Feedback & Reports

stinking hot day....frazzled on the bankside....chub on the tip on meat....stepped up to 18mm lamprey and smoked herring pellet...caught bigger chub...then had the 3 good sized barbel.....river seemed low but probably normal for time of year.....will return after some rain....didn't really catch 200 chub but I wasn't counting... more like 20+

3 Barbel, 20 Chub

2 trout and one small perch caught on float and 1 trout on lure. Nice warm day with little wind, though the peace was somewhat disturbed by paddleboarders who although very polite were also very noisy

3 Trout, 1 Other

I have read much before about the considerable difficulty of just getting into the river here ( mostly below Ryhdywernen farm) but I did find an ok way in a bit just below the farm, heres the juice...
Right at the farm driveway entrance theres a large gated field, a fair way down there there's a small belt of trees/shrubbery next the the fencing and some of this fencing here isnt strung as tight as a bow as per usual so with a bit of pipe lagging that I carry on it one can get over ok ( Note,I do have fairly long legs!) and the bank there slopes down to the river ok and is not socked in like a hellish thorny jungle. Result.
Bovine livestock in the field seemed unbothered by my presence btw.
Wow, lovely and cool down there after all the heat in the field and the river bed looked just amazing, spotless , no damned teflon algae or brown slime at all,literally, even in the slow water . The Usk sandstone was almost glowing in the sunshine, this is how our freestone rivers SHOULD BE !!! Water was the proverbial Gin too.
A very impressive number indeed of bugs on the rocks and of all varieties ( some large ,almost fearsome looking stone clingers included, huge numbers of really tiny olive nymphs and some very large Ryach's too) and some of these well lit rocks sitting in the shallow water had large numbers of mature olive nymphs on them lounging around that I liked to think where just there sunbathing!
Wading was really great with felt and studs,hard work yes but didnt slip/slide once,really, even on the slab bedrock.
I havent experienced anything quite like all this since I can remember when.
I was surprised at the number of long ,and slow sometimes ,knee-ish deep runs/pools from where I got in back up to the farm . Maybe a dozen?
I was expecting much more there in the way of gutters/pocket water.
Fish showing in all of them ( nothing big mind and I am pretty sure where all trout )and much more so too as the evening developed but man these guys here are just too fast for this old duffer! Rose quite a lot and I really do need to sharpen the reactions up and get the synapses firing better !
They did seem quite picky on the fly size/pattern though which I thought a bit unusual for this kind of stream . Maybe its because of all the fly life they have to go at at times? Who knows.
All in all and personally speaking I found it just fabulous and huge fun and cant wait to get back and even more so now there's lots of pesky branches gone ,just waiting now for the next angler along it and the pruners need sharpening now for sure. Every pool had something dangling over it to be dealt with so you could cast up ok and there's another good/lame excuse for the nil score sheet I reckon and who cares anyway when its all like this.
Oh , and yes, lots of Daubentons bats on the wing too in the failing light. Another good sign?

2 Trout

Feeder fishing with pellets

3 Chub

6 Trout

Brilliant fishing, so many chub I lost count. Feeding lots of hemp and pellets, the more I feed the quantity of chub increased . At some periods the swim was black with chub and they came right underneath the feed .

1 Barbel, 40 Chub

Yet another great day fly fishing loads of fun caught 2 trout.

3 Trout

2 anglers fished. As we had booked all 5 rods on a 1mile double bank beat for exclusivity it was annoying to have another angler opposite on the lower end. I see from previous catch reports this is not the first time this has occurred this season.
Clearly two swims on the opposite have been fished quite regularly since the beginning of the season. The angler had driven to his chosen swim along the river bank below the castle.
Well maintained beat, and good access

7 Barbel, 30 Chub

A sultry muggy day, turned up at the bottom of the beat ..... was 18 in my truck, did a water test too in the day ... Reading 12 degrees on my thermometer ... First drama of the day saw a mink swim out to a rooty island .... I squeaked him in over he came in a rush.... I was like whoooooooooo wasn't expecting that!!!!!!! He stopped three yards away from me !! Then bolted... I watched him swim away ... quite leisurely!! I'll touch base with the farmer .... A job for my old bolt action .410 I think !!!!!
Anyway fun fishing today, did a bit of the top beat from the bridge up .... Great fun ...From midday, fish looking up properly then !!! Dry fly the whole beat .... wwweeeellllll, what else would one fish in June !!!! Lol .......
Fifteen maybe a few more to the net, usual stamp of fish for here ... eight or nine inches, with a couple perhaps ten or eleven inches ... . Fun on the dries here ... a good few risers from twoish as well .....
Tis just starting to green up with the low level and heat I guess !!!
Actually I'm writing this having a late lunch in the beat pull in, just seen the farmer, he's given me the green light on Operation Mink !!!!
A fun four hours sport nice to pass on my day to Stephen the farmer, ever so pleased it's fishing well ... we could do with a night of heavy rain to be honest ...mid week maybe ?????
Anyway time for home, and a bottle of something chilled out if the fridge, happy days !!!

15 Trout