Feedback & Reports

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.

Got here late afternoon. Fished only 40 minutes in all. Missed a nice trout at the Rocks. Caught a parr in fast water at Wood Stream on hut side. Small nymphs, down and across. Grannom hatching aplenty.

Struggled in low clear water conditions. Fished for trout only as far too low for Salmon. Landed and returned four small trout between us fishing sub surface with nymphs and grannom pattern. Good hatch of sizeable grannom 1-3pm but little else. Cloudy 13deg 0.48m.

Fly fishing for trout took 2 trout of 10 oz on floating line with subsurface nymphs. Both returned.

No fish caught