Feedback & Reports

A very enjoyable day on a beautiful beat. 18 fish caught, 12 brown trout to 12", six grayling to 16", grayling recovering well from spawning, all carefully returned. Difficult conditions with heavy rain showers and fierce gusts of downstream wind. Fish rising only between showers. A few mayflies hatching but being ignored, rises to olives and black gnats, many fish preferring a pheasant tail just sub-surface.

River low and clear. Weather warm a.m, cold p.m.

18 trout and 4 grayling caught on pheasant tail nymphs, mayflies hatching but none taken on surface.

All trout (bar two) returned. All grayling returned. Largest trout caught 13.5 inches, smallest 9 inches. One salmon seen.

Nothing to declare, but had an enjoyable day, in wonderful surroundings. I shall definately return again.

Several v. small trout caught on small wets.

Two larger healthy fish 1/2 lb caught and returned to Fenni Fach from the pool by the lower gate.

1st time on Usk, Fenni Fach is an especially beautiful beat, good fishing but no sign of larger fish.

21 Brown trout Biggest around 17-18 inches smallest 11 inches.

A days guiding with Frank Williams. Arrived at the river Monnow around 9.00 am to meet Frank. The river was in flood and like hot chocolate. After a wirlwind tour of the rivers I was shown the river Usk at Glan Yr Afon. WOW! After a call to the WUF the beat was secured. What a fantastic days fishing, if a little treacherous to wade at times. We only fished about one third of the available water but with Frank's patient guidance I feel it was really covered well. I did hook one fish that was an absolute whopper and took took what felt like an eternity to get to the net only to be broken of at the last minute.

After a fairly tough few hours, the river came to life at around 11.30 with hatches of sedge and olives. There were swarms of black gnats and a trickle of Yellow Mays. I had a dozen or so decent trout, the best going 2.25 lbs. Fish were caught on spiders and dries. I had to stop at around
4.45 to drive back to London. Fish were rising as I left! I'm sure the evening would've been productive but this is one of the many prices you pay for living in London! The river could do with another 6 inches of water.

I can report just 1 x 14" out of season grayling.
I've come to the conclusion that Wednesday's big slow-moving fish which came off in deep water was a chub - I've seen a monstrous one lying in the same pool.

Well, I'm certainly finding Monnow Valley quite a challenge although I'm learning places to scramble in and out and I may start taking a coil of rope with me . The conclusions I'm drawing is that it contains quite a number of large trout, they aren't fished for that much because they are so hard to get at, therefore if you see one rising and you do manage to present a fly to it, there is a very good chance of a solid take. But, and here's the problem, they all live next to a snag. Not much rising in the cold winds of the 8th, but one which was rising accepted a Tan Klinkhammer, waved a big black tail at me and dived straight under the fallen tree he was lying next to with the rod bent double. Ah me, better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all....

Abergavenny Town Water is fishing OK, by the way, when not too cold and windy...I seem to be able to get them to the net there.

No salmon even seen, let alone caught! Five small trout caught and kept one at 1 1/2 lbs. River looking beautiful.
All good things.

A quite cold, windy day on the Usk.

Caught 2 WBT about 8" and 11". Lost 1 very good fish, snapped leader on first run. Caught both fish on dry, a CDC Olive Spinner.

Lovely beat, although wading a little tricky at top end.

A very successful guiding/tuition day with Frank Williams, most informative and enjoyable.

Despite very difficult windy conditions 2 fish were landed plus a number of lost takes on a combination of dry fly and nymphs.