Feedback & Reports

Had a lovely and very sociable day on the riverbank at the kind (as ever) invitation of owner. River was at 0.9m, reasonable colour but rising slowly. Saw approximately 8 salmon on the day, all runners I suspect.
They completely ignored the offerings of 6 competent salmon anglers till the curtain came down on another season frustratingly soon. Just 2 feisty 1lb trout caught. Best wishes to every one. See you next year.

2 Trout

A good day, however no fish seen or caught.

Last blog for the Monday rods. Allowed Rupert Banks to fish the day with us and what a red letter day for him, landing one trout on a cascade fishing for salmon followed by two salmon at Woodstream. The first was a good fish of 8lb, the second a monster 23lb cock fish which was released. (See ID 18772 report)
John Lewis caught and released a 15lb hen taken above the Rock on a single hook yellow/copper FC.
I had no luck!!! 3 fish for our last Monday of the season. Look forward to next season.
Well done Rupert!!

1 Salmon

Thanks must go to Lynn Thomas for encouraging me to fish Chainbridge today rather than somewhere else.
Within 20 minutes of starting to fish I landed a clean 8lb hen fish on a Red Francis Brass tube fly. Later in the day and after a 35 minute battle a 38.5" Cock fish, estimated at 23lb was landed on fly again, this time a Cascade, to complete a truly memorable day. My first and second Usk Salmon.

2 Salmon

Water was at 1mtr on gauge when we started at 1pm. We started at the Rock Pool with flying c's. 2 trout took them but no salmon. After two hours moved below the bridge and watched an angler on beat below land and release a good fish. A few salmon were showing and the water was falling and clearing when we left. Prospects look good for rest of week if we don't get another rise in water levels.

2 Trout

Arrived at dawn. River at 1.02m dropping slowly, colour just fishable. Had a few hours below bridge, saw 2 fish show well below the cables. Then spent a most enjoyable few hours with J.H. from Monmouth (a successful and very regular rod on the river) and osmosed a wealth of knowledge and tips from him.
Fished Rock for a few hours with just one hard pull on the dangle, but no other fishy contact. Thunderstorm dropped a pile of debris in the river. After hooking a leaf on six successive casts, retired defeated for a warming cup of tea with J.W.

At last some water, however was like chocolate. Fished all morning with fly as river was dropping. Thunderstorm and heavy rain at lunchtime so sheltered in car for an hour. Switched to spinner for afternoon but river started to rise rapidly and soon became impssible to fish. Ended up fishing from second step at the rock pool as all bank flooding.

Once again a beautiful day in the countryside. River clear and off the bottom end of the gauge. More trout visible and rising (obviously aware of the close season!). Enjoyed heckling each others speycasting, which is coming on in leaps and bounds. Three coloured grilse showed from cables downwards, but in slack water were unimpressed by small spinners. No fish but in two weeks we will be ruing the long wait 'til next season.

River off the bottom end of the gauge. A lovely sunny day in beautiful surroundings. Saw 3 red grilse showing in cables/oaks area. Water too slack for fly. Ignored efforts with small spinners. Had a nice afternoon on Rock drinking coffee and heckling each other's improving speycasting.

What a day to finish the trout season. Water v low and clear at .37m so elected to fish for trout as did John Lewis. I fished dry for first hour from 12 midday as fish were rising with John on subsurface nymph. John had one and a few tugs on the nymph with no fish for me on a succession of dry flies.
I switched to a green/yellow deer hair sedge on the point and a green/black size 14 waterhen bloa on the dropper down the wood stream which yielded 14 fish, mainly large salmon par and one brown of 8oz. John has another 2 par on a single black and silver nymph. Temp dropped sharply at 4pm and no further success but good day's sport.
Looks like some rain Sun/Mon but unlikely to be enough for Salmon.

17 Trout