Feedback & Reports

No fish caught all day!

All Taken on a Dry Spent Mayfly.

1 x Brown Trout 11" Taken
1 x Brown Trout 12.5" Taken
1 x Brown Trout 6.5" put back

Weather was good, several hatches, but not many rising.

Stayed at the Bear, a nice place to stay.

Everything was perfect - warm and sunny, little wind, river clear and falling after much rain, olives and stoneflies hatching but I didn't catch a thing and never saw a fish all day. C'est la vie.

4 brown trout all taken on a gold head pheasent tail. One fish of 10 inches, Two at 17inches and a cracker at 20 inches. No fish seen rising although there was a good hatch if large dark olives from midday till about 4pm.

Blank. The first hot day of the spring. I was lucky enough to share the beat with season rod Stuart Jarvis, formerly gillie at Glanusk Park before he retired last year. We both fished a team of spiders with a beaded nymph on the point; Stuart fished the top half, I fished the lower, and neither of us had a touch all morning. No rises either. By the cars after lunch, Stuart was sitting in his folding chair puffing at his pipe, when he suddenly said: "I just saw a fish rise in the edge there. Look, there it is again." He was down on the shingle in a minute, drifting his beaded nymph onto the spot already fished and waded by me that morning, and after a quick preliminary tweak it came on solidly. I was able to net a beautifully conditoned hen fish of about 1.75 pounds for him (it didn't spawn according to Stuart) and after a photo and release we were back at the picnic area where I think his pipe was still burning. Which is not the first time I have seen Stuart produce a trout seemingly out of nowhere. After that we both carried on all afternoon, like the morning, without either of us taking a fish.

Otherwise, as the days of warm weather have continued during the week, the Usk seems to be gradually coming to life, at least in the middle of the day. There were rising fish early afternoon at Abergavenny on the 9th and I got a brace and lost a couple more; at Mardy on the 10th I got 5, including a lovely 18 inch fish which gave me a view of the backing for an anxious moment. Fly life has been mainly confined to large dark olives, with some very large stone flies on the upper river. No sign of the famous march browns, although I have my collecting vials all ready. Stuart reckons the ones I thought I saw in late April last year were actually turkey browns; he hasn't seen the true march brown at Glanusk for years. We'll see.

5 on hook but came off - Grey Wulff

None taken

2 small trout, 1 grayling, on weighted nymphs, all returned.

River quite high and still coloured but clearing.

First visit, enjoyed the day, Foundation's service in booking and advice etc excellent.

Not a sassague.

Infrequent rising

Nice beat. Water low and clear. Weather bright, sunny and warm. No significant hatch all day, and only the odd fish rising here and there. Fishing 10am-5pm, two of us managed 10 trout between 8" and 12" on a variety of nymphs and dries. There were a few Grannom around in the morning, but the afternoon was virtually hatch free. My theory is that the LDOs were confused and thought it was June. Easy mistake given the blues slkies and 18 deg temperature.

2 x trout 6 and 11 inches. Not as bad a day as it sounds - although the water was high and the wind was cold, in the afternoon temperature got up to 16 degrees and in sheltered corners there was a good hatch of large dark olives. In one of these I watched a gentleman from Sussex take 4 excellent trout around 15-16 inches, 3 of them on a dry Iron Blue, no less. Superb bit of angling and Harry Plunket Greene would have approved the pattern.