentiful though and utter bastards. West or east will take you along the wye valley which is gently lumpy with stunning views and north more lovely scenery. We crawled up gospel pass the first day then rode west on Sunday along the valley - stopped in Erwood station craft centre tea shop for refreshments but wheelwright arms looked a good stop for another time. Drivers friendly and patient and gave us plenty of room.
Fishing:
We fished on the arrow at Kington on Friday which was way down and needed some fresh water - saw one fish only so I’d say it either needs a bit of rain or best tackled early/late morning or evening. Small rods needed and wet wading was fine but getting out was a bit of a pain, with my legs brambled and nettled up by the time we got back to the car.
Saturday we were out on the Usk at Brecon, mainly as it was close and cheap for salmon fishing and we fancied giving it a go at £15 a day. Lots splashing about from the tourists, but water was way down so little chance of a bothering them so we spent the most part trying to sneak up on the trout. These were beautiful wild fish, however annoyingly I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what they were feeding on on the surface despite matching what was about insect wise - in retrospect it was probably a presentation issue and shoddy casting rather than fly choice. I caught a lovey brownie on a wet fly before a message indicated that @bobble had had a close encounter with the finned kind. Unfortunately use of the net was still requiring work so I was left to take his word for it on the mythical proportions of the one that got away. Shortly after however he caught a lovely little fish on the nymph which was briefly held up for a photo before wriggling its way out of his hands mid shot. Bigger fish were on the way though, I caught a nice brownie on the Klink and dink in a foot of water and @bobble cracked the dry fly with a small hawthorn type imitation before we called it quits and headed to the pub.
Sunday was a quick outing to the middle wye at Whitney. It was really pretty but much more course type water, and we struggled to raise anything except a few obliging dace. A follow on the spinner aside, the most fun was stripping small streamers down and across a pool which were nailed by some strange silvery fish that looked a bit kippery - turned out to be thwaite shad which are almost unique to the Wye system in the UK and endangered so will leave them well alone in future. Also if you do fish on this bit beware of cows. Obviously very curious creatures and turned a 3 piece rod into a 6 piece one.
All in all, great trip - def planning to return. Want to do a longer ride in the beacons and explore more of the wye by Llanstephan which looked stunning. There’s also a little bit of free fishing by hay on wye (or nobody minds) which could be useful if you just fancy grabbing 30 mins on the water in the evening. Some of the people next to us took an 8 mile kayaking trip with halfway being in hay - which would be good to do if with non cycling/fishing friends. We were lucky with the weather and post concussion I’d been confined at home for the previous 4 weeks mostly which prob made it even more enjoyable, but one of the nicest trips I’ve been on in the uk for ages.
1 Attachment