Trout & Grayling Catches

11:56 am

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2:24 pm

Please note that due to rising water temperatures, [b]salmon, trout and pike fishing[/b] has been suspended on Wye & Usk Passport participating beats, below Builth Wells & Brecon until further notice. This suspension will be reviewed daily but we ask that no booking of this type is made until further notice. Trout (and grayling) fishing remains open above Builth Wells & Brecon. Should water temperatures rise much further, we will need to consider suspensions here too. In the meantime, it is especially important that anglers follow good catch & release techniques to ensure fish survival. If you are booked to fish in the immediate future, or have any concerns, please email admin@fishingpassport.co.uk

10:17 am

The river temperature on the Middle & Lower Wye has cooled sufficiently to resume trout fishing from today.

11:28 am

The river temperature on the Lower Usk has cooled sufficiently to resume trout fishing from 29th June 2023 on this section.

9:36 am

Please note that due to rising water temperatures, trout (and salmon) fishing has been suspended on middle and lower Wye Passport beats until further notice. This suspension will be reviewed daily so we ask that no trout (or salmon) fishing bookings are made until further notice.   Thank you.

4:56 pm

Both rivers are now seeing morning hatches of pale wateries, spurwing, yellow may duns, some olive uprights and mayfly hatches on the beats that have them. Emerger and dun patterns are working well. In the evening unless you have a hatch of BWO's you are fishing the spinner fall and a spinner pattern, fished with no drag is the key to unlocking the rise. The fish are locking onto them.    

11:47 am

With the main stems dropping and the weather forecast drying up, this weekend should see the start of the March Brown fishing on the middle Usk and the LDO's are still hatching on the upper river. The Wye below Builth will take a few more days to get to trout fishing levels. If you have never fished a march brown hatch, you need to be ready. They often dont last long, but do seem to bring every fish in the river to the surface.  

Most of tributary network is now fishable and although the fish are 'on the fin' finding a rising fish will be a bonus. They will take a well presented nymph though.  

10:43 am

FISHING PASSPORT NOTICE:

While neither river received any rain, water temperatures have thankfully dropped following the cooler weather over the weekend. The forecast for the rest of this week is for these more “normal” conditions to continue.

For Passport-participating fisheries, this means that Wye and Usk trout fishing can also resume on Tuesday 27th July.

River trout and grayling generally become very difficult to catch in warm July and August conditions and usually only become active in the last hour of daylight. During the day trout tend to inhabit the faster, higher-oxygen white water where they are catchable using the right tactics.

However, while we are reopening the fishing, trout and grayling anglers are advised not to book river fishing until the conditions improve. There is some great upland llyns to explore in the meantime, which are usually at their best at this time of year. Reservoir fishing remains unaffected too.

Thank you for your patience and our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The Fishing Passport.

11:55 am

Wye & Usk: We have received another report of a fish with fungal infection. The below photo taken by an angler on the Usk near Llangynidr yesterday shows what apears to be a small diseased salmon. The prolonged cold water temperatures of spring have probably contributed to more cases this year although seeing diseased fish this late in the year is uncommon.

If you witness diseased fish and/or fish in distress, please report it to Natural Resources Wales or Environment Agency, as well as informing us.

More information is availlable on the Foundation website, from Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency.

2:08 pm

The rivers have been quite tough going in the early part of June. Despite both Wye and Usk having a fair amount of water in them, we seem to have switched very quickly to summer conditions with evenings giving the best chances of finding rising fish. Otherwise, nymphs and spiders seems to be the go-to during the day.

Below: Nice trout from the river Honndu (Monnow trib).

9:52 am

Intense downpours put both rivers into spate over the weekend and places to fish will be few and far between for a couple more days at least. The upper Usk will be the first of the main stem fishing to come into play but before that, some of the faster, upland tributaries of both rivers might offer an opportunity by later today or tomorrow. On the Wye, streams such as the Edw will be one of the first to become fishable while over in the Usk catchment, the Cilieni and Crai. The reservoirs and upland llyns are providing some very good fishing at the moment and are more than just a river alternative while the levels are high.

Before the weekend hawthorn flies and some of the first olive uprights were being reported. The yellow mays will soon start hatching in numbers too, as will blue winged olives. It will be interesting to see when the first mayflies are sighted.

The crescendo of this year's river trout fishing is almost here. Let's hope the rain eases a little to allow everyone to enjoy it although the forecast is for more rain at the end of this week. Keep an eye on the webcams - the Lugg one is now showing the correct images.

(photos left to right: 2lb Usk brown from Abercynrig, Olive upright, Yellow may

12:16 pm

Llwyn On Reservoir : Capacity has increased today on this popular fishery from 30 to 40 tickets available.

12:36 pm

A tough weekend on both rivers and still waters - cold, bright conditions followed by the obligatory bank holiday storm!

One angler did manage to break their Usk curse of 1 fish in 8 trips with 14 to just over 2lbs from the Dinas beat on Sunday. The Usk is often said to be a fickle river. It has the potential to give you a trout fishing day of your life while at other times, you'd swear there wasn't a fish in it. The Wye also threw up a surprise last Friday with a salmon angler at Wyesham catching a fin-perfect 8-9lb rainbow!

