Feedback & Reports

Caught 1 chub 4lbs 2ozs and 1 eel 3lbs. River about 2/3ft up but not coloured. The bank on beat3 is high and difficult/dangerous coupled with grass and weed on the bank 3/4ft high so you could not see any access points. I think for £20 + £3 booking fee the bank should be at leased strimmed to create access and reduse risk. Poor value.

Nil catch water still very cloudy but clearing.

5 chub between us, caught on a mixture of pellets and meat. Barbel hard to locate in very high water! A shame the Maddox isn't available this year - it added some variety to the beat, even if the fish weren't often in the pool.

River up 3.5ft and holding. Due to the water level only Leggs Meadow was fishable (unless you wanted to spend the day fishing by the road in the town). This has obviously been the case for most of the season as the swims were very heavily worn. It reminded us a bit of the Kennet!

We only had 2 barbel between the three of us (6lb 10oz and 7lb 12oz), both on feeder fished halibut pellet. We also had 6 chub to 5lb and a 1lb eel!

Plenty of canoe traffic as well, a lot of whom clearly weren't interested in the peace and tranquillity of the surroundings!

The best entertainment came from the mandarin ducklings that seemed quite happy to eat out of my hand!

20 barbel upto 9lb 6oz and 12 chub upto 5lb 4oz. Pellet for the barbel and meat for the chub. This beat was easily accessible with the directions spot on. Just one sad note, an excuse of a fisherman on the opposite bank.

Following on from my fishing the previous night on Dan-y-Warren, I ended my short, but superb, stay, in Crickhowell (the Old Rectory in Llangattock, great place to stay!) with a few hours at Glan-yr-Afon. This must be one of the most picturesque, idyllic places to cast a line. Tricky wading as previous anglers have commented, but worth the effort. I've always found this part of the Usk a real challenge, but this time it was fantastic. 5 trout hooked, 4 banked (all put back in great condition, barely lifted out of the water), all on nymph through deeper, slower runs. Tried the dry fly for a while, but river was running fast and hard to control the fly line. Thanks WUF for providing such a beautiful beat. Heron there as always. There is nothing better than catching a wild brown trout on the Usk, followed by a beer in the Bear!

1 brown trout on lure at Glaslyn pool. Another seen rising at mudpool but wouldn't come to fly. Lovely peaceful scenic stretch of river and as two very inexperienced fly fishers we had a great day. Needed the waders.

I had watched the forecast on Friday with some trepidation "month's rain in a day" and drove up from London in steady rain
However, on the river at 7.30 am to find it up, coloured but definitely fishable, and not the torrent of milky-red tea I'd feared. It steadily dropped and fined-up throughout the day.
Fished for salmon in the morning, trout in the afternoon. No salmon seen or touched (maybe one knock?. Better luck trouting, 6 caught and safely returned including a magnificent 16" fish from just below the A40 bridge.
The others were in the 1/2 - 3/4 lb range.
Very little fly-life all day. Packed up just before 8pm. In retrospect, should have fished on as I suspect there would have been good fishing around 9.
Only downside was ripped waders on barbed wire on the bank. There is a lot of ex-fencing hidden in the grass on the river bank, especially down by the crossing point

A picture postcard scene when I first made the river after an early breakfast (after a bit of faffing trying to work out which lay-by to park in. Sun streaming through trees, steady hatch, water very clear (all colour had gone overnight.
Hadn't fished this far up the Usk before and it is noticeably smaller than below Brecon. A fair amount of overhanging trees make for careful casting (there were a couple of red flying Cs hanging from the tree branch over the quarry pool, looking like someone had forgotten to take down all the Christmas decorations!)
Landed (and released) half a dozen trout, all to a gold-head PTN, best about 1lb. Packed up at 2pm, hadn't been much fly life post 12, and the weather reverted to current Summer form of cloud with intermittent rain.
A beautiful beat, and I imagine great fishing a little earlier in the year with more daytime activity.
PS - a note on the wading / getting around. While not the trickiest beat on the Usk, one needs to be careful and definitely needs studs. Some deep holes close to bank side. Met the farmer, very pleasant chap, and he understandably wants anglers to keep to the river when moving about. Given some of the banks are very steep, this inevitably involves more wading to get up and down the beat.

Guiding on the Usk for C T. It was his first time on the river although he was an experienced reservoir angler. started the day with a 14" beautifully marked trout on a small nymph. During the rest of the afternoon we caught and relesed another 8 BT between 9" and 11" and a couple of much better fish hooked and lost.