Feedback & Reports

Nothing caught.

5 x trout 13-15 inches, spiders. A last minute diversion to the middle Usk after the upper Wye rose a foot and muddied up during the night. As you might perhaps guess, these were taken during a large dark olive hatch between 1.30pm and 3.00pm. Generally speaking, rather than a sudden and intense spring olive hatch which lasts 15 minutes, I would prefer a sparse hatch of fly over a longer period - this was one of the latter. For the rest of the day, the river might have been empty.
I have to say that, so far, we have all been finding this a really tough spring and very slow to start for trouting. I think it was JH from Surrey reporting on 14th March who wondered whether the tributaries would not warm up first and be the best place to start? There are always exceptions, but my own experience is the opposite: that we usually find the main stems come on to fish first first, the Usk tending to be a little in advance of the Wye, then the upper rivers and medium size tributaries, and finally the brooks, the high altitude ones being last of all to warm up. But, as I have already said, this cold spring is an exceptionally tough one. Don't worry; warm weather will get here sooner or later.

5 Trout

1 x 14 inch trout, Waternen Bloa. Usk was very low and clear, and this was the day the cold weather arrived, an icy wind from the east resulting in steadily dropping temperatures. Still, by lunchtime I had hopes that a large Dark Olive hatch might produce some sort of result. So I sat down out of the wind to watch a likely spot, and eventually the little grey sailing boats appeared one by one on the surface. I had counted up to 20 by the time I realised that no trout had risen to them and I eventually concluded they weren't likely to on this occasion. So I moved to a pool tail upstream where it seemed the trout were interested and managed to get just one before the hatch and rises ceased for the day. And that, as they say, was that.

1 Trout

Nil caught or seen.

Good river condition and good weather but no trout caught. One salmon jumped, one cormorant seen. Despite that, a good day out. Thanks.

A beautiful day. Nil catch.

The river was so high that fishing was very difficult. However, 2 brown trout caught with flies and released as they were too small. Thanks.

Heavy rain on arrival did not fish til afternoon. Water heavily coloured from heavy rain, still having travelled from London for the week I had to have a cast. Not a sniff, never mind had a lovely walk along the whole beat and saw some very interesting wildlife.

A guided day with the thoroughly recommended Oliver Burch. Half a dozen small WBT came to spiders mainly the Hare's Lug and Plover on point in the quicker water during the heat of the day. At dusk we landed a 15" trout which rose to an Elk Hair Caddis. This beat has a great variety of water but you can expect to share it with other anglers, which to be fair is reflected in the competitive price. What I hadn't anticipated was the number of bathers but on a hot day in the school holidays you could hardly blame the local youths for enjoying their river too.

3 very small trout, all returned. Water rising and by late afternoon it was nearly too high for fly fishing. I will come again, a nice water to fish in better conditions.