Feedback & Reports

fished from 6am till 11am nothing happening and no salmon seen

Day started off wet and windy which resulted in tough fishing, perseverance was rewarded though with a lovely fish taken from the fast water in the lower stretch on a small Klinkhammer . There was only sporadic fly present until 17:00 when the rises began to appear, 3 fish were taken on a spent gnat before things quietened off around 19:00. Lovely stretch of river.

4 Trout

1 Trout

With the river being low the salmon rod was barely used and instead I spent a couple of hours dry fly fishing. I landed two brown trout, best 2.5lb, and lost a couple more. Quite a few Mayfly coming off.

2 Trout

Absorbing fishing. The scudding wind that intensified all day made in tough at times but when it eased or you could find some shelter the trout were eager to rise. Rising hard in the morning to olive uprights and yellow may duns, in bursts in the afternoon to black gnats and then an impressive crescendo as the light faded and they mopped up spent gnats. Best fish was just under 2lbs, the average around 1lb and a couple of bigger fish were lost including a 3lb+ fish after it had jumped 2ft clear of the water. The biggest fish brought to hand was 3lb chub. 1 trout was retained

Several salmon showing in the pools and one was hooked for a couple of minutes before some wood intervened.

20 Trout, 1 Chub

Arrived about 7.30 to overcast skies and no wind. Decided to go with the #8 Switch rod, full floating with a small #10 Black and Yellow on the end. There wasn’t enough water to work the fly until halfway down the beat at the ‘Tail of the Tail’; the Tail Pool itself was virtually static. From here on it was as easy a place to fish as you can imagine, ideal for beginners, with some interesting features. No sign of Salmon but there are a lot of Trout throughout and of quite a size too. Sun came through at 11.00 and everything went flat so decided to call it a day.
Note to self: try again another day when river is up at least a foot, so 0.6mtr on the gauge at Llanfoist http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/#!Detail/821 and put the lighter Trout gear in the car knucklehead!

1 Trout

No salmon caught or seen. First time out with a spey rod so as much a casting exercise as anything else - actually went quite well! Had a few strong pulls - probably trout, distance released a few trout and had one fat wbt that must have been pushing 3lb to the net, released. Would have been a good day to have the dry fly rod handy, but resisted. Lovely beat, easy access, easy wading and big fish - I'll be back.

1 Trout

No catch to report. It was a bit cold, so the fish weren't 'on'.

8 x trout 10-17 inches, various spiders. This new beat took a bit of finding. On the instructions: I made it 2 miles less on the A4042 from the Abergavenny roundabout to the left turn on the outskirts of Llanover than the 5.4 miles given – oh, I see, the miles and kilometres are transposed in the directions – plus the brown signs to various churches are currently hidden by vines. Anyway, what you do is drive through Llanover in the direction of Newport and turn left on the outskirts just before the national speed limits sign, after which the directions are good. Once parked on the field, I think this place is a delight. The wading and access is as about as easy as could possibly be, to some very wide open pools – it looks more like parts of the middle Wye than the Usk. Dark clouded skies and an increasingly cold wind, as so often during this past April, seemed to put paid to finding any rising fish although a few olives were trapped in foamy patches and the birds were certainly helping themselves. Nothing was done with the dry fly rod on this occasion but a team of spiders produced a few trout from the fast water, including a couple of good ones. On the right day with rising trout, I suspect you might be busy for hours on just one or two pool tails. I never got round to putting the salmon rod together, although there are some interesting looking pools. Given the amount of fishing available, the price is reasonable and it would be nice if we had this one all week!

8 Trout

Cold day with downstream wind, difficult fishing. Very little showing until a brief hatch of small upwings around 3pm on the streamy water at the top of the beat. Missed a few trout slashing at my flies, caught one.

1 Trout