Feedback & Reports

SM & PH tempted 9 WBT using PTN fished deep. When fish started rising, spiders and CDC emergers proved successful. River coloured from heavy rain a few days prior and running fast. Access is difficult along much of this beat and quite hazardous in some areas.

9 Trout

Just trout. Fishing made very difficult as the owners of beat had heavy machinery working on the edge of the river throughout the day; fish not that keen on JCBs. Upside is that access to the river will be improved along the short section worked on.

1 Trout

River was fairly high and the pools were pretty deep. A little colour to the water. Not much fly life evident.
One brown trout caught in the morning on a Parachute emerger. Three missed fish on Black Gnat and Holy Grail nymph. One chub hooked by mistake in the afternoon on the nymph. Three canoes passed through the beat in the afternoon which diturbed things somewhat!

WUF note - There is no canoe agreement in place on this section of river so please report any sighting to us.

1 Trout, 1 Chub

We were well looked after at the Royal Lodge Hotel at Symonds Yat East. Thursday was a warm and sunny day. The river looked very inviting with an occasional LDO hatching off, but despite our combined persistence with dries and nymphs we finished up fishless. The salmon fishers that we spoke to at the hotel were similarly placed but we had all enjoyed being out in wonderful surroundings on a great day. Thanks for the reminder about the catch return.

2 Trout

My first visit to the Monnow, and what a lovely introduction it was. A brisk wind in the morning made it feel very cold, but sunny spells in the middle part of the day sent me rushing to strip off layers and enjoy the (relative) warmth.
The beat is moderately overgrown, but access isn't really a problem and there are few thorn bushes to tear waders. The odd overhanging branch makes casting tricky in places, but hugely satisfying when you get it right.
Good variety of water and an abundance of small eels were seen in the faster, shallow sections.
I started at 9.30 am, nothing was moving on the surface so I went for weighted nymphs, connecting with a lovely brownie of about 13" or 14" on a soft hackle PTN after some fast water on the lower half of the beat. Lost a couple on a weighted caddis pupa before bringing a little 6" brownie to hand.
A light hatch of olives began around 1.30pm which sent me rushing to change leaders. I saw a single trout rising, but in my haste to change fly and cover him I made a hash of the cast and scared him off. No more surface activity seen and no interest in various olive patterns or searching dries. Went back to nymphs with no joy until a strong wind and burst of rain at 4pm encouraged me to call it a day. Both trout released.

2 Trout

Still very slow fishing!

2 Trout

2 Grayling

Fly life a bit sparse and fishing a bit slow, at least on dry fly ... maybe should have tried harder with nymphs. All fish taken on a size 16 olive pattern.

3 Trout

Had a lovely day although no fish caught, few trees but a great place. Tried numerous ptn flies but water very cold and no fish seen at all during the day, river running quite high. Will return when warmer.