Feedback & Reports

2 Grayling

Nice little river, far too many leaves in the water today, but I’ll be back once it’s had a good flush through.

2 Trout, 11 Grayling

a few hours then torrential rain! made way back to car soaked through with not a break in the clouds . shame as grayling started rising just beforehand. levels on lugg pretty much summer levels and all the rain of late not risen it at all.

11 Grayling

Another beat of the Lugg in skeletal form, but full of fish. The number landed is detailed but the number of long range releases and literal inspections would number double that! All fish to a single nymph, Hares ear and PTN, leader of 0.08, lots of fish in the deeper water at the weir mid stretch. Another cracking section of Wye and Usk fishing.

14 Trout, 18 Grayling

Five small grayling. The river is really clear at the moment and fairly low despite some recent rain

5 Grayling

Weather much cooler , cloudy and a N wind. 16 degrees at 08:00 and it never got higher than that. Rained gently most of am. But I had learnt a lesson and arrived armed with a packed lunch acquired from Morrisons in Leominster. Full of everything you need: Even the 5 a day (he lies - it was sarnies, brown food and a diet coke: boy food).

Checked out this small beat first. Just as well. The access at lower end is tough and only bank fishing near the weir is from right hand side (facing downstream). I slipped into the river in a glide just upstream of the woods - and promptly sat my fat arse on some barbed wire hidden in the undergrowth. My waders leaked henceforth and by the time I reached the top of the beat, it looked like I had some terrible inflamation of the right leg... about 4 litres of water was in there with my lower appendage... But the fishing....

Water was very clear and the slight milkiness seen yesterday at Lyepole and Middlemoor seems to have been diluted by the time the river hits this stretch. I could see the bottom in pools over 5' deep. Even determine if fish were in them... Which isn't good. Fish were rising sporadically so I went dry fly straight off and stuck with it. I put down 5 or 7 fish for every splashy rise - and missed 5 to every 1 I hooked. Incompetence seems my middle name... Although the very clear water is my defense, m'lud.

Result? In the morning I caught 2 wbt of 6" & 8" (the latter perhaps generous) and a 8" Grayling. The productive pools were a straight run about 100m from my wader ripping access and a series of pools starting at the downstream cormer of the 'main' field that you go through from the farm...

Saw a grey heron and a white version of a similar bird (?). Bloody big anyway. Kingfishers too. But on second day.. yawn. At the top of the beat (the woods bit after the weir, where the river is like something out of Borneo, except for the flora, obviously - and the temperature) I found scat and spoor of what I believe to be otter. Didn't see any fish, even though it looks very 'fishy'... So if you are put off by the almost impossible access you ain't missing much, frankly.

Went to B&Q in Leominster after I finished first run through and mended my breathable waders with something called Gorilla Glue. Welded the holes and rips shut (I found 7 in total, some more than an inch long - no wonder the bloody things leaked). It dried in an hour and seems to have done the job (looks like my waders have acne, but they are almost teenagers now). Certainly my evening trip involved me keeping dry, apart from soaking feet where I replaced my socks onto the wrong feet and the soaking wet neoprene from the earlier water carrier experiment. I just didn't think that through...

Evening I stuck to the easy wading bit. Not many rises, so I prospected with a dry adams where I now knew fish were. Rose a few that I missed and spooked some others, as witnessed by the bow waves in tailwaters... But I still managed to hook the fish of the day: A 14" grayling, that came from the depths at the head of a deep hole to hit the fly like it was its last meal. It very nearly was. The de-barbed hook was right down its' throat. Got the old disgorger out and that immediately sliced through the leader like it was a razor. Making use of the tool a tad difficult. So back to plan B: my Foreceps. Mr/Mrs fish didn't enjoy this at all and after I had got the fly free the fish refused to swim... I took 10 minutes to nurse that fish back to life.

Having done my duty as a C&R angler I packed up, as the western skyline tinged pink. Which is pretty much how I felt.

A good day... very challenging, making the reward that bit sweeter. I had booked Middlemoor as my reserve beat, but never got there.

2 Trout, 2 Grayling

nothing happening at all , weather very windy and river running clear. most were caught on size 20 black gnat pattern and a few on nymph. lost a belter of a trout that took me under a submerged branch and snapped tippet . other than that fish all the rest between 5-12 inches. fly on the water was very limited until a huge hatch of midge and other than small fish rising there was no activity from the larger fish.

3 Trout, 10 Grayling

River very low and clear, bankside undergrowth now taking over, Balsam I think, so very difficult if not impossible to get to some areas. There are now cattle both sides of the river on the lower section and they are friendly !
Saw the dreaded cormorants fishing merrily on the lower section, and I think they were doing better than me.
As usual the wind was a real problem, it was much stronger than forecast, I think the weather people struggle to forecast yesterdays weather correctly !
Still better than a day working though.
Many thanks to the fishery owner and the Wye & Usk team.

2 Trout, 5 Grayling

Hoped that there would be a touch more water following rain a couple of days ago but river very low and clear . Only fished a couple of hours pm but had two small grayling sub surface in faster water. Saw a Kingfisher by the bridge. Looks good for winter grayling with a variety of water. I'll give it a try again then. Nice beat with some new fencing and access points. Thanks.

2 Grayling

Please note that there were two anglers. We fished nymph and dry fly. It is such a pity that the woodland sections at both ends are inaccessible when that could easily be changed.
Regrettably, a steer got into the river and charged around in the water half way through the day, which didn't improve the fishing!

7 Trout, 4 Grayling