Feedback & Reports

I travel in a camper car, parking was a nightmare, access to the river V difficult, lot of barb wire, very little fly life, saw no fish, weather cloudy but not cold, started with nymphs, then dry's when the sun came out for a little while,
But to no avail.

My first visit to the Senni. A peaceful scenic beat in a quiet valley, but I'm coming to detest barbed wire. Had hoped to start on the faster water below the parking at the bridge. However, there was no obvious way downriver to the start of the beat other than to wade there, with double fences running down to the river topped with the wretched stuff in the fields on the west side and close alongside the water on both banks, too high to step over without risking torn waders (despite coming armed with pipe lagging)! I expect to find natural obstacles on a wild stream and recognise the benefits of keeping stock out of the watercourse, but excluding anglers as well does seem counterproductive! Access upstream from the bridge is easier once the two watergates are circumvented and there are some attractive pools, a couple of which I judged too deep to safely wade through, even with chest waders, and again the proximity of the barbed wire fencing leaves little room to manoeuvre or to find a easy way back to the bridge at the end of the day. The water was low and clear with filamentous algae in the slower sections making for some slippery wading. I found an abundance of salmon parr splashing at the dry fly and mostly wriggling off the barbless hook. Trout were far less easy to find and although there was a fair amount of fly life with rises in the slower pools, I suspect most of these were parr, with just one positive sighting of a trout as it breached the surface after a mayfly. The calm conditions did make a stealthy approach difficult and progress slow and I left at dusk, a field short of the upstream limit, by following an escape route marked in the vegetation by another recent angler, who had left his footprints on the riverbed (there are no returns made for this beat since 2019).

5 Other

Well after nailing a long session of shifts , decided to give the Senni a crack , not fished this Usk tributary before , so was looking forward to giving it a go . . . .

Arrived at the bridge at ten, had a chat with the farmer who stopped on his quad bike for a natter, seemed quite keen on the fishing and a note for the WUF can you contact him , I think it may be reference some stock fencing !!!!!!

River did look a tad bit low , initially opting for a Parachute Adams , no takers on that , up the series of lovely pools below the bridge , so changed to a Parachute Iron Blue , success a small seven inch Senni brownie too hand , next pool another , again seven or eight inches , no real risers , and a mixed hatch showing from midday , nice to see . . . .

Came across a very deep pool , so worked a bead head PTN , nice savage hit on the nymph , again ditto in size, and in fact next long deep pool worked a nymph again, head of the pool splashy take to the nymph and a fish if about eight inches , lovely feisty fish quickly released. . . . . What I would say , is there doesn't appear to be a huge population of brownies here , and even with poloroids on scanning the pools walking back to my truck , no fish seen at all , but all the same an enjoyable four hours here and four pretty Senni brownies to the net , was 23 degrees when I got back to my truck , time for a well earned diet coke and a slow mosey back home . . . . Cracking stuff , give one of the Edw beats a bash tomorrow or Saturday . . . . . Lovely job !!!!!!

4 Trout

Having seen from the Natural Resources website that the Senni had had a rise in level after the recent rain, I thought I would take the long drive in the hope that the river would be refreshed. It was indeed flowing well, and very clear. Quite an assortment of flies hatching as well, so I was quite hopeful. However, despite various tactics could only land one at 10" on a tiny midge. Bit frustrating as the river looks very 'trouty', especially the lovely runs and pools on the bottom stretch up to the bridge.
Will try again. Did see Herons and Kingfishers which is always nice.

1 Trout

Small Parr caught - 5 @ 6 inches. No sign of any larger fish! Locals did not think there were any!

4 Other

Decided to spend a couple of hours on my local river, the Senny. It was a bright sunny day and the water was lowish so when I arrived at 10 AM I was not expecting a productive outing. I fished about half of the beat upstream of the bridge using a sedge pattern and then a PT nymph using a 6 ft 2 wt rod.. The access is a bit problematic because of vegetation growing over the intended access points. Also, the styles have barbed wire stretched over the upper rails, so bring some foam pipe insulation tubes if you decide to fish here. The banks are very overgrown and there is very little room between the fencing of the field and the bank drop off to the river so there was no option but to wade up the river. Despite my best efforts I managed to spook petty much all the fish in the stretch I explored. The fish I saw were all fingerling sized but it was encouraging to see legions of fry and the river looked very healthy with abundant insect life. As has been commented previously, there are a good many deeper pools which show every prospect of being able to harbour decent sized trout. The river itself is still very open thanks to the efforts of the volunteers a few years ago and it is perfectly feasible to get casts away. Owing to the overgrown and steep banks I felt the only option to return to my car was to wade back down the stream, thus spooking the fish back upstream. Overall, I was impressed with the potential of the Senni if only I could improve my ability to move stealthily upstream (or the banks are cleared of much vegetation). Perhaps Tenkara would be a better technique to employ here?

Water clear with some fish rising in the late afternoon above the bridge. Used wet & dry small river patterns but no takes.

Went up for an evening fish, arrived 6.30 pm. Very cloudy & quite windy. Pools almost stagnant. Spooked a few fish but none seemed big. Salmon parr everywhere, pecking at dry flies. Landed just one 6 inch trout. Moved on to Crai after an hour, knowing there are more and bigger fish there.

1 Trout

A dozen WBT, mostly small with largest at 10". Light breeze and 14-15 Deg. A constant although sparse hatch throughout the day, but not a significant amount of rising fish. All fish were brought up to an Adams dry on 3WT. The beat divides in two. Below the parking comprises a run of small pools which were great fun and made the morning fly-by. After lunch I fished up above the parking which starts more meandering with some lengthy pools and a couple of really dark, deep pools too. There are much bigger fish here than I caught today!

12 Trout

Blank - just a short visit after work. very bright, breezy with no fly life. Only one tiny trout seen. It is however a very good beat in terms of habitat- weed, deep pools and lots of cover. One for mid summer to late season when it properly warms up and some fish have moved up from the Usk.