Feedback & Reports

Having lost a decent salmon on the Wye yesterday, it was a case of getting back on the horse today albeit on a very shrunken river Usk. Managed to tempt one to the surface in the clear water with a Greenwell but the only way to get their attention seemed to be by presenting a nymph tight to the bank under overhanging foliage. Needless to say my fly box will need a bit of replenishment. Almost exactly a year ago I had a fabulous days fishing here with the trout on the take for hours on end, but it was pretty dour today. The thundery conditions didn’t help, heavy showers during a challenging days fishing.

5 Trout

8 Barbel landed, lost 3, few snags about. No chub at all, don't know why as the barbel were biting throughout the day

8 Barbel

6 Trout

4 Barbel, 6 Chub

No luck

River not as low as expected, but bottom is still coated with cloying sludge.
A couple of heavy showers bought on some fly hatches but v little response to them. The other thing it did was bring the unmistakeable smell of sewage into the river. Its time this antiquated system was fixed.

7 Trout

With the river being low and gin clear this made for tricky conditions, but the chub were obliging, and backed up with some cracking dace on the stick float..

1 Barbel, 8 Chub, 20 Other

1 Barbel, 3 Chub

Hard going with stormy conditions, a few Chub to 3 pounds on feeder and some Dace on float

8 Chub, 5 Other

Having fished this beat for weeks at a time for every year that it has been available via the Wye & Usk foundation, it has been very clear to me this week that something has fundamentally changed here since May of this year when I fished it last.
I fully appreciate that there has been a drought since then which will have been tough on the trout population but am afraid that there is more to it than that. The fish are extremely wary this week and have barely been feeding on the surface even in decent fly hatches. The answer, to my mind at least, has presented itself on a number of occasions when big fat cormorants have surfaced nearby, so full of fish that they have sometimes been barely able to take off.
I have never before seen even one cormorant on this beat, let alone at least 4 of them, and when you add them to the normal host of goosanders, heron, egret, otter, mink & osprey feeding 2 adults & a chick, all over a period of exceptionally low river levels with high water temperatures, it is hardly surprising that trout stocks seem to have declined dramatically in recent months.
I understand that the beat has recently had a change of owner, who I hope will be copied in on this feedback. I suspect that he or she should consider making an application to the EA for a licence in respect of the cormorants in the not too distant, if the stretch is not to emptied of its usually thriving wild brown trout population, which would be a great shame.

1 Trout