Feedback & Reports

Good weather conditions and water very clear, signs of a healthy river. A lot of fly about. Predominantly Mayfly and Olives but the trout were ignoring these and rising to tiny flies. Fish easily spooked. Ripples from waders put fish down. Had to scale down to 0.127mm tippet and size 22 flies and improve stealth. Had a few looks at Halfords Gnat and Adams but needed to go smaller. Changed tactics to size 16 caddis and had two small brownies around 10". Some large fish rising in awkward places but couldn't get them to take an imitation dry fly. Resisted using nymphs as there were so many fish rising. Bottom end of beat accessible, easy wading with deeper slower runs separated by water fall breaks. Studs in boot sole helped wading grip on slippery bottom. Access and wading gets a lot more difficult the further upstream you go. Long beat didn't fully cover in one day. Interesting challenge on a water with much variation. Will return again to see if I can crack the conundrum.

2 Trout

2 browns both on klinkhammer

2 Trout

Blanked

After rain the day before, the water dropped back quickly to what looked like summer level, though with some colour in it. Plenty of flies around too. Lovely day, but no bonanza of fish - just enough to keep interested. All caught on nymphs. I tried offering a dry fly to some of the rather few rises and had several 'expressions of interest' but no real take. Probably offering the wrong fly - I was using a daddy long legs.

6 Trout

A much wetter day today. Very few fish rising. No offers at all. The rain made us beat a hasty retreat in the afternoon. lovely place. We'll be back.

Four old friends (one now resident in New Zealand) having a catch up while fishing this lovely part of the Usk. A much cooler day than all of last week although the sun warmed us up and a lot of the river is sheltered from winds. There was a big rise late morning. Plenty of Mayfly (some enormous!) but they were actually taking smaller upwing flies. Size 14 parachute Adams caught the fish. Mayflies were boiled at and taken half heartedly and rejected. Biggest was about two pounds. The rest between 10 ounces and a pound. Perfect in every way. A lovely place to spend the day.

5 Trout

Superb really pretty long beat with easy access along its length. As with the previous day on the adjacent beat with bright sun and low clear water wasn't always easy to catch and had to get into some tricky positions under trees to produce fish, but lovely fish it did produce.

5 Trout

Started at the bottom of the beat about mid morning with plenty of flies and fish rising. Between the old man and me we managed one 12” trout and missed or lost another 5 or 6. The fly life lasted well into the afternoon though by the time we sat down for lunch the fish had gone quiet.

Headed up into the woods and there were a few more fish rising again but mostly smaller ones. Managed to land one in the faster water at the top of one of the pools. Made our way back to the lower part of the beat early evening and though the heavy showers promised by the weather forecast didn’t show up there was some light drizzle about. Managed to land two more before the temperature started to fall and it was time to trudge back up the hill to the car.

Really nice beat, thank you very much.

4 Trout

5 Trout

Dries

32 Trout