Feedback & Reports

FYI. Fished it yesterday afternoon, 13 trout to 8? with twice as many lost. Mayflies, olives & lots of others hatching, although all but 1 taken on gold head.

First part of the beat clear but closes in after about 1km and roll casts only after that. Could do with some napalm!

Had a great day on Dan-y-Parc today, steady rise most of teh afternoon/evening and fish of a very high average size, but nothing over 1lb 12oz brought to hand. Each one hooked shot to the other side of the river with the reel screaming.....must be what hooking a bonefish is like!

Hergest Court
weather: Fine but quite cool for the time of year - strengthening breeze through the day
conditions: clear, normal summer level
fly-hatches: mayfly - around 11.00 and again later
10 Brown trout to 12oz on weighted nymphs / mayfly

Lovely day all in all - the lastest newsletter arrived on Friday and much of what it said was borne out, especially the bit about the fishing becoming more challenging as the vegetation has grown up - parts of the beat were bearly recognisable from when I fished it a few weeks ago, and I don't think I have ever seen nettles quite so tall! Part of the reason for my visit was to try out a new 6' cane rod which I have built myself - great fun to use in the confines of this lovely little river, or at least it was until the ferrule broke. Poor workmanship, I'm afraid...

10/6/08 Upper Winforton - I can't sing the praises of this beat more highly if I tried. I wascompletely taken with the whole place. Although I blanked, I saw 9 good fish moving by Cowpond and Walls & Steps. My companion, with whom I have fished for over 50 years, commented it is the best he has seen the Wye since the seventies, having fished it on and off over the years.

11/6/08 Middle Hill - Sadly once again a nil return, although 1 fish seen. Elliot Penn who was also fishing the beat reported seeing several fish earlier (about 5am!)

I'm happy to admit that my lack of results is due entirely to lack of skill and not the lack of fish!

Salut Simon

As the matter of fact the (very) high light was on Monday (something like 70 trouts with 5 or 6 between 40 and 50 cm). On Tuesday we found the Irfon as colored as the Usk, so we could not fish. On Wednesday we just sang in the rain. Fortunately on Thursday we discovered the marvelous Penpont beat (thanks Wendy) with around 40 trouts caught. Friday the hatches were very poor on the Usk ( around 20 trouts in total) and on Saturday, I guess we should have followed your advice and fish for salmon but we thought we were not skilled enough and kept on looking for trout (around 30 caught) that were smaller than on the Usk.
Anyway the week was great, the welsh's much more friendly that on a rugby field and your welcome and advices very good
Thank you again
A bient?t

Dear Ladies,
Both Simon and I would like to thank you for your help during our trip to the Usk and Irfon. The weather was wonderful, as was the glorious countryside but the fishing was tough. We report the following:
1. Beat R11-9th June 08. 1 x 1.5lb grayling from the very bottom beat on a pink shrimp after much stealth plus a few 'small' trout on a black up wing-type of fly. The water was difficult with the upper part of the beat low. No evening rise after a bright and very hot afternoon.
2. Beat B35-10th June 2008. Just stunning water!!! We were both blown away by the beat, pools, falls, holes etc etc. Very very hard and only a few little trout to show out of fall pools on PTNs. The evening rise lasted for about 10 minutes max after a hatch of some dunns. Sadly, apart from these few minutes, there was nothing to cast at but the
water made up for the lack of fish. We will return!
3. Beat B26-11th June 08. Dull and a few moments of rain. No factor 15 here. It looked very fishy and we were asked to look out of salmon but reported none at the end of the day. Just two mini trout on very small Adams type flies. A few rising in the afternoon and we had to leave at 17h. Challenging and character forming fishing! It would help
to have some definition of the beat, limits etc as well as turn left and left again off the road just to prevent further excursions to the cows field! I must admit I fished for a while not knowing if I was on beat so tended to be less adventurous up and down stream. Very good to be there.

Well, we have returned to Switzerland. Here our report of last week at the wye and the usk.

3.6: Llangoed Beats - Hard fishing during the day, nice evening with the dry fly. There were a good raising and we got some beautiful trouts. Grayling was difficult.

4.6. Doldowlod - Beautiful surrounding. With goldhead nymph 3 beautiful graylings. No trout.

5.6. Pwll-y Faedda- During the day (with some large rainy showers) excellent fishing for trouts and graylings with different sorts of nymphs. In the evening it was perhaps to cold, so we were not succesfull with the dry fly.

6.6. Fenni Fach- It was better to fish in pocket water with nymphs than in long, slowly runs. In long runs it was good fishing with long leaders and classical wet flys. Daniel and I did some good trouts. In the evening with dry fly was not so bad, but trouts are not raising regulary.

7.6. Penpont- Like you have said fishing was very hard and extremely difficult, because trouts here are very spoky. One brown trout over 2 pounds I have had with the nymph, but also a nice day in these beautiful area.

Daniel and I were very satisfied for these 5 days. Sure, we come back, as soon as possible.

Greetings from Switzerland

1. Cefn Rhosan Fawr

Light rain, periods of heavy rain and sunny intervals.
Few fish rising or nyphing; limited hatch. Three brown trout: 8" , 14" and 13". Very fat and in superb condition. CDC Klinkhammer; CDC olive; and sulphur Klikhammer.

Deep and shallow nymphs tried without success. Lovely beat, really enjoyed walking the full length and both tribs. I would consider the Senni and lower trib (can't remember the name) barely fishable, as they need coppicing.

2. Abercamlais
Cool start followed by lovely sunny morning. Only two rises seen. Quite difficult conditions. Two lovely fat browns; 14" and 15". PTN goldhead.

Only two hours fishing, early morning. A really nice beat. I found the wading quite straightforward. Very easy access.

Summary.
Two lovely days on the upper Usk. Despite quite difficult conditions the fishing was superb. I would certainly book these beats again. Thanks again to the W&UF. Keep up the good work.

Had a good day yesterday in spite of colour and height. I M-L caught a lovely 18 pounder in the Pipe which I followed with a measly 5lb grilse dripping with sea lice ? both on the fly after Ray had told us that the fly was a waste of time!

The reason for this is to say how well all the paddlers behaved during the day, out of over 50 only 1 came marginally in front of me which was due to the inexperience of the 12 old girl. All were polite and we exchanged a fair bit of banter, quite like the Tay. 6 came down while Ian was playing his fish, kept well out of the way against the far bank, stopped to watch the action and seemed genuinely delighted to ?participate? and passed on the news to D H who was spinning below and must have covered the same fish earlier.

WUF note: This took place on the navigable section of the Wye

Catch report from my day on the usk (Pantyscallog) on Sunday. Only 3 fish, but check out the photo, well chuffed, i could have gone home right then. Tipped the scales at just under 3lb (i did subtract the weight of the net!), almost had a heartattack when it decided to jump so high it actually hit the branches of an overhanging tree!!!!!!!!!!!!, Not to mention trying to fit it in the net! Especially with a 2lb leader on!

Fish were very spooky and had to stalk this one on hands and knee's accross the Mossy boulders.

Good hatch of Very Large Brook Duns, best at about 2pm. Other 2 fish, 1 of about a 1lb, and a little tiddler of under half a pound, all 3 fish safely returned.