Feedback & Reports

Beautiful day, perfect river conditions and big Mayfly hatch later in the afternoon but very little interest and hardly any fish rising, which was disappointing. Still a great day and my companion hooked a 3" brown trout on his very first river fly fishing experience, so that made the day :0)

1 Trout

This is a beautiful beat with good parking and easy access. In the first hour we both had fish. One Brown Trout and one Grayling, both to heavy nymphs and from deeper, swifter water. However, that early promise wasn’t sustained. The river was surprisingly low and running clear. The day was bright and warm. Plenty of insect life but very few fish were seen feeding. Between us we tried dries big and small, nymphs at various depths and teams of wets. During the rest of the day two more Trout were winkled out. One large Grayling and two further Trout wriggled off before being netted. A tough and rather frustrating day - but that’s fishing.

2 Trout, 1 Grayling

Hot and bright. This is a really lovely stretch of the Monnow that I fished and waded carefully for a couple of hours or so in the morning, trying to keep out of the sun, sheep sheltering by the water with the same motivation. I shall certainly return before the season is through.
Not very much fly life, occasional Mayfly, sedges , the bright yellow mayfly (heptagenidae) .
But then I saw a small rise at the head of a pool - not the one where the brook enters but further downstream. I chucked my Mayfly pattern and waited and was taken by a monster! Fully 2+ pounds - it was longer than the opening in my wooden net! It was one of the best wild brown trout I have seen, beautifully marked, deep and wide, quite the best fish I have caught on the Monnow. And I must say it gave a real test to my 6ft split cane 3wt rod! A great morning .

1 Trout

Unfortunately nothing caught or seen. water level has dropped significantly in the last few weeks & there was a lot of disturbance by visitors eg. stone throwing & dogs, this will increase next week during half term.

Bright sun and low water made for difficult conditions. No salmon seen all day.

Warm sunny day with occasional cloud and light breeze. The river seemed to be running at a nice level, and appeared to have a little colour in it, probably from the showers the previous day.
Fished from the bottom of the beat to just above the bridge, fishing dries all day with black clink hammer being the most successful.
Six brownies to hand, between 6 and 8 inches, missed and lost quite a few more. Most of the fish coming from slower water, this gave them plenty of time to suss out my fly and shy away at the last second!
Lovely beat except for the one very large tree on the lower half that was difficult to get past, required a bit of climbing!
There is also what looks to be an otter holt on the lower part of the beat too, didn't seem to affect the fishing

6 Trout

Only fished for 2 hours around lunchtime.Very hot and sunny.No rising fish seen

All small and caught on dry f-flies

1 Trout, 2 Grayling

Bright sun and gin clear water probably not the best recipe for catching salmon! Plenty of fly water available at this height (0.35m on Ross gauge). Plenty of chub around including some in the 5lb+ range

1 Chub