Feedback & Reports

Fished bottom end of beat, beautiful stretch very tricky fishing. Lots of trout spotted but they also spotted me, very low and clear river.

2 Trout

Didn’t arrive until tea time and then got side tracked fiddling around with different lines on a new rod purchased for Argentina and Chile in the new year. Must have looked very silly casting a 15ft 11wt in the current conditions but so be it.
There were a number of rising fish when I actually started fishing at 6ish at the bottom of the Spring Pool. Klink and Dink down to below the bridge, Klink Greenwell, Adam’s ,and PTN variants all taking fish, then single dry fly back up, finishing almost in darkness at 9.45. There were a lot of flies on the water this evening. 4 or maybe 5 species( albeit just based on size), of sedge, a good number of upswings, and a fall of spinners which were still over the water at around 9.00 o’clock.Small trout seemed to be mopping up the spinners, and a small yellow spent spinner pattern accounted for some of them. The best fish, a lovely 14-15” specimen clobbered a #12 Elk hair caddis in the last couple of minutes of light to round off a very nice evening in sultry ,still conditions. Fortunately, I had just changed up to a heavier tippet as well as I would have almost certainly been snapped off otherwise.
There was one other surprise this evening. I expected a slimy, slippery wade down Heirag and Heron’s, but was taken by how clean the bedrock and the large boulders were given the long period of low water. Perhaps Welsh Water have started behaving themselves and stopped releasing effluent into the river in low water conditions, unlike some of the disgraceful incidents that have been well publicised on the Usk in recent years. Or the very low rainfall of late has resulted in less nutrient leach from adjacent farmland. Either way, that, along with the number of insect species seen , was a bit of a pick-me-up especially after another dire star to the salmon season.

14 Trout, 1 Grayling

Delightful day in beautiful surroundings but no catch.

3 Sea Trout, 1 Other

2 Trout, 2 Other

6 Trout, 2 Other

Activity on and off during the day mid morning good and after 1830hrs

20 Trout

Small dry flies accounted for the trout (and a 2lb chub).
Shad took swung wet flies intended for fry-chasing trout seen flashing in the deeper channel.
Just a couple of pulls earlier in the day on heavy nymphs in fast water. Nothing stuck.

4 Trout, 1 Chub, 2 Other

Warm sunny day with some cloud. River level low. Few fish active during the day despite periodic hatches (mainly sedge) but during the late evening there was a prolific hatch of yellow mayfly which triggered fish to rise. All 3 trout caught were 1lb or less. 2 on dry and 1 on PTN.

3 Trout

Tough conditions. Usk as low as we've known it, hot and bright sunshine for most of the day. Lack of water has changed the character of the river dramatically so pools and runs where we'd previously caught now aren't holding fish. Still managed 35 fish between 3 anglers - all on the olive apart fron 5 on the nymph from the faster runs at the top of the beat. Five over 1lb, one over 2lb.

35 Trout