Feedback & Reports

Plenty of water and clearing, no huge fish but lots of action. A lovely beat.

6 Trout

Four browns of c. 13, 9, 8 and 5", all on small mayfly patterns. Strange day of fishing as there were thousands of sedge, clouds of them swirling over many sections in the afternoon, yet the trout showed no interest in those whatsoever. I tried dry sedge patterns, nymphs and emergers under the surface too - not a bite on anything! The sedges didn't seem to be hatching though, I guess they were adults which returned from bankside vegetation where they had been sitting for much of the daytime. I waited until evening in the hope they would mate, hit the water to lay eggs and start a trout feeding frenzy, but aside from one or two females - which were not enough to really interest the trout - it didn't really happen. In fact they slowly melted away again so I would assume it didn't happen at night either, unless well into dark? Good to see though, shows the water quality must be pretty good? Instead, despite the mayfly species being outnumbered well over 100 to 1, it was the mayfly patterns that worked as a few of those were actually in the water and hatching... weird and confusing, but satisfying once I figured this out! Also some small fish taking something very small indeed - had a couple of bites on a size 22 Black and Badger but not sure that was close enough, too hard to hook as well on such a tiny fly!

Having fished here a good few times now it was also nice to bump into the farmer near one gate. It seems farmers often get a bad press in the media (and of course there are problems, especially with the big chicken farms around the Wye!), but there are great ones too who value wild areas and quietly do their bit, yet are too often forgotten about. So it was lovely to meet one of these who obviously cares about his local river as much as we anglers do, and moreover allows us to fish in this little bit of paradise. The Usk is a really beautiful river and this beat is a prime example for me - it's a privilege to fish it, so thanks again and I look forward to the next trip!

4 Trout

Washed off
3 hrs to drive there to find it raging through high and the colour of chocolate.
3 hrs drive back .nevermind

First time on this stretch and I loved it what a great bit of the Usk! Sunny scattered cloud 18-20oc so quite warm at times . Annoying strong downstream wind did its best to mess up a few dry fly drifts!

I ended up with 2 Browns on the nymph fished beneath a Klink small about 6 inch. Lost 1 on the nymph and had the best of the day on the dry fly superb colours nice dark spotted Brown trout nearly 10inches took a CDC Elk size 16. There were a good number of rising trout at times which was good to see and fish for. Unfortunately I found a dead Bat hanging from a hook attached to another 2 flies and orange indicator. Shame especially as it was in an easy to reach place to retrieve .
Will be back soon as I really liked the beat.
Thank you

3 Trout

torrential rain all day so very little activity on the water

The previous day's rain made the Usk like chocolate!
Conditions picked up as the day progressed but I was nearly finished by the time fish began to move.
I finally hooked one brute, but he smashed me!
That put the cap on a very disappointing weekend.

Couple of small browns to dries, a couple more off the hook but it was very tough today. Low and clear water so fish spooky to begin with; also an angler on the far bank who was a nice chap but think we probably hindered each other a bit in these conditions. Some BWOs and pale wateries began to hatch at times and one or two trout would start to rise, but then one of many light rain showers would come in and everything would shut down. There was light rain for much of the day but unfortunately this did not really seem to affect the river level - after a dry spell I guess all the surrounding plants in the catchment were soaking most of that up before it could reach the river, it needs more!

2 Trout

Usk low and clear after no rain in weeks and another hot day. Plenty of pools and pocket water to creep up on though. One 10” wbt on the wet in the morning. A couple of larger fish seen but not moved. Lots of lazy rises towards the evening, but don’t think I managed to figure out what they were taking! First time on the Usk, will definitely return..

1 Trout

Booked an evening ticket, but then found a new definition of torture as I sat in nose to tail traffic between Bristol and Cardiff - absolute agony, almost gave up and only arrived after 7! However at least the temperature was a lot cooler up in the Brecons as hoped from the forecast - only 19-20C while it was 26C below. On arriving at the river my luck changed as there was a smattering of BWOs hatching for the rest of the evening, some spinners later too. Lots of fish rising to them, in a short session fishing dries I caught three smallish ones (9, 10 and 11"), then connected with a hog that gave a proper scrap and nearly lost me under some roots. Photo attached, doesn't do him justice really as it was a bit dark under the trees and had to use flash with my mobile. Measured 19.75" to the tail fork, so obviously being a fisherman I'll round up to the magic 20 (he was 20 to the tip of the tail! :D). I didn't want to mess him around too much so didn't weigh, but sure he would have been 3lb, maybe a few ounces more as these Usk trout always go heavy on the size conversion charts. He went well back well along with the others. Thanks for another lovely session - short but sweet!

4 Trout

River very low and water very warm. Only managed to catch one small fish on a dry dropper setup.

1 Trout