Teifi night sewin
1823: The Teifi night sewin of Cenarth
The Haunting at Felin Cenarth
1823 — a poacher's gaff in the millrace of Felin Cenarth. Ever since, the Teifi night sewin stalks the falls at Cenarth, an argent sea trout that leaps the 15-foot drop beneath the ancient weir. The Cenarth Corn Mill, a working watermill since the 1700s, keeps the tale: a 4–7 pound fish slain then returns each October to December spawn run, flashing like polished pewter in the gin-clear channels where the river runs 3–6 feet through the narrow gorge eight miles northeast of Cardigan.
Gear and Night Tactics
Night rigs are old-school and patient. A 12-foot cane rod, silk line tapered to a 6-pound breaking strain and a 2-inch silver-devon fished at 3–5 feet through the Cenarth pool. Short, sharp lifts. Long, dead-set holds. Lanterns hung in alders. Bites peak around November 15–30 when sewin stack 20–30 inches before running seaward past St. Dogmael's.
River Kitchen and Folklore
On the bank the cooking is plain and fierce. Teifi trout chowder built from 2-pound fillets, potato, onion and a splash of local cream; gutted and grilled over driftwood embers, or fillets cut 1-inch thick, wrapped in oak leaves and baked 20 minutes in a clay oven at the old Llanio fort site. Wild garlic from the Gwili confluence seasons the flesh. Millers' wives ladled stew while telling of a miller's daughter who, in legend, guides flies to phantom hooks beneath the falls.
Recommended: portable clay oven