Feedback & Reports

Weather very warm. River fairly low. Quite a lot of dogs and folk swimming in river. Enjoyable but no catch. Many thanks.

Hard day at the office. The weather promised much, overcast with slight breeze on the river. BUT, river down to its bones and running gin clear.
The day started well with two takes and releases at distance being tempted by a gold head nymph. My tried and trusted team of north country spiders did not provide any temptation. After lunch decided to have a go at specultive dries and am please to say the day ended with a decent brownie in the net that fell to a klinkhammer type, safely released. Thats it for this visit, again another splendid day worth the drive from London.

1 Trout

Slow fishing at first, small midday hatch brought fish on, 2 fish caught and both returned, upstream methods worked best for me.

A great day all round. Weather partly cloudy with a stiffish downstream and chilly breeze but nothing that could not be dealt with.
Fished the lower end of the beat starting from the bend and landed a 6 incher that fell to a self tied gold head HE monstrosity and another just before lunch. Partridge and orange and my trusty waterhen bloa did not produce so changed the setup to black spider and grey watchett (I like to fish N Country spiders). The black landed one and I released a further three from distance so could not tell what enticed them.
I am not sure what constitutes a decent water depth but I was wading in water between 2 and 3 feet. Water was running clear so with the wind creating a ripple made for good fishing conditions. Not much in the way of insect activity which was matched by lack of fishy activity on the surface. Plenty of weeny midgy types that attracted the birds.
Gravel wading making conditions underfoot very easy indeed, a pleasure to wade in fact. My season ticket will be put to good use. Many thanks.

3 Trout

The river was much clearer here than the previous day at Penpont but was still fairly high, There were plenty of hatches due to the sunshine of Mayfly and a few smaller flies of black or cream colouring. All 4 fish were taken from the lower end of the beat on dry flies immitating the small cream hatches. A couple of fish were lost in the middle section of the beat where the hatches were less prolific and a PTN was fished through the head of some broken water and into the slack at the banks.

4 Trout

After two very wet days, including one wash off, we finally got to see what the Usk has to offer. An excellent location and lots of hatch activity after all the rain. Two small trout caught (and returned) and two others hooked but lost.
We were very impressed with WUF and will return.

2 Trout

Weighted nymph, fished down and across. Trout around 5". 3 other fish hooked but not landed.

1 Trout

Found the river in good condition, fining down nicely after the recent rain. There was a steady hatch and fish rose throughout the day. A stiff downstream wind in the morning led me to fish a team of wets down and across with a heavy GRHE on the point. The lowest field was the most productive, I hooked five and netted three - the biggest a lovely fish just over a pound. Met a few other friendly anglers on the beat but there was plenty of scope for everyone. Definitely worth coming again.

3 Trout

All returned including nice fish of 2lb and 1.5lb

14 Trout

2 x trout 10 and 15 inches, spiders. It's still pretty cold, up there at Brecon, and on this day we had a very strong downstream wind. Locals were telling me that March Browns have been coming off, regular as clockwork from one o'clock on most days recently, but the trout have unaccountably not been reacting. On this day, the one clock hatch of March Browns happened, just as foretold, and lasted about 15 minutes or so. Some large trout did react on this occasion, and I managed to lose two of them hooked on a dry fly and took a small one on a spider. About an hour later, another hatch on another pool, but this time no rises at all although the mallard ducks were having a wonderful time gobbling up the big flies. When it was all over, out of the blue as it were, a nice 15 inch trout took on a Woodcock and Hare's Lug fished well down, just to be contrary, although I was suitably grateful of course. Quite a confusing afternoon altogether.
PB of Upton on Severn reports (20/4/13 Chainbridge) being similarly confused in an attempt to match the grannom hatch - I do sympathise! If you tie flies, try some of the emergers designed by Dave Collins of Moccas (you will find them on Google), or another approach is to fish a team of spiders across the river and just under the surface, especially in the early stages of the hatch as the pupae are coming up. A yellowish-brown Hare's Lug and Plover on a size 14 or 16 seems to work quite often.

2 Trout