Feedback & Reports

Bright sunshine, clear water. No surface activity. Lost one 6oz brown trout on shrimp imitation wet fly.

Fishing still a bit slow, some grey duns hatching early afternoon. Three small Brownies caught on deep presented weighted nymphs and released.

3 Trout

Fished the Monnow fishery on a beautiful day in amazing surroundings. Saw a few rises and had two knocks but didn't catch any fish. The river is still suffering from the floods as there is significant bank damage in places. Used a 7' 6" 3-4 weight rod and line, tried various wet and dry flies as an adult Olive Dunn was seen! Lots of small black gnats were near the bankside vegetation too. The water was carrying a slight bit of colour so not totally clear but conditions were good otherwise. The river is showing lots of promise as the season progresses so I'm booking again as soon as work commitments allow. A superb start to the season so many thanks to everyone involved with the WUF.

Dry fly and nymph used, from rod and tenkara.
Very little sign of any fish although the river had a few pools, those caught were very small. Most of this beat is slow moving and canal-like. Access to the river is very difficult and some of the good pools are not accessible.
There s not enough fishing on this beat for three rods and the price does not represent value for money.

5 Grayling

Quick afternoon fish for me, so only fished the bottom half of the beat. Fished using the klink and dink method (though used a humpy or Adams irresistible instead). Fish in good condition, though nothing trophy sized. Chub took the dry....

2 Trout, 4 Grayling, 1 Chub

Quick afternoon fish for me, so only fished the bottom half of the beat. Fished using the klink and dink method (though used a humpy or adams irrestiable istead). Fish in good condition, though nothing trophy sized. Chub took the dry....

2 Trout, 4 Grayling, 1 Chub

2 x small brown trout, 6 inches. One decent fish raised and lost. Virtually no fly hatches and no rising fish seen all day. Water level low and murky. Not much flow either. Beat was extremely difficult to access due to severely overgrown banks, including Himalayan Balsam. Fishing upstream the permitted bank (the right) is not readily fished. Sadly I do not think I shall be returning to this beat in future.

2 Trout

river very very low, did not see touch or hear a fish all day!

Arrived at a sunny river, first time on this beat for me, concerns about access seemed somewhat unfounded, ok you can't wade some stretches and the egress/access can be interesting but the manicured banks of the Hampshire chalk streams are not the reason we choose to fish here really is it? AB and I chose to share a rod again having only one wading stick between us and he more than happy to be guided/tutored by me, ha ha! You can rest easy Mr Burch!
The river looked in fine fettle and we looked forward to a productive days fishing, not to be though. Targeting likely spots all we were able to achieve were two lost fish, one to a duo of nymphs and the other to a dry that I didn't even see! Thinking about this later, I concluded it was the angle of strike, being nearer to the river surface when wading deep and keeping low on the Escley yesterday? There are some great glides on this beat but we were totally bemused by the non existence of any rises, slightly odd? Oh, there were some very young Grayling supping further up of which we plucked out one on a grey duster and then thought better of it. We were on the beat at all time of the day for a rise but even though the hatches were small we at least expected some movement, not even those frustrating ones you see in the distance. I believe there were some anglers on the Skenfrith beat the same day, it would be interesting to see their report, probably a bag full knowing my luck ha ha !
With regard to the fly life, white mayfly in September?! Just a few but crikey.

The water was not very clear, however I could catch some good fishes. The best spots are in the ripples, the best one the latest, I lost a Big trout, in the last one quite big, I show it silvering when It decided to bend my rod too much and escape.
Big fun.

3 Trout, 3 Grayling