Feedback & Reports

Beautiful March day, warm and sunny after a very wet number of weeks. First trip to the Usk.
Four trout hooked on tight line nymphs but only three landed, best 14".
The one and only fish I found rising fell to a retirer sedge. Muted hatch of March browns and BWO.

4 Trout

1 Barbel, 7 Chub

walked the beat o look for changes, had a couple of casts, no good

River was high and pushing through fast. Still some visibility, but most of the river was inaccessible- even with chest waders - not safe to wade upstream as normal.
Did manage 2 trout on the euro rod whilst searching for grayling.

This stretch is great if you can wade. Those without waders or in conditions like today perhaps choose somewhere else. Bank access is poor and badly maintained

2 Trout

Fished down the bottom for day 2, 4 chub came out of the bottom pool on boilie and meat, all 3 to 4lbs, tried 4 other swims where ropes helped access, no luck.
Beautiful stretch, many thanks

4 Chub

A reasonable day with two decent Barbel coming our way, both on pellet.

2 Barbel

I walked the beat in as much as that was possible and decided not to fish. I was disappointed to find that access was pretty awful due to debris and fallen vegetation from the winter floods not having been cleared and the water was too high and fast for productive fishing, especially as it is a left bank fishery with much of the depth being on our side of the river. Frankly it didn’t feel safe and I fished the Usk a lot so it take a lot to put me off . I’m sure that this is a lovely beat in late spring and summer but one to avoid at this time of year and with this much water about. I cut my losses and went to a different beat.

After abandoning my Upper Tower booking, I headed to Abercynrig. The water was a tad high but running pretty clear with a slight tinge. Very little fly life with only a few LDOs in sight. There was pretty cold gust that didn’t help. I managed 4 trout on a spider and nymph combo and bumped a few off so all in all, a successful day considering the circumstances. Great to be back on the water despite the chilly and wet conditions.

4 Trout

My alarm at waking up to snow on Saturday morning proved to be justified. The river temp was 5.8 having been 10 degrees only 2 weeks previous. So this coupled with the overnight frost trumped the nice looking flow and colour in the river and we really struggled. Fished the bottom 2 slacks and 4 swims further up with GB and maggot feeders with all manner of hookbaits to no avail. Both chub fell to JC on straight lead and meat from swims with nothing fed. The cold rain scared us off before 1600. One last go next week.....

2 Chub

Chainbridge was lightly fished on the Sunday 3 March, Monday and Tuesday. River was high at around 1.5m with OK visibility. At these levels we fished from the bank and from a couple of rocky promontories . We used skagit type lines with heavy sink tips to deal with the fast water and severely limited back space. One good trout was caught on the salmon rod.

A great few hours were spent with friends ; fishing , banter , a bite to eat , a sighting of maybe an otter? My batteries have been charged to 100%. Here’s to a good season.

On this trip, I took the train from London, 3 hours from my door to Abergavenny. Got a lift from there and stayed at Pantygoitre farm .