Feedback & Reports

17 trout 1/2 to 2.1/2 lb. All fish taken on or near the top on olive 'F'fly,parachute and nymphs fished wet fly style and black emergers size 14. Fish switching from one thing to another all day. Great beat, many pools and runs with easy access and wading, fish throughout. Two distinct types of trout, some golden brown with red spots the others silver bronze with non distinct black spots[smudges}. Most fish were at least a pound with the largest being of the silver variety. Honours about equal. Many different flies on the water, olives, March Browns, stoneflies, all in drips and drabs with an hour of more prolific black midges early afternoon. As always The Foundation were helpfull and efficient, thankyou.

Caught 12 brown trout (under 1lb) - generally on GRHE and pheasant tale nymph - mostly in the pools downstream from the car park . All returned. All seemed to follow the fly down with the current and take at the end. The fish were all about the same size - and a little dull in appearance compared with the best looking Usk trout. I suspect that they may have been recently stocked.

Missed/lost a few others in faster water - including a good sized trout.

Plenty of fish moving despite the cold weather - a hatch of something between 9 and 10 in the morning and again at 12. Saw a few mayflies on the water.

Also interesting to watch a mink returning repeatedly to her den [?] with fish in her mouth - presumably to feed young.

6 Trout 1/2lb - 1lb. Two on nymph (beaded hares ear & pheasant tail) rest on dry fly (grey bodied klinkhammer and parachute adams). Lots hatching between the rain showers.

4 brown 12-14oz on dry fly (parachute). River low & clear. sunny day, only fished till 6pm looking forward to returning to fish a full day asap. All fish returned.

VC - 6, GB - 3. Fish 1-2lbs All taken on dries, Klinks and CDC shuttlecocks. One fish of 3lb plus lost. A steady hatch of Grannom during the day grew to the snowstorm proportion around 6 pm when the wind fell away and it got noticably warmer. Sadly GB had just packed up when that occurred! Given the amount of Grannom hatching the numbers of fish rising were fairly small.

Warm clear day after a very cold night. Set up around 11am with good hatch of LDO & Grannom, both of which continued through to 5pm. Caught 1 to the net, a very healthy 1 1/4 lbs, returned. Missed loads including hooking and losing 2 very sizeable specimens. Fished the duo upstream most of the day. Fish were taking the surface fly and the nymph. Fantastic day!!

Glorious hot sunny day. The water temperature was extremely cold and although we saw the odd Olive hatching around 4 p.m. there were no trout moving to them. We never saw a rise all day, but thoroughly enjoyed our days fishing - we shall be back to renew the challenge!! Stunningly picturesque part of the world.

4 brown trout - 1lb 4oz, 1lb 3oz, 2lb, 2lb 8oz - all returned. 3 caught on copper john nymph, 1 on parachute adams (on the dropper).

Warm with hazy sunshine - glorious spring fishing. A few small duns hatching, but only saw 2 rises all day. All takes were in faster water (last May when I last fished here I caught fish in slower sections).

Blank. The first hot day of the spring. I was lucky enough to share the beat with season rod Stuart Jarvis, formerly gillie at Glanusk Park before he retired last year. We both fished a team of spiders with a beaded nymph on the point; Stuart fished the top half, I fished the lower, and neither of us had a touch all morning. No rises either. By the cars after lunch, Stuart was sitting in his folding chair puffing at his pipe, when he suddenly said: "I just saw a fish rise in the edge there. Look, there it is again." He was down on the shingle in a minute, drifting his beaded nymph onto the spot already fished and waded by me that morning, and after a quick preliminary tweak it came on solidly. I was able to net a beautifully conditoned hen fish of about 1.75 pounds for him (it didn't spawn according to Stuart) and after a photo and release we were back at the picnic area where I think his pipe was still burning. Which is not the first time I have seen Stuart produce a trout seemingly out of nowhere. After that we both carried on all afternoon, like the morning, without either of us taking a fish.

Otherwise, as the days of warm weather have continued during the week, the Usk seems to be gradually coming to life, at least in the middle of the day. There were rising fish early afternoon at Abergavenny on the 9th and I got a brace and lost a couple more; at Mardy on the 10th I got 5, including a lovely 18 inch fish which gave me a view of the backing for an anxious moment. Fly life has been mainly confined to large dark olives, with some very large stone flies on the upper river. No sign of the famous march browns, although I have my collecting vials all ready. Stuart reckons the ones I thought I saw in late April last year were actually turkey browns; he hasn't seen the true march brown at Glanusk for years. We'll see.

1 fish 3/4 lb returned goldhead ptn. Cold day but enjoyable.