Feedback & Reports

14 x trout 10-12 inches, standard Adams. A very discouraging start with the river, not up by much, but extremely thickly coloured - maybe 6 inches visibility - and very few rises. I came across just three before lunch: missed one, pricked one, caught one. But as afternoon wore on towards evening, although the water remained coloured, all sorts of fly life - midges, small caddis, medium/small olives, yellow may, early damsels - became apparent and fish began to rise more regularly until the fishing became quite busy. A few true mayfly around from late afternoon, but I only saw one trout reacting to the big white flies. What they really wanted were the olives, so I stayed with the Adams all through as it was getting takes consistently. There were a couple of larger fish came off in play, as they do, but nobody wants to hear that sad story again....

15 x trout 10-15 inches, mostly on a Parachute Adams. There are a couple of advantages to this very low water. Firstly you can explore the river bed in detail to the advantage of later fishing in more normal flows. And secondly you can wade through places you would never get through normally and fish them. In fact it turned out to be a very nice dry fly day. And, guess what - the mayfly is up! A few began to hatch off about 4 pm and after a bit a couple of trout began to react with those lovely "ker-splosh" rises. I have another report of mayfly from the middle Usk. 3rd May is very early, but everything seems to be early this spring after the heat-wave weather.

Water low and clear, bright sun all day. Two small brown trout, one fell off at the bank! Both on the holy grail. There were a few fish rising, but no takes from the top. I'm not the greatest fly caster and found the overgrown conditions difficult so did not really cover the rising fish, a better caster would have caught more I'm sure. A really nice beat that could be much improved by some major bank work.

4 beautiful Brown Trout all returned, 1 x 12 inches, 3 x 8 inches, all caught on upstream dry fly, rose 3 or 4 more in brigh conditions. Didn't see huge numbers of fish showing, however with a fair amount of fly life on the water there was occasional activity. Will certainly return for another go at some stage of the seasoon. Access to the river not fantastic, however managed to fish all the likely looking spots on the beat.

One 10" grayling to a ptn. One trout about 11" to a klinkhammer. Also a couple of missed chances on the klink. A misty overcast day with little sign of insect life and not many rises. Hoping for the sun to break through, but it never did. River fairly clear and at summer level, so relatively easy wading.

Three small browns caught and released safely, each around 10". Two to an olive sedge and one to a PTN. All taken sub-surface in pools downstream of riffles. No rises seen. Exhausting beat - access remains very difficult with probably only a third of the one mile of river fishable. Best water is upstream of parking spot. I wouldn't fancy it when the brambles and undergrowth have taken hold later in the year.

Quite a cold day. Could not see any fish rising and found access to the river very difficult in many places. No fish, just not our day. Would not return until access is improved

1 x 11 inch grayling, 2 x out of season trout 10 and 14 inches. A search for the elusive grayling with the trotting rod, and a difficult day really, although I am not quite sure why. The Monnow looked to be in excellent condition.

2 trout 6-8 inches taken on mayfly and 3 very small grayling. Very pleasant day, if a little cold, but with very few takes.

A pleasant days fishing, although I failed to connect with any fish, I must be getting old! Managed to provoke a few takes on a CDC emerger pattern, access difficult as usual but not impossible and its always good to work for your fishing! I was also somewhat surprised and disappointed to have the company of a pair of cormorants on the beat!