Feedback & Reports

Nil Return.
Fished from 12 till 4pm near Car Park point and upstream for half-mile. No sign of trout rising etc. Good casting practice for me - and son. First time fly fisher. River fast-flowing and very deep in places. Plenty of natural flies in afternoon. Friendly woman at Monnow Valley Studio, very helpful. We may use a guide next time to find the trout and learn small river fishing tactics. Very enjoyable afternoon. WUF service excellent. Thank you. This return also for second rod, R W.

Guided by OB from Gloucestershire. Water very low and a long hot afternoon searching the beat with absolutely nothing rising. Occasional late mayfly and a few evening sedge, but nothing happening. In the last hour before dark, a nice wild trout of 15 inches plus a couple of small chub on dry fly.

1 Trout, 2 Chub

Very hot and very quiet.

Did not catch any fish.

Fished for 2 hours. Low water levels and very bright sunshine, with only a few rises noted, no fish caught.

Lovely summers evening, fished from 6:30pm to 9:45pm. Hot sun all day so decided to have a go in the evening only. Lots of rise to midges and other flies that I could not identify so fished a small black Klinkhammer and got 5 good takes. Landed and safely returned 2 of them, WBT to 10 inches, lost 3 more, one a beauty at approx 2lb.
River quite muddy and low and it was a struggle to get easy access to the water but still a fine way to spend a summers evening.

2 Trout

A very hot day! Only spent 5 hours on the river - NO fish movement, nothing rising, no interest in numerous nymphs of all shapes/colours/depths. Bank access to river quite challenging in parts! Nevertheless, a lovely spot which I will definitely revisit when things cool down.

Water quality fair, perhaps not as clear as had been expected.
Not many rises, however both fish were caught on dry flies.

2 Trout

Did not fish after booking, was offered greener pastures at Upper Bigswier!

8 x trout 9-13 inches. The first time I have managed to get a day for myself on Monnow Valley, this year, but better late than never. I wondered in fact if I would be too late for the mayfly (I was, although I saw just a few of the big flies). The weather was cold and overcast with a big wind and threatening rain which never quite arrived. Although there were a few insects of various sorts around, most of the day was extremely slow going with very, very few rising fish. I spent the time fishing the water and having a crack at the ones I did see move. By early evening I had done the whole beat, got myself thoroughly tired, and taken just a couple from glides on an Adams and one from under a tree, which seemed to be waiting for terrestrials shaken out by the wind, on a Black Klinkhammer. Plus I had lost quite a good fish at the net, as you inevitably do. The game changer was a spinner fall of blue winged olives immediately before dark which suddenly brought the river to life with good fish rising regularly. A Parachute Tups seemed to work. I lost some more fish - inevitably the better ones - but was kept busy right through into darkness and didn't get packed up and away till nearly 11, tired out but cheerful. An interesting and memorable day, I thought, with what Bernard Cribbins once called a "reassuring level of difficulty."

8 Trout