Feedback & Reports

Very enjoyable morning fishing, early start 07.00 ,water level low, V hot at midday, no rises, but did manage 1 fish, PTN.will return

River flowing well, a lot of movement but no bites unfortunately

One of those days where you just have to laugh! Everything was so right but ended up going wrong! Due to traffic hold ups did not arrive till 1pm and found rising Trout straight away, hooked a nice one pretty quickly but it slipped the hook before I could net it and that was the order of play for the rest of the day! Lost about 6 small ones all managing to quickly come off and missed several takes. All mostly smallish fish but would have been nice to have actually landed one !

I haven't had a day like that for years! Love this stretch of river though and will be back soon

Plenty of water and clearing, no huge fish but lots of action. A lovely beat.

6 Trout

Four browns of c. 13, 9, 8 and 5", all on small mayfly patterns. Strange day of fishing as there were thousands of sedge, clouds of them swirling over many sections in the afternoon, yet the trout showed no interest in those whatsoever. I tried dry sedge patterns, nymphs and emergers under the surface too - not a bite on anything! The sedges didn't seem to be hatching though, I guess they were adults which returned from bankside vegetation where they had been sitting for much of the daytime. I waited until evening in the hope they would mate, hit the water to lay eggs and start a trout feeding frenzy, but aside from one or two females - which were not enough to really interest the trout - it didn't really happen. In fact they slowly melted away again so I would assume it didn't happen at night either, unless well into dark? Good to see though, shows the water quality must be pretty good? Instead, despite the mayfly species being outnumbered well over 100 to 1, it was the mayfly patterns that worked as a few of those were actually in the water and hatching... weird and confusing, but satisfying once I figured this out! Also some small fish taking something very small indeed - had a couple of bites on a size 22 Black and Badger but not sure that was close enough, too hard to hook as well on such a tiny fly!

Having fished here a good few times now it was also nice to bump into the farmer near one gate. It seems farmers often get a bad press in the media (and of course there are problems, especially with the big chicken farms around the Wye!), but there are great ones too who value wild areas and quietly do their bit, yet are too often forgotten about. So it was lovely to meet one of these who obviously cares about his local river as much as we anglers do, and moreover allows us to fish in this little bit of paradise. The Usk is a really beautiful river and this beat is a prime example for me - it's a privilege to fish it, so thanks again and I look forward to the next trip!

4 Trout

Washed off
3 hrs to drive there to find it raging through high and the colour of chocolate.
3 hrs drive back .nevermind

First time on this stretch and I loved it what a great bit of the Usk! Sunny scattered cloud 18-20oc so quite warm at times . Annoying strong downstream wind did its best to mess up a few dry fly drifts!

I ended up with 2 Browns on the nymph fished beneath a Klink small about 6 inch. Lost 1 on the nymph and had the best of the day on the dry fly superb colours nice dark spotted Brown trout nearly 10inches took a CDC Elk size 16. There were a good number of rising trout at times which was good to see and fish for. Unfortunately I found a dead Bat hanging from a hook attached to another 2 flies and orange indicator. Shame especially as it was in an easy to reach place to retrieve .
Will be back soon as I really liked the beat.
Thank you

3 Trout

torrential rain all day so very little activity on the water

The previous day's rain made the Usk like chocolate!
Conditions picked up as the day progressed but I was nearly finished by the time fish began to move.
I finally hooked one brute, but he smashed me!
That put the cap on a very disappointing weekend.

Couple of small browns to dries, a couple more off the hook but it was very tough today. Low and clear water so fish spooky to begin with; also an angler on the far bank who was a nice chap but think we probably hindered each other a bit in these conditions. Some BWOs and pale wateries began to hatch at times and one or two trout would start to rise, but then one of many light rain showers would come in and everything would shut down. There was light rain for much of the day but unfortunately this did not really seem to affect the river level - after a dry spell I guess all the surrounding plants in the catchment were soaking most of that up before it could reach the river, it needs more!

2 Trout