Feedback & Reports

Firstly many thanks to Mick the gillie who availed his services for the morning and was immensely helpful in showing me the main pools and lies and much sound advice, I highly recommend any rods contact him especially if fishing the beat for the first time.

Some stunning fly water in a delightful setting spoiled only by the armadas of canoes which I didn’t expect midweek and not at 6:30am !

Fished through all main pools with fly and then spinner but no fish seen or contacted other than a brace of chub which caused fleeting excitement

Water was steady at about 0.6 on the Ross gauge - Mick advised fishes better with warmer , lower water (0.5 and below)so will return when such conditions prevail !

2 Chub

Nil return. No fish seen.

Further rain yesterday had caused a rise to 0.98m on the Ross gauge for the morning. Visibility was around 3 to 4 foot and we fished the Stones and Vanstone. After a lengthy lunch away from the river we fished for a couple of hours in the afternoon but visibility deteriorated and the river rose to 1.3m. One shad or seatrout hooked on a spinner but no other action.

After last week's heavy rain it was always a bit of a race to see if the river would be at a fishable height by Good Friday. The Ross gauge was at 1.22 when I arrived at the river and, it turned out, this was still about 50cm too high, especially for the fly. I fished the lower half of the beat for 2-3 hours but the problem was as much the fact that the convenient walkway was still submerged which made footing insecure and progress difficult. By midday, I decided to drive up to Skenfrith to check out the Monnow...

River really too high. No fish caught.

River quite high

Approx 12lb hen fish from Maddox.

1 Salmon

Great to see Mick he is full of good advice and even on a beat that was short of fish found a couple that showed but would not take. He guidance on lines flies and choice of where to fish saves a lot of time. Thank you Mick see you next year.

1 Chub

No fish. One coloured fish showed bottom of the beat and a smaller fresher fish top of beat.

It looked to be a perfect day; overcast, not too cold and the river height was about right for an end of season fish. The water was a little coloured and I noticed an off white foam accumulating along the banks. Having read the alarming reports on the state of the river I imagined the was something released into the river by the local water treatment works.

During the day I saw one human in a canoe, and three salmon showing along the beat; one in Dog Hole, one in Stones and one in Corner Tree.

As a point of interest, the entry and egress points have become difficult to discern due to vegetation growth and I would suggest that Mick the ghillie be paid (by we fishers) to clear the entry and exit points and put up new signs at the beginning of the season.

Thank you Wye & Usk Foundation for all your efforts to encourage the return of the rivers to health.