Spate · Slate · West Wales / Carmarthenshire

Towy (Tywi)

The River Towy flowing in broad meanders through the valley below Dinefwr Castle near Llandeilo.

Wales's premier sewin (sea trout) river and major salmon river.

Poor · Brown Trout
CDC Emerger · 16-18
Poorlive now
Not the day for it
River temperature is the limiting factor today, not the flow. This is not the day to push it. Check the thermal advice above before you head out.
90% confidence
What moved it
  • Level0.89 mDropping in the last 6h
  • Water temp22.1°C
  • ClarityClear
Today's fly
CDC Emerger
CDC Emerger16-18
Upstream dry, in the film
Conditions on the water
Live gauge
Level
Steady
0.89 m
Dropping in the last 6h
Water temp22.1°C
ClarityClear
Weather28°C
WindW 12 km/h
Pressure1021 hPa
Rain · recent0.0 mm
Rain · ahead0.9 mm

Live readings — water temperature is an estimate where the gauge does not record it.

Water temperature for Brown Trout
Warm — slow
22°C est.ideal 10–16°C
0°14°28°
How to fish it · for Brown Trout
When
Through the open trout season. Spring olives April through May; sedges through summer; small dark flies into autumn close. Spate-driven — fish 12 to 24 hours after rain.
Where
Pool tails, riffle heads, and the seams behind boulders through the upper and middle Tywi. Welsh freestone — pocket-to-pocket reading.
Method
Upstream dry to risers; dry-dropper through the riffles. North Country spider on the swing in cooler water. Spate-driven on falling water.
Kit
9 ft #4 — Welsh freestone default. Floating line, 9 to 12 ft leader to 4 to 5 lb fluoro. Studded boots — slate slabs run slick.
Why this works
Water at 22.1°C. This is the line where catch-and-release kills brown trout. Do not fish for them today.
Hatch timeline · todayPeak at 6pm

Hatch predictions

Today's headline hatch shown — see all 7 active hatches hour by hour with Pro.

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Sub-surface · on the nymphunder the surface

Hatch predictions

See the full sub-surface read with Pro.

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Beyond the hatch · worth watchingambient prey

Hatch predictions

Top prey shown — see all 2 with Pro.

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Through the year
0–3 scale · August highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Salmon runRun
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
Trout seasonSeason
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
Daddy Long LegsHatch
2
3
2
March BrownHatch
2
3
2
GrannomHatch
2
2
Large StoneflyHatch
2
3
2

Numbers are intensity 0 (none) to 3 (peak) — a guide, not a guarantee.

Ranked for today
Brown Trout fly box

Wild-river first principles. Early-season nymphs and practical searching, then dry flies, emergers and spiders as hatches and surface activity improve.

BB
Black Beetle
14-18 · Pattern
Upstream dry, on top
Beats · 5 · 3 reaches
Main Towy — association water (Llandovery to Carmarthen)Access varies
The Towy (Tywi) is one of the finest sea trout — sewin — rivers in the British Isles, with a good run of salmon to autumn and brown trout throughout.
Golden Grove & estate beatsAccess varies
Alongside the associations, several private estate beats on the lower and middle Towy — including a cluster around Golden Grove (Cilsane, Dryslwyn Castle, Glanyrafon, Upper and Lower Ro Fawr) — are let to visiting rods through the Fishing Passport.
Towy tributaries · 3 beatsMixed
River Gwili — Carmarthen Amateur AA, River Gwili — Carmarthen & District AC, River Camddwr (Towy headwaters) — Tregaron AA
The 3 beats
River Gwili — Carmarthen Amateur AADay tickets
Carmarthen Amateur Angling Association
Two beats totalling 4.5 miles (Glangwili Bridge to Bronwydd, and Bronwydd Village to Dyffryn Gwili) on this Tywi tributary — sea trout (sewin) is the headline draw, alongside wild brown trout.
Day ticket £30, weekly £135 (2026 pricing).
River Gwili — Carmarthen & District ACMembers
Carmarthen & District Angling Club
Two further Gwili stretches near the Gwili Railway and a Quarry stretch further out toward the A484 — a separate club from Carmarthen Amateur AA, est. 1953.
Members only via Clubmate — no day tickets, no published price.
River Camddwr (Towy headwaters) — Tregaron AADay tickets
Tregaron Angling Association
Seven miles of remote wilderness fishing on a Towy tributary in the Cambrian Mountains near Llyn Brianne reservoir — small but plentiful wild brown trout. Note: there's a second, unrelated river also called Camddwr near Tregaron itself, a Teifi tributary through Cors Caron bog — this is not that river.
Tregaron AA also controls 17 miles of the Teifi itself, Llyn Berwyn and the Teifi Pools.
What's coming
Plan ahead
5-day outlook
Water here around 22°C. Nothing cooler within range — carry a thermometer.
Gallery · 6
  1. The River Towy flowing in broad meanders through the valley below Dinefwr Castle near Llandeilo.
    River Towy below Dinefwr Castle
  2. The River Towy running through Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, with the valley beyond.
    River Towy at Llandovery
  3. A wide view of the River Towy flowing through the Llangunnor reach at Carmarthen.
    River Towy at Carmarthen
  4. The River Towy at Llandilo-yr-ynys near Nantgaredig, a wide shallow reach in Carmarthenshire.
    River Towy at Llandilo-yr-ynys, Nantgaredig
  5. The Afon Tywi winding through its flood plain near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire.
    Afon Tywi near Llandovery
  6. Terrain map of the venue
    Terrain map
About this water

