Feedback & Reports

Snow cover on the hills and around -4 degrees overnight made for a beautiful cold morning. I did not expect much on the fishing front given the chill in the air and I simply lapped up the birdsong and the peace and quiet on the on the river - that was until around 11am when my size 18 tungsten nymph was seized by a voracious trout! Two casts later and I hooked a 2lb+ brown that after more than five minutes managed to carve my 7X line off on a gutter ledge... I fished on without any action at all until around 2.45pm at which point I decided to stop for a cup of tea and something to eat. I was starting to think the cold downstream wind might have finished off the expected LDO hatch, but just as hope was ebbing away I saw an LDO, then another and another and suddenly a real flurry of activity. Out came the wagtails and soon after up came some trout. I ended up landing four beauties and losing five other fish several of which were large. The problem I find is you need to use light line to entice the fish to take and yet once you hook a 2lb+ trout on 7X it is only 70/30 in your favour. I moved up to 6X because of that which makes it much easier to steer the fish away from hazards. I must say I also really don't like leaving flies in fishes mouths although I am sure they are able to rub them off the same way they run caddis flies off rocks. Anyway, I ended up having landed four lovely trout up to around the 2lb mark and lost five other beauties. A great way to start the season on what must be one of the finest wild trout rivers in the UK. Long live the Wye and Usk Foundation and thank you for safeguarding the Wye and Usk catchments! As Arnie said, "I will be back".

Low water level, lovely weather. Couple of trout, one hatch, one fly, one trout about 1lb.

Fenni Fach fished very well for my guest on Sat Producing 8 good fish the best being around 1 1/2 lb - a good hatch of olives around 1.30pm which brought the fish to the surface.
Very few grannom spotted though.

Somehow managed to blank. Rose three fish to cdc olives at lunchtime when the hatch got going but missed all of them, too quick on the strike!! Plenty of fish rising and a lovely variety of water. Really nice beat. Next time...

2 rods toiled in the wind and rain but we were defeated, so sad to report a double blank. Very occasional rises to an intermittent olive hatch, but only when the wind dies down and the sun came out. The afternoon was plagued by a couple of groups of canoeists.
WUF Note: No canoeing is permitted on the upper Usk between March 3rd and October 17th (inc) unless the height is above the red line on the Brecon gauge. If anyone encounters canoeing outside the agreed dates & water heights please inform them of their breach and let us know. If idenfication is possible, please let us know which organisation they were from.

6 trout on Klinkhammer or gold head nymph. One at 10oz retained.

None

Water coloured with a lot of flotsam. No fish rising or moving. Four fish caught, largest around a pound, all taken on size 16 HE nymph fish underneath a large sedge, all from the same pool with 30 mins. Nothing else.

6 wbt caught and released ranging from 6-9". Fished with a tan klinkhammer with a gh ptn New Zealand style. Lots more raised and lost. This is a lovely beat, I fished the upper half as there was another rod fishing the lower half. The river was running fast and wading was extremely difficult even with a wading stick, I had a dunking after lunch!

11 brown trout caught on nymph. Good.