Feedback & Reports

A great section of the river. Despite the low flow level there were plenty of deeper pockets holding trout. Caught four decent fish on a bead head pheasant tail nymph and rose two more to a grey Wulff, but couldn't make them stick. There was a trickle of olives coming off all day and fish rising in the back eddies eating spinners and shucks.

4 Trout

Beautiful bit of river. Fishing rather tricky as it was at summer low, sunny, clear and with a difficult downstream breeze at times, but managed to catch two - 16 and 10". Although a warm sunny day there were some black gnats and hatches of small mayflies which produced some takes. In fact I had at least a dozen bites but one of those days where they were very hard to hit and keep on, the fish had a knack of rolling off the hook - including three other nice fish of 13-15" near the net. The sand martins were more enthusiastic - many hawking and zooming back and forth into the river banks! Lots of other birds too on the banks including oystercatcher, greenshank, goosander and asmall flock of greylag geese. Ironically the bigger fish was accidentally lassoed around his shoulders after he took a dry and jumped, he wasn't too keen on that and charged off upriver - in one long run he took me into the backing with my drag still paying out! Incredible power, if I hadn't seen him jump initially would have thought he was much bigger! He was absolutely fine once I'd untangled him though, in beautiful condition (probably been munching green drakes for the last month, but those seem to have passed now!), and swam off strongly.

One slightly alarming note - every thirty minutes or so a few huge lumps of foam the size of footballs came drifting down. I know some foam can be natural, but when the river is so low, not fierce or especially windy that was a bit concerning - possibly some pollution with detergents/agricultural pollution from fertiliser run-off? Also there was a fisherman on the far bank when I arrived, he then went upstream when I went to the lower limit so no problem as there is plenty of river here, would assume he had the rights to the far bank. Still plenty of fish and a lovely stretch of river - thanks for letting me fish it!

Fishing Passport Note : There will always be the potential for someone fishing opposite on single bank fisheries.

2 Trout

Tough going on a very bright sunny day. Very little fly life and very few signs of any trout

1 Trout

Didn’t fish

Did not fish conditions very poor , river low

A most enjoyable day on a lovely beat. My thanks to Allyson for suggesting the beat and arranging access.
Two large salmon jumped in the lower part of the beat, one of about 6lbs and the second well in excess of 10lbs by my estimate. Flies coming off steadily all day and a few fish rising, but not interested in my offerings. I have been away from the river for far too long. Started to get the feeling back towards the end of the day but was resigned to a blank when a very obliging Chub took my dry Mayfly. A beautiful fish of about 2lbs safely released back into the water. A Chub was a first for me.
A highlight of the day was watching the Sand Martins picking off the Mayflies as they emerged. I would see a fly rising from the water and next moment, bang it was hit by a Sand Martin at full speed. Their agility is incredible.

1 Chub

My first time on the river Usk the river was a good level but only the occasional rise, the trout was not interested in any fly I put over the top of them I think a more experienced fly fishermen would have caught a few. I still enyoyed the day even though I blanked.

A downstream wind and bright sunshine made fishing difficult. Caught two on a nymph fished below a dry fly. Nothing rising.

2 Trout

7 Trout, 1 Other

The only action was from about 12.30 to 2.30, when I caught two modest fish, and lost two, on spiders and nymph. (A warning to spider anglers, which I should have heeded myself, is that a fish on one of the droppers, if not netted, can wriggle strongly and cause another of the droppers to become embedded in one's finger. Fortunately it came out after a bit of work...) Just a few yellow mays(?) hatching, little rising except once to my Klinkhamer, where I struck too soon after programming myself to strike fast for the nymph trailing beneath on the duo. Bad fishing, as I told myself.

2 Trout