Feedback & Reports

Weather much cooler , cloudy and a N wind. 16 degrees at 08:00 and it never got higher than that. Rained gently most of am. But I had learnt a lesson and arrived armed with a packed lunch acquired from Morrisons in Leominster. Full of everything you need: Even the 5 a day (he lies - it was sarnies, brown food and a diet coke: boy food).

Checked out this small beat first. Just as well. The access at lower end is tough and only bank fishing near the weir is from right hand side (facing downstream). I slipped into the river in a glide just upstream of the woods - and promptly sat my fat arse on some barbed wire hidden in the undergrowth. My waders leaked henceforth and by the time I reached the top of the beat, it looked like I had some terrible inflamation of the right leg... about 4 litres of water was in there with my lower appendage... But the fishing....

Water was very clear and the slight milkiness seen yesterday at Lyepole and Middlemoor seems to have been diluted by the time the river hits this stretch. I could see the bottom in pools over 5' deep. Even determine if fish were in them... Which isn't good. Fish were rising sporadically so I went dry fly straight off and stuck with it. I put down 5 or 7 fish for every splashy rise - and missed 5 to every 1 I hooked. Incompetence seems my middle name... Although the very clear water is my defense, m'lud.

Result? In the morning I caught 2 wbt of 6" & 8" (the latter perhaps generous) and a 8" Grayling. The productive pools were a straight run about 100m from my wader ripping access and a series of pools starting at the downstream cormer of the 'main' field that you go through from the farm...

Saw a grey heron and a white version of a similar bird (?). Bloody big anyway. Kingfishers too. But on second day.. yawn. At the top of the beat (the woods bit after the weir, where the river is like something out of Borneo, except for the flora, obviously - and the temperature) I found scat and spoor of what I believe to be otter. Didn't see any fish, even though it looks very 'fishy'... So if you are put off by the almost impossible access you ain't missing much, frankly.

Went to B&Q in Leominster after I finished first run through and mended my breathable waders with something called Gorilla Glue. Welded the holes and rips shut (I found 7 in total, some more than an inch long - no wonder the bloody things leaked). It dried in an hour and seems to have done the job (looks like my waders have acne, but they are almost teenagers now). Certainly my evening trip involved me keeping dry, apart from soaking feet where I replaced my socks onto the wrong feet and the soaking wet neoprene from the earlier water carrier experiment. I just didn't think that through...

Evening I stuck to the easy wading bit. Not many rises, so I prospected with a dry adams where I now knew fish were. Rose a few that I missed and spooked some others, as witnessed by the bow waves in tailwaters... But I still managed to hook the fish of the day: A 14" grayling, that came from the depths at the head of a deep hole to hit the fly like it was its last meal. It very nearly was. The de-barbed hook was right down its' throat. Got the old disgorger out and that immediately sliced through the leader like it was a razor. Making use of the tool a tad difficult. So back to plan B: my Foreceps. Mr/Mrs fish didn't enjoy this at all and after I had got the fly free the fish refused to swim... I took 10 minutes to nurse that fish back to life.

Having done my duty as a C&R angler I packed up, as the western skyline tinged pink. Which is pretty much how I felt.

A good day... very challenging, making the reward that bit sweeter. I had booked Middlemoor as my reserve beat, but never got there.

2 Trout, 2 Grayling

nothing happening at all , weather very windy and river running clear. most were caught on size 20 black gnat pattern and a few on nymph. lost a belter of a trout that took me under a submerged branch and snapped tippet . other than that fish all the rest between 5-12 inches. fly on the water was very limited until a huge hatch of midge and other than small fish rising there was no activity from the larger fish.

3 Trout, 10 Grayling

River very low and clear, bankside undergrowth now taking over, Balsam I think, so very difficult if not impossible to get to some areas. There are now cattle both sides of the river on the lower section and they are friendly !
Saw the dreaded cormorants fishing merrily on the lower section, and I think they were doing better than me.
As usual the wind was a real problem, it was much stronger than forecast, I think the weather people struggle to forecast yesterdays weather correctly !
Still better than a day working though.
Many thanks to the fishery owner and the Wye & Usk team.

2 Trout, 5 Grayling

Hoped that there would be a touch more water following rain a couple of days ago but river very low and clear . Only fished a couple of hours pm but had two small grayling sub surface in faster water. Saw a Kingfisher by the bridge. Looks good for winter grayling with a variety of water. I'll give it a try again then. Nice beat with some new fencing and access points. Thanks.

2 Grayling

Please note that there were two anglers. We fished nymph and dry fly. It is such a pity that the woodland sections at both ends are inaccessible when that could easily be changed.
Regrettably, a steer got into the river and charged around in the water half way through the day, which didn't improve the fishing!

7 Trout, 4 Grayling

River starting to show its bones on this warm and windy day. Forecast was 6mph sw but felt three times that. All grayling were in the 6" - 8" bracket and took a size 14 klinkhammer as well as a size 18 ptn. Did manage to hook a brownie but it ended up as a long release.
The bank vegetation is head high in places so you need to carefully consider your position before casting.
Still, it was a good day out considering I booked the beat at 10:30 on the day.
Many thanks to the Wye and Usk.

15 Grayling

This was my first visit to this beat. The parking was simple to the left of the farmyard, close to the entrance. The walk is a short 200 metres down through the farm and the fields beyond following the instructions given with the ticket.
I walked the full length of the beat straight off. The beat, set in lovely quiet and for the main, open pasture countryside is basically around 600m long, bookended with woodland and weirs at either end. Both weirs looked fabulous with nice runs and weirpools which seemed as though they would be productive. However, the lower weir is pretty much totally unfishable with no easy, safe access to the water due to high banks, bank growth and fencing on both sides. In fact I found the lower 80% of the beat either fenced off and where it was accessable, having a silted bottom and devoid of any sighted fish (but teeming with what I presume are thousands of Salmon or Trout fry).
The upper 20% does run over gravel beds with nice runs either fast and shallow or deep and slow. The former were ideal for czech nymphing, the latter for dry or deep indicator nymphing. The top weir pool sadly was occupied by some locals swimming so that final area was missed also. I left the beat with mixed feelings. Four trout with the larger two around 3/4lb caught on nymph. The wooded areas, as the W&U description says are indeed very difficult to access and fish so after further exploration I left these alone.

4 Trout

not much happening at surface so opted to nymph. wind was very strong and played havoc with tip of fly line. so with utter disgust stuck on a bite indicator. this helped no end keeping the flies moving through the feeding lanes. water up a little and slightly coloured all trout between 7-16 inches and the grayling between 6-14 inches. all taking size 16 3mm tungsten bead baetis nymph. nice few hours on the lugg

16 Trout, 6 Grayling

Weather overcast but dry. River slightly coloured after the recent rain. Good hatches of flies of varying types but only the occasional fish rise. Caught 4 beautifully marked small trout. Two on a Gold Head Pheasant Tail and two on an Parachute Adams - all fish safely returned. Lost the biggest trout (1lb?) on an Olive Klinkhammer, after it jumped clear of the water and dislodged the fly. It looked like a fine specimen! The new styles and gates make for easy access to the beat, but it is very difficult to get access to the river at the top end through the wood. Overall a great day out.

4 Trout