Feedback & Reports

Height 1.02m lovely colour. Had an enjoyable 5hrs of of exercise with the 15 fter. No sign of salmo salar but a 3/4 lb trout took exception to my Feeler Cascade. A moderate hatch of Grannom when the sun came out at 11.30 but no risers. Light hatch of olives at 1p.m. Just one or two showed interest.

1 Trout

Very enjoyable day on the Usk for the first time nice to cast a line. Didn't see any fish or rises. Thanks to Barry the owner for his advice and a big thankyou to Gary Evans at Gary Evans Newport for his help and generosity.

Blank for salmon. Still, it was good to be out on a sunny Good Friday casting and seeing how the pools have changed. Perhaps I was being optimistic, so early in the year. After a somewhat leisurely lunch, I returned to find a grannom hatch in full blast. For a while every trout in the river seemed to be rising. As it was, I rushed to put a trout rod up and just caught the end of it. Three trout 11-15 inches on F-Fly. By 2 o'clock it was all over and the river seemed completely dead once more. Many thanks to owner Barry Paraskevas for the invitation.

3 Trout

River 0.68m and clear. Good to be out on a lovely spring day. Winter spates have moved some gravel making wading easier. Rock pool looking possibly shallower but may be more flow pushing into the Chine. Intermittent hatch of Olives between 1 and 2 p.m. but only 1 or 2 risers. A few March Browns also seen. No takes but still a lovely day.

I invited John Phillips to fish as I was unable to go, and he hooked 10 trout of which 6 were landed, 4 over 1 lb and 2 around half pound on a team of 3 spiders. Most came to the point fly and none landed were on the top dropper. John is about 100 fish for the season so far!!! mainly Grayling on the Rhymney. The Taffman is a genius!! Most fish were taken in the wood stream with 2 decent fish below the Rock.
Water 0.7m and perfect conditions at 12 deg and light breeze. Seems I missed out!!! AGAIN.

10 Trout

Perfect conditions, even slower pools fished well with the fly. No salmon yet. Great to be out.

Another blank day I'm afraid though weather better than last week but temperature 9deg and water 0.88m. No fly life visible and a keen east wind meant a difficult day. Went from above through Roch Pool for both salmon and trout with no takes though you felt you were in with a shout!!
Wood stream and below bridge too high.

Weather fine but biting NW wind. Water .96m and good colour. Had another trout masterclass from John Phillips fishing his usual team of assorted spiders and coming up with two trout one over a pound, the other around 5oz in difficult conditions. I had one pull on Waterhen bloa.
I had an hour on the salmon double hander with hairy mary tube and no takes but water too high and fast flowing really.
Better luck next week though the height today (Wed) will be back up to almost 2m by this afternoon, and recent weeks suggest it drops very slowly.

2 Trout

Got to the river at about 10am. The river was quite low (0.5m on the gauge) and gin clear. I started at the top and worked my way down the beat on the caravan park side. Not a peep, apart from, bizarrely, a silver scale on the hook from wood stream. Lunch in the pub and then investigated below the bridge. Again, very quiet, although I saw the first salmon jumps by the wires at about 2.30 pm. And then, at about 5pm everything changed. Back up at the Rock pool, salmon started jumping. I turned a good fish in the throat of Rock pool, switched to a red FC and then about 20 yards below the fallen tree a coloured 15lb cock fish took. While playing it, it scared an identical fish that I had evidently just waded past, which shot into the air not 6 feet from me and gave me the shock of my life. Safely landed it swam away happily. As the fish were still showing so I went down the pool again. Same spot, not 10 minutes after the first, another fish was on. Another kyped, coloured cock fish, this time of about 8lbs. I've never caught more than one salmon in a day and most often catch nothing so a red letter day for me! Thanks too to Barry for his considered advice on the phone too. To the 2016 season!

2 Salmon

My first attempt at salmon fishing, I didnt expect to be lucky enough to catch one, which I didnt. Started at the top of the beat, and immediately saw a salmon splashing mid river. On one pool an enormous salmon came out of the water to my right just a few yards away, totally inspired now!
Saw several other salmon throughout the day obviously picked the right day. Will be back to try again!