Feedback & Reports

We were well looked after at the Royal Lodge Hotel at Symonds Yat East. Thursday was a warm and sunny day. The river looked very inviting with an occasional LDO hatching off, but despite our combined persistence with dries and nymphs we finished up fishless. The salmon fishers that we spoke to at the hotel were similarly placed but we had all enjoyed being out in wonderful surroundings on a great day. Thanks for the reminder about the catch return.

2 Trout

My first visit to the Monnow, and what a lovely introduction it was. A brisk wind in the morning made it feel very cold, but sunny spells in the middle part of the day sent me rushing to strip off layers and enjoy the (relative) warmth.
The beat is moderately overgrown, but access isn't really a problem and there are few thorn bushes to tear waders. The odd overhanging branch makes casting tricky in places, but hugely satisfying when you get it right.
Good variety of water and an abundance of small eels were seen in the faster, shallow sections.
I started at 9.30 am, nothing was moving on the surface so I went for weighted nymphs, connecting with a lovely brownie of about 13" or 14" on a soft hackle PTN after some fast water on the lower half of the beat. Lost a couple on a weighted caddis pupa before bringing a little 6" brownie to hand.
A light hatch of olives began around 1.30pm which sent me rushing to change leaders. I saw a single trout rising, but in my haste to change fly and cover him I made a hash of the cast and scared him off. No more surface activity seen and no interest in various olive patterns or searching dries. Went back to nymphs with no joy until a strong wind and burst of rain at 4pm encouraged me to call it a day. Both trout released.

2 Trout

Still very slow fishing!

2 Trout

2 Grayling

Fly life a bit sparse and fishing a bit slow, at least on dry fly ... maybe should have tried harder with nymphs. All fish taken on a size 16 olive pattern.

3 Trout

Had a lovely day although no fish caught, few trees but a great place. Tried numerous ptn flies but water very cold and no fish seen at all during the day, river running quite high. Will return when warmer.

The sun came out on Easter Sunday and I had a good day on the river - but no fish. I should say that I didn't spend the whole day fishing, just a couple of hours after lunch - choosing to picnic on the river bank with my wife and son in the 'spring' sun. The river had clearly flooded in recent months and the high water marks were very high. Not an easy river to fish - lots of trees impeding your cast in all the best trout holding spots. Practice your roll cast.

I chose this beat as it was close to the M4 and should have headed for the upper Wye. Looks like it would be a very interesting fishery in summer but the conditions made it very difficult to fish with a fly rod.

River still very high and murky, lots of trees down, no fish caught but will go back when conditions are better.