Feedback & Reports

Weather was good overcast with occasional sunny spells, river at .56 on the Ross gauge. Mick the Ghillie was brilliant with
his help and advice to put me in the right places to catch my first ever salmon. Had a fish show in the Vanstone in the morning and another after lunch at the stones (Possibly the same fish running through?) my inexperience didn't help
and a better caster of the Fly may have had a chance but still an enjoyable day and have learnt a lot about this beat from Mick, so will return and have another go.

Firstly many thanks to Mick the gillie who availed his services for the morning and was immensely helpful in showing me the main pools and lies and much sound advice, I highly recommend any rods contact him especially if fishing the beat for the first time.

Some stunning fly water in a delightful setting spoiled only by the armadas of canoes which I didn’t expect midweek and not at 6:30am !

Fished through all main pools with fly and then spinner but no fish seen or contacted other than a brace of chub which caused fleeting excitement

Water was steady at about 0.6 on the Ross gauge - Mick advised fishes better with warmer , lower water (0.5 and below)so will return when such conditions prevail !

2 Chub

Nil return. No fish seen.

Further rain yesterday had caused a rise to 0.98m on the Ross gauge for the morning. Visibility was around 3 to 4 foot and we fished the Stones and Vanstone. After a lengthy lunch away from the river we fished for a couple of hours in the afternoon but visibility deteriorated and the river rose to 1.3m. One shad or seatrout hooked on a spinner but no other action.

After last week's heavy rain it was always a bit of a race to see if the river would be at a fishable height by Good Friday. The Ross gauge was at 1.22 when I arrived at the river and, it turned out, this was still about 50cm too high, especially for the fly. I fished the lower half of the beat for 2-3 hours but the problem was as much the fact that the convenient walkway was still submerged which made footing insecure and progress difficult. By midday, I decided to drive up to Skenfrith to check out the Monnow...

River really too high. No fish caught.

River quite high

Approx 12lb hen fish from Maddox.

1 Salmon

Great to see Mick he is full of good advice and even on a beat that was short of fish found a couple that showed but would not take. He guidance on lines flies and choice of where to fish saves a lot of time. Thank you Mick see you next year.

1 Chub

No fish. One coloured fish showed bottom of the beat and a smaller fresher fish top of beat.