Feedback & Reports

River in flood, 0.9m on Cilmery gauge.

8 Barbel, 6 Chub

Blank. Air temperature in the low single figures, no sun, surrounding hills scarred with ice. The river very clear and almost low now. A lonely sort of day with a red kite mewing overhead. A grayling or two would have been company, but they didn't show up. Very difficult.

No Northern Volunteer Team working today so grabbed a couple of hours fishing as quite a bit of extra water expected after heavy rain forecast for Friday.
10" grayling on pink shrimp on third cast - and that was it. Nice to get out if a tad chilly.

1 Grayling

An enjoyable day on this prolific stretch. We quickly landed 6 chub to 4.5lb on breadflake. Every move yielded a bite. With a bit more finesse we could have landed many more.... Fished for approx 5 hours.

6 Chub

Water very cold. Two chub of about 4lb each, both on meat. One barbel lost, gave trotting a go but not much depth to the swims on this stretch of water.

2 Chub

Overcast day with temperatures at 4c. All fish taken on pink shrimps and hair's ear.
The flood water over the last two winters are starting to undercut the banks on the bends and require stabilising.
Many thanks to Allison at the Wye and Usk.

7 Grayling

This was my first visit to this beat it is easy to find and parking excellent.
On a very cold morning I failed to catch on the lower half but after stopping for lunch and a hot drink at the car I managed four Grayling on the top half in the afternoon.
All fish caught on weighted nymphs in the deeper pools.
Three fish were around half a pound and one superb fish estimated over two pounds tested my 2 weight rod to the limit!

4 Grayling

Blank.

2 x grayling 6 and 10 inches, 1 x out of season trout 10 inches, Pink Shrimp. Having pruned both Chanstone and Abbeydore last week, I was tempted to try them as they are open for grayling and the river looks really good. I didn't touch a thing on the lower part of Chanstone, so moved downstream. Towards the end of fishing Abbeydore, after lunch, I did suddenly get a few takes. Could it be this was because I had just swapped the Pink Shrimp with a Tungsten Hare's Ear, putting it on the point rather than in the middle dropper position, a cunning and subtle tackle modification? Or perhaps could it be that this was because the temperature had now risen from minus 4 to a sunny plus 6 degrees. There again, could it be because I had simply reached a better part of the stream? Only heaven knows, because I certainly don't.

2 Grayling