Feedback & Reports

River only 5 inches above summer level. Good day on dry flies using tupps and adams to land 7 trout of 7 oz to 1.25 lb mainly at or below the rock. Lost one over 2lb at the rock sill on an upstream cast tupps 14. Weather dry and overcast.

Water 0.4m with slight colour. Fished for salmon as one of around 8lb showed several times below the rock at the Rockpool. Hooked a large salmon par on the Cascade, but only succeeded in driving the salmon back into the belly of the pool, where it showed itself once more. Fished for trout as several may duns and one or two mayfly on the water. Landed and returned four trout of around 12 oz on the dry 14 tups but driving wind and sharp drop in temperature curtailed the late evening rise which was disappointing.

Water dirty from earlier heavy showers. Lots of drift weed made life difficult. Fished for trout only and caught 3 on weighted nymph subsurface.

Fishing curtailed by heavy thunderstorms. Too risky to fish after 3 pm due to lightning.

No fish caught. River very low, very little rising even with large amounts of insect life on the surface. Access at lower end of beat below bridge inaccessable, extremly steep bank side and too overgrown to be able to fish. Tried to gain access to lower Trout pools through stream running into river, but not possible either. Spoke with Beat master, very helpful and friendly chap. Would visit again when water level back up.

Fantastic beat with some lovely pools and gravel glides. The top section of the beat in particular is one long gravel glide of knee to waist depth (in low water!). Fish were rising all day as it was generally overcast, warm and quite still. Landed 18 fish and lost a further 4-5. A couple of fish were 5-6", the rest were all 9-12". Most of the fish took either a large size 12 Wyatt's deer hair emerger, or small size 16-18 Adams. Saw a couple of fish, including one that swam past literally four feet away, that were 2lb+. Some of the beat is quite deep and can't be waded, however this no doubt creates ideal habitat for larger trout. Was preparing for an epic spinner fall in the evening with the air thick with small olives and a few true mayflies. However, bang on dusk a storm rolled in and everything retreated back to the leaves and trees!

Disappointed by this beat, the longer stretch below the bridge is long slow wide and in most cases deep, even with current very low water levels, devoid of any features or structure in the water. If fish are rising, probably some good fishing below the bridge where access seems better, but difficult stretch for nymphing. Access on the rh bank hampered by deep bank and remains of trees in water Saw the fish of a lifetime basking in the shade, unfortunately not accessible, are they ever?

My knowledge of salmon fishing is limited so my perspective is purely as a trout fisherman

Reasonable run above the bridge with a nice tail, caught 8 inch brown on GRHE and 2 salmon par . Two hours of fishing tops. Went of for a pint, came back at three , fished it again. Caravan park at head of this stretch , risk of stone throwing and paddling children !

Plenty of flies about some olives at lunch time , no fish feeding on the surface

Also booked for following day, decided to book somewhere else , ever helpful Wye and Usk team arranged Penpont for me .

Stayed at the Bear in Crickhowell overnight , very nice.

Blazing day. Deep wading. Lovely location. But blanked. Still getting to grips with Usk tactics. Great grannom rise 10-11 plenty of decent fish about but not for my sedge, CDCs, dusters, tups, iron blues, or later, PTNs or Hare's Ears. Hard work!

First time on this beat. A few grannom and olives but not many fish moving to them (same further upstream towards Abergavenny) in the hot, bright conditions. Just 3 trout, biggest 7" to cdc emerger patterns. I will return to fish the beat when the weather is better. The top half looked potentially great trout water.

Fished 11am - 3pm. Warm, spring day. Water clear and at a good height. Lots of Grannom around and trout rising when I arrived. Finished up with 4 trout from 8"-16", all caught on dry flies. Two from above the bridge, two from below. Nice beat, although deep wading required.

5 x trout 11 - 17 inches, spiders, Super Pupa and Roman Moser's Emerging Caddis. My first time on this beat, which will probably repay taking some time to understand, although I do fish Kemys downstream. Chainbridge has a well-deserved reputation for salmon and the Rock Pool looks like a great bit of salmon fly-fishing. For the man with a trout rod: well, a more than usually frustrating grannom hatch, missing many more fish than hit, the fly coming off in waves until the water looked like soup with the empty caddis shucks. At 5 o'clock, always worth waiting for, the spectacular sight of the females migrating upstream like a column of smoke. I didn't touch the lower pools recommended for trout, due to a persistent half gale blowing up the stretch and a friendly WUF team busily coppicing the bank. Other fauna seen: a very large grass snake swimming across the river, which turned back on spotting me - a sight which used to be common along with the little water vole, but not in recent years. Plus lots of salmon parr, some of which are already showing signs of adopting their silvery smolt coats.