Feedback & Reports

River in perfect condition having risen over the past week following rain. Surprisingly little surface activity though. Handful of blue duns seen & 3 fish caught on imitations.

3 Trout

Little sign of fly activity or rising fish. Water level was low but clarity pretty good.
The two small trout caught were returned.
There was another group fishing the beats which was unexpected so we did not fish our favoured sections.

2 Trout

Morning was quite sunny so fishing was hard. However mid afternoon cloud cover arrived and caught the barbel within a couple of hours.

6 Barbel

Fished after lunch through to evening, decent mayfly hatches and the fish were rising - caught 14 all off the top, mostly on small mayfly patterns but also one on sedge. All smallish trout for the Usk, biggest 13" and did not see anything bigger all day despite a lot of activity, which seemed very strange until the evening when I saw...

POACHERS. They were under the road bridge at the top of the big pool, spinning/legering. It was getting quite dark by that time, I had only been there an hour before so they must have sneaked in late when they didn't see a car and thought nobody would be there. When I first saw them I wondered if it was a couple of kids from the town - no poaching is good, but at least if it was kids it would be somewhat understandable and you could have a chat about where they could fish/get into fly-fishing with a club. But no they were two young guys and they did a runner back up the road when I got closer, carrying a white plastic bag with an ominous bulge at the bottom. They obviously knew their way around - got through the scrub up to the road bridge very quickly too. I see others have reported the same at this beat (and I have heard another account just yesterday through the grapevine, from this same beat), it was very sad to see. Large trout take many years to mature - the big ones are rare and can even be 20 years old or more. Many are female and very important for the brood stock, as they produce so many eggs. So poachers hammering them with worms or leger tackle are going to take a serious toll, not surprising that cohort seemed to be missing. I hate to think what they are doing to the salmon population too, that hardly bears thinking about with the current state of the salmon population. It was a sad and aggravating way to end the session. One other point if I may while we are on the topic of fish stock management as poaching is not the only factor here and we should look at outselves too - I've never understood why some beats have a rule such as 'you can take 2 fish if they are over 1lb'... 'over 12"' or whatever. The bigger fish are the really important stock, and a limited resource which will take a long time to replace. Years in fact, just for the sake of one dinner? The final say is up to the beat owners of course who own the beats, and although most fly-fishers these day release most or all of their fish anyway I would certainly not begrudge an angler the odd fish. But why not give the limit as say 'take up to two fish but they must be UNDER 2lb', or similar? That would seem far more sensible, given how sensitive the larger fish are to overfishing, and the long time lag until the population can replace them? A bit like the many bass anglers who will return not only fish under 42cm (which is law), but also have a voluntary code of returning the big ones of say 5lb plus? Anyway - that is just my two cents.

For all that, it is a beautiful beat (surprisingly so with the sewage treatment works so close!), with a good head of fish and nice easy casting - unlike many Usk beats an excellent one for beginners or those new to river fishing I'd say. Really sad about the poaching though, that needs to be sorted out. If anyone else sees poachers - I would recommend just phoning them in straight away if you get the drop on them, before they see you. And fish to dusk if you can so they can be caught and arrested next time.

14 Trout

Amazing day on the river catching 19 on the stick float and 3 on the tip, ranging from 1lb up to 5lb.
All caught on the left hand bank from various pegs. Silk weed coming down the river was an pain but it was still great

24 Chub

A beautiful day amongst the gradual emergence of autumnal colours. Very mild, with little wind and perfect water conditions. Quite a few fish rising throughout late morning/early afternoon which resulted in some excellent dry fly action. Lost a couple on the nymphs too, but this technique wasn’t as effective as it usually proves to be.

3 Grayling

Having fished the upper section before we wanted to try the lower left section, but we walked all the way down to the bottom only to find one decent swim as the river level was too shallow at that time.
We had to clear a swim as there was 2 of us, not impressed
However we did have 4 barbel over the 2 sections in the end on meat and pellet ledgering

4 Barbel

Numerous signal crayfish, the res now has a serious problem with them. They are taking over and are everywhere

1 Trout, 20 Other

Heavy rain all morning and a half dunk whilst wading meant I was wet cold and in need of a shower and dry clothes by lunchtime :( Had 1 trout c10" on a nymph and lost a couple of smaller ones before I called it a day.

1 Trout

All caught on French leader style nymph, plenty of water bowling through but still clear enough. Heavy showers most of the afternoon. Nothing over 11 “ but nice to be fishing again after the drought.

8 Trout