Feedback & Reports

Arrived at midday, the river looked very nice, a little lower than on my previous visit. Watched the water for a while but saw no fish rising despite a few varied flies coming off. Found a few fish rising eventually and managed to take a small brown trout off the surface on a dry fly which is always nice. I was determined to fish a dry fly as fish were rising on and off during the day and I did miss a few takes but despite my best efforts no more fish were caught. I'm finding I tend to struggle a little on the bigger rivers so maybe some guiding would be helpful.

1 Trout

Fished for salmon initially from top run through the rockpool to the chine with no takes using a cascade pattern brass tube and intermediate line. Water level steady at .61m. Not much rise of trout through the afternoon. Switched to a team of spiders for trout from 4.30 in woodstream landing 3 trout of around half pound all on partridge and orange spider. Switched from nymph on point to sparsely tied March Brown spider. Immediately into a big trout which jumped clear several times before tearing off line. Looked silvery so prepared for a battle. Took 20 minutes to land what turned out to be a 2 lb seatrout. A good day!!

3 Trout, 1 Sea Trout

Fresh Hen about 7or8lbs. No sea lice. Had a healed bite mark just behind its anal fin on one side only. Thank God seals have bad dental hygiene! It came out of the Bridge Stream on an old Usk Grub.

1 Salmon

I fished this yesterday with 0.5m on the gauge and a cold westerly 30mph+ wind.

The wind made presentation and bite deterction almost impossible and the extra water made wading difficult even on the shallows just above the bridge.

I missed three pulls on gold headed nymphs and had the smallest trout in the world come off half way in.

There were yellow mayfly's hatching steadily throughout the afternoon but I only saw six fish rise all day, 2 of which were to one of my flies fished while prospecting hoping to pull fish to the surface. Sadly both fish were missed, one small and the other a very good fish.

It is a length that I'm sure would offer good sport in the right conditions and is possibly more suited to low levels to allow wading further out

Stayed at Newbridge on Usk the night before. River a torrent through the bridge before dinner, high and canal-like after (indicating a very high tide). Arrived at Chainbridge full of anticipation and river perfect at 0.8m with nice tint.
Spent a pleasant social late morning in the sun with no sign of salmo salar. Action hotted up in mid afternoon when fish stated running and showing on Rock. S.B. was thrilled to catch his first salmon on fly a silver 15 lb hen. S.M. followed 2hrs later with a fresh 12lb cock fish.
Joined for a couple of hours by D.M. (regular Wednesday rod). To his frustration and some amusement, runners kept showing very close but just above him.
Ended a magical day toasting Stuart's fish with pint in hand and sun setting over the decking at Chainbridge pub.

2 Salmon

River at 1.15m dropping steadily but too coloured. Enjoyable day out. Saw just one fish show on Rock. 1 trout around 1.5 lb on 15fter safely returned. River should be perfect tomorrow.

1 Trout

Fished from 3:30 - 8:45. Steady hatches of all shapes/sizes of fly including different mayflies. However not a lot rising, for most of the session. Difficult swirling winds didn't help presentation. Tried nymphs to start but no joy. Located a few small fish around 6pm and landed one (12oz) but missed a few takes. Over the rest of evening worked through beat and missed a couple of takes on a hackled mini m. Brown. Tried several other patterns but that seemed to work best. Around 8:30 downstream of the bridge came alive and I hooked a much better fish which shed the hook after a few seconds. Unfortunately had to leave then as I had to be somewhere else. This was unfortunate as the river was starting to come alive and I am sure that would have been the killing time.

1 Trout

This was my first time on the Usk. The weather was overcast when I arrived, the river looked in fine form but no fish were showing. I caught quite quickly on a gold head but quickly changed to a dry fly as by mid morning fish were taking flies off the surface. The fly life was spectacular at times with many different flies coming off including Mayflies. By lunch time the sun was shining, it was very bright and the fish stopped showing on the surface but I persisted with a Mayfly imitation as Mayflies were coming off in increasing numbers. I caught no more fish despite my best efforts but this was due to my inexperience rather then the beat as it obviously has plenty of trout as they were taking flies all over when I left...just not mine!
Will be back for another go before too long.

1 Trout

First day back fishing after over 10 years away!
Dry fly only and waited until 8.30pm before throwing a line out. What a great little stretch of water this is. Opposite the campsite and upstream about 300m I found a gap in the trees and waited patiently for movement! Plenty of mayfly about but stuck with a little brown homemade fly. This worked instantly with a string of 3 smaller fish of around a pound or so. Returned these back for another day. Continued at the same point and at the maximum of my cast there were some bigger fish feeding, the hunt was on! I caught another little one of about a pound and a half then just before it turned pitch black I struck a biggy! Line snapped after a 10 minute fight but luckily he was over the net. One of the biggest trout I've ever caught on the Usk of 4.5lbs. Great bit of fishing and I shall be returning.
Thank you.

5 Trout

First day back fishing after over 10 years away! Dry fly only and waited until 8.30pm before throwing a line out. What a great little stretch of water this is. Opposite the campsite and upstream about 300m I found a gap in the trees and waited patiently for movement! Plenty of mayfly about but stuck with a little brown homemade fly. This worked instantly with a string of 3 smaller fish of around a pound or so. Returned these back for another day. Continued at the same point and at the maximum of my cast there were some bigger fish feeding, the hunt was on! I caught another little one of about a pound and a half then just before it turned pitch black I struck a biggy! Line snapped after a 10 minute fight but luckily he was over the net. One of the biggest trout I've ever caught on the Usk of 4.5lbs. Great bit of fishing and I shall be returning.
Thank you.

5 Trout