Feedback & Reports

Taught to take a walk of the full beat before setting up. At top of beat decided to set up and discovered my 4 piece rod was now 3. Several retrace of riverbank-fruitless! If anyone finds a rod-tip from a Sage 8'6" 3 1/2 oz copper coloured rod?
Upset, not deterred, I set up my 3 piece 'stick' with a team of PTN's, and in the tail end of several pools took 3 nice (average 1lb) trout. Raised a few more but setting the hook was problematic! Weather dry/warm with low water and little emerging with even fewer rises I'll be back! Sportsfish shop tomorrow for new rod.

3 Trout

We both fished fly, mainly dry but also New Zealand style with a trailing nymph below the dry fly. It was on the nymph I caught the grayling. The water was quite high and there was much of the beat we could not fish because it was too deep. But on the wide gravel beds we managed to fish. There was a mayfly hatch along with yellow may duns, pale wateries and many sedge flies. The river bed was carpeted with salmon fry in the tens of thousands!

4 Trout, 1 Grayling

Dry fly with and without NZ style produced no result. Two fish were to black spider. Cold wind meant no surface activity although there were a variety of upwinged flies coming off. Water crystal clear and quite low.
Nice to see a river relatively free of himalayan balsam although there were one or two small patches. Hopefully these won't be allowed to spread further.

2 Trout

Nice day fishing. Difficult at times but rose to dry flies, average 12 inches.

6 Trout

Two great days, first ever river fishing experience. River still cold and fly activity only apparent after 13:00. Much evidence of small brownies and many afternoon rises to fly (suspected mockery)but too difficult a catch for beginners. Donated multiple flies including the much heralded local fly the "Dai Bach" to the bankside trees and slipped on the slate bottom of the river. Two otters spotted at end of the beat by the church and this cant be doing stocks much good. Wonderful beat for casting tuition and for first river experience. Stayed in Hendre Farm at the end of the beat and this gave Grandad easy vehicle access to the river bank. A great week-end and thankfully the weather was kind. A beautiful river in a beautiful setting.

Weather report suggested that we would be rained off but with some excellent advice from Allison, we kept an eye on the river levels (http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/) the river dropped over night to a fishable level (below 700mm).
Day was overcast, and very little fly life was seen. No fish were rising. 1 small Brown caught & 1 Lost, near the old Church on hare’s ear nymph.
Nice stretch of river lots of different conditions - though wading difficult in a lot of area due to water level. We would return again later in the summer.

1 Trout

River very low and clear. Fly fishing only - mainly using dry fly. Small grayling caught on dry fly.
Very few fish spotted - contrary to years ago when the river held a good stock of trout and grayling. We wondered whether the prescence of otters in the river is having a detrimental effect on fish stocks?
WUF Note: We would caution against assuming low stocks of fish if nothing is seen. This is quite often the case in low, clear water conditions, especially when nothing much is hatching.

1 Grayling

First time on this beautiful beat. No fish moved or seen at all the whole day, except a 40 meter long, slow moving flat section about the middle of the beat, where grayling fed from the surface almost continuously in the afternoon. 5 caught on Adams 10-12 inch, but takes on spider as well. Several lost.
Regarding access to the water - had no problem at all. Only disappointment is the amount of rubbish.

5 Grayling

A tragic blank from me today. Absolutely lovely water, however my mistake was to try and work through all of it rather than to single out on the promising spots. I saw fish rise at the head of 2 of the pools. Some fly live, although poor by River Usk standards. A lot of technical riffle water elsewhere, especially on the upstream half of the beat. Apart from that there wasn't much clear activity, although it was a cloudless sky, so that never helps.

First visit to this beat, and was welcomed by a huge otter which we watched feeding for 5 minutes in the lower part of the stretch. In fact, throughout the day, the wildlife was out in force. Saw many Kingfishers, Butterflies and a variety of Flies coming off, mainly Olives but saw a few Grannom making an early appearance. Despite this, the fish were not overly keen to rise, and we had to work hard and cover a lot of water to find them. The best fish being a 2 and a half pound Trout which took a tiny Duster with the most subtle of takes.

6 Trout, 2 Grayling