The weather of the coming week is looking unsettled but anglers shouldn't be put off. The higher, more coloured water often provides better fishing than the previous low and clear conditions. The wind will be the main issue.

Some improvements to access at the Ashford House (Usk) beat were made over the weekend - mostly stile repair and a new crossing point over a large ditch. Some of the banks are still steep and this otherwise wonderful fishery and it will still not be to everyone's liking but at least getting along the bank has been made considerably easier!

3:42 pm

Some decent reports from the weekend but also some anglers that were affected by picnickers, swimmers and dogs going in after sticks. Unfortunately, this will be an almost inevitable side effect this spring and summer as lockdowns continue to ease but with people still not able to travel abroad.

Some March Brown (photo below left) hatches have been reported in the past week. Good grannom hatches are still happening on the mid/lower Usk too.Both rivers and their tribs are now extremely low. Any trout fishers looking to get out in the next few days might be best advied to stick to the main stem fisheries. The good news is that there is some rain forecast later this week - at last!

One angler fishing the Usk near Brecon commented the quality of the trout with every fish caught being around the 2lb mark and asked whether this was due to a recent stocking. Thankfully, very little stocking of trout takes place on the Usk these days (it doesn't need it!) and these are almost certainly all wild fish. Another angler fishing much further downstream the weekend before had much the same experience with most of his 7 trout in the 1 3/4lb to 2/b range.

11:22 am

Bright conditions, low water, early morning frosts and easerly winds all added up to some quite tough fishing in the past few days. Despite that, some good hatches of Brook duns have been reported from both rivers and some decent catches made. The bulk of the grannom appear to have finished now. Rain and warmer weather are forecasted next week. Both are needed!

2:46 pm

The prolonged low levels and cold water this spring are ideal conditions for salmon and trout fungal infections to proliferate in rivers. The Environment Agency have issued advice on what to do if you come across a diseased fish. See here for more details.

10:44 am

Generally tough fishing over the weekend in the bright conditions, especially on the smaller rivers and streams where water levels are extremely low. Some middle Usk beats reported good hatches of grannom, while on the mid/upper beats large dark olives, brook dunns and smaller olives were more prevalent. Hatches on the Wye appear to have been more sparse. 

It would probably be best to stick to main river beats while the dry spring conditions prevail, which are forecasted to for the next 2 weeks at least.

Oliver Burch's March trout fishing report is here.

10:26 am

COVID UPDATE: The Wales/England border is now open so Fishing Passport bookings are operating as normal. Please remember to follow COVID advice and be aware that future restrictions on travel could be imposed if infection rates rise again.

12:20 pm

COVID UPDATE: Fishing Passport beats are now open for online bookings. However, although restrictions within England and Wales have been eased, please note that cross-border travel is not permitted for exercise or recreation (i.e. fishing) at least until April 12th. We will update this message as soon as travel between England and Wales has been confirmed as possible again.

5:30 pm

The current expectation is a resumption of being able to travel for fishing in England on the 29th of March. Meanwhile, in Wales some relaxing of the rules is hoped for on the 15th March. 

The Passport will remain closed online for now but we are accepting telephone bookings. Please be aware though that we are still running a limited Booking Office so the lines may be busy.

More details.

5:46 pm

Despite confirmation by the Westminster Government that fishing constitutes exercise, restrictions on movement remain in place with travel only permitted with your locality (village, town or area of city). This means that for the vast majority, fishing Passport beats is not possible within the rules and we have therefore decided to remain closed for the time being.

Please note that while Passport fisheries are closed they cannot be viewed on the Fishing Passport website, nor can their catch returns.

Once a date for the end of lockdown has been confirmed by Welsh and Westminster Governments, we will reopen the fisheies for bookings. For the latest information, please see the Wye & Usk Foundation's "COVID-19 Latest" webpage.

1:28 pm

The new lockdown in England proscribes any 'leisure or recreation.' This, along with the Tier 4 lockdown in Wales means that all Fishing Passport beats are closed until further notice. Advance bookings will not restart until confirmation of the easing of lockdown restirctions has been confirmed by the Westminster and Welsh Governments. For the latest information, please see the Wye & Usk Foundation's "COVID-19 Latest" webpage.

6:07 pm

COVID-19 Update

With the start of the 4-week lockdown in England yesterday and the end of the Welsh firebreak on Monday 9th, we have issued an update on Passport fishing which can be found here.

7:12 pm

COVID-19 UPDATE: Following the announcement today that a 2-week lockdown will begin in Wales from 6pm on Friday 23rd October, Welsh Fishing Passport beats will close for bookings during that time. See here for more details.

2:36 pm

COVID-19 Update - following the First Minister's announcement today of the lifting of travel restrictions from next week, we will begin to reopen Welsh Passport fisheries for online bookings as of Monday. Please bear with us as it may take a few hours to reopen all of them.