Wales's premier sewin (sea trout) river and major salmon river. Night fishing for sewin from April through summer is legendary — large fish, aggressive takes. Salmon from February onwards. Fish sinking-tip line with medium tubes in spring for salmon; switch to smaller doubles and wet flies for daytime fishing. Sea trout take throughout spring and summer; night fishing (June–August, particularly July) is most productive. Flows through Llandeilo and Carmarthen. Slate and schist bedrock underlie this river. Atlantic salmon are under serious conservation pressure — Natural Resources Wales mandates catch-and-release for salmon on all rivers, so all fish must be returned.

Sea trout here

Summer-autumn runs (June–September), primarily nocturnal

  • Slate
Water quality (WFD)
  • Ecology: Good
  • Chemical: Unknown
What this classification means

NRW WFD Cycle 3 — Tywi (confluence with Cothi to spring tidal limit): Good ecological status; the association main-stem water (Llandovery–Carmarthen). Corrected 2026-06-18 from a Gwili-tributary tag (Crychiau), not the Towy main stem. Source: NRW DataMapWales WFD Cycle 3 classification layer.

NRW (Wales) · GB110060029290

The full read · show the working · for Brown Trout · confidence 90%
How the 12 is built — score × weight = contribution
Temperature6 × 28%1.7
Flow80 × 22%17.6
Clarity95 × 18%17.1
Feeding Time60 × 13%7.8
Pressure80 × 7%5.6
Insect activity59 × 12%7.1
Limiting factor: Water temperature (22.1°C) is outside Brown Trout's preferred range (10–16°C)= 57
Can you trust it?
Water temperatureair-to-water estimateestimated
Level / flowon-river gaugeobserved
What would change the calculation
Cooler water — back toward the 10–16 °C ideal band — would lift the score and ease welfare.
The dawn and dusk windows score higher than the midday lull.
Directions
Apple MapsGoogle Maps
Seasons & zones
  • Salmon 1 April → 17 October
  • Trout 3 March → 30 September

Sea trout: Variable seasonal (2026) — NRW monitoring places 32 of 33 Welsh sea trout stocks in the 'At Risk' category. The Towy (Tywi) remains Wales's most productive sewin river and holds genuine runs, but stocks are materially below their 1970s–80s peak. Condition-sensitive: night fishing after rain is productive; low summer water is difficult. Catch-and-release is the conservation default on most beats.

Salmon: Negligible (2026) — NRW / EA 2024 Salmon Stocks Assessment classifies this Welsh principal salmon river 'at risk' — egg deposition below Conservation Limit. All Wales byelaws (in force 2020-2030) make catch & release mandatory. Conservation priority; not a salmon fishing destination. The Tywi was one of Wales's premier salmon rivers; catches have collapsed.

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