Feedback & Reports

Opening day finally arrived after an interminably long winter. Wonderful to be out especially in such entertaining company.Thermal longjohns de rigeur. Owner Barry (generous as ever) provided a delicious picnic lunch. Two of us likeminded individuals brought a bottle of Penderyn welsh single malt to wet the rivers head. We were were once again treated by Tom Hannon to the speycasting to which we all aspire(in our dreams)! A sporadic hatch of Arctic Olives occurred at 1.30 but no risers. Oliver Burch was the only successful angler with two kelts safely returned. What a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Arrived at 8, river 0.86m on the gauge (rose 6cms in next six hours). Well it finally happened after only twenty visits this year! A 12lb cock fish [colouring] was caught on an orange/gold flying C. My first salmon was safely returned. I am so thrilled.
A big thankyou to the two Toms, both great company on the river and freely giving of their wealth of knowledge.
Tom Hannon showed me the high water lie from which the fish was extracted and Tom Richards gave me great advice on modifying my spinning style and choice of lure. A big thank you to owner Barry for his endless encouragement.
Lastly, I am so grateful to the WUF for helping this Gwent boy back to his angling roots [first cast a fly for trout on the usk approx. 50 years ago]. Keep up the great work.

Nil Caught. Last time I believe to the weather forcast! They said rain morning sun by 3pm therefore aimed to get there for 11.30am. Unavoidable delays meant arriving in reasonably good weather at 1pm, thought thats ok fish till 7pm. Heavy Rain from 3.30pm gave up 4.30 Dark, Rain stair rods, Drenched! Still enjoyed the bit of fishing I got, maybe next year.

River just under 1 meter and clear. 3 running fish head and tailed in pool above The Rock. Fished mainly the top 2 pools. No luck this time with the fish but great to be fishing.

Started above Rock Pool and had a hen fish of about 13lb on back /gold Flying C. Single hook for easy release. Fished through Rock Pool with no result so went below bridge [Bridge Stream Fishery) and had a 10lb cock fish again releasd. Fished Scottish Dee last week for 1 fish. Grass is not always greener!

Nil return.
Some observations from a newby - As a rod who is new to river fishing I was attracted to Chainbridge for many reasons - not least was the WUF comments about the site that "Wading in this part of the Usk is relatively easy over the gravel riverbed." Er, no! To my mind that's a bit misleading. It isn't gravel, if it is then it's bl**dy big bits of gravel and I wouldn't have said it was relatively easy! If this is easy compared to the other sites then I'll have to get my scuba stuff out.
Didn't like Barn too much as I spent too much time having arguments with trees and bushes, well, at least my flies did! Couldn't work out how to fish Oak!
A Wiltshire rod suggested a swim upstream from the bridge, many thanks!! I guess it was Rock and spent a lively hour trying to prevent myself from drowning. However I enjoyed every minute of attempting to master the environment and the fishing! The river was in great nick and my nil return is due to my inexperience of river fishing.
On way back to the car I stopped off and managed to catch a roach so that was nice! A two man canoe then appeared from nowhere and confirmed when challenged that they were allowed on the river as stated in the Miners Federation Web site, at least that's what I think they said. Luckily they managed to canoe about a metre away from where I was trying to land my fly, so that was pleasing. They disappeared very quickly as the river was running fast. I'm not sure of the rules so that was that. I'll just have to try again!
Tight Lines!

River still perfect 0.75m slight tint. Result ditto. Less trout rising on the last day of season. Still one more chance in October weather willing. Suspect they have run through to the headwaters. Should hopefully auger well for the spawning season.

Condition of river was good, water fairly clear. Caught one brown trout about a pound and a half which was returned unharmed. Found wading difficult over the river even with felt sole boots. Watched lots of wild life which was good, good day out.

River 0.8m steady perfect colour. Fished for 6 hrs in company of much more expert salmon anglers than myself. No sightings of Salmo Salar. Are they all at Brecon and Sennybridge? Olives hatching and a reasonable rise in afternoon. This was ignored because of my affliction [salmon madness].

Arrived at 10am with river 1.06m on the gauge carrying a lot of colour but [just] fishable. In the next 1 1/2hrs four trout of 3lb, 2lb, 1 1/2lb and 6 ozs all agreed and hurled themselves at flying c. below the bridge. Then fished Rock and enjoyed a wonderful hour alongside Tom Richards [of the wuf] who is both very entertaining company and a mine of information. Fishing at the weekend when river should be in better order, although it had dropped 7cms before I packed up at 6pm without a sign of salmo salar. I am already always a glass half full person, but Tom inspires even greater confidence. Just a matter of time!