Feedback & Reports

The conditions for fishing were pleasant with a reasonable flow of clear water. I did see one fish moving upstream but apart from a tentative tug, probably from a trout, it was a quiet first day out for me.

First fly fishing experience on a major Welsh river, the Usk at Penpont. Safe parking on site and v close to fishing..
River, I'm told, was slightly up after some rain in recent days. Occasional rises only. Probably saw no more than half a dozen trout on the half mile of beat I tried to cover. Highlight was targeting and landing one wbt c. 3/4 lb, which fought very well, on Klink and cdc point fly. Aiming to find out more about the best beats on the Usk for larger populations of wbt.

1 Trout

2 Other

9 x trout 10-13 inches, Monnow Gosling, Mohican Mayfly. Actually a quieter river than I expected with no really big hatch of any kind this afternoon. However, the odd mayfly dun was on the water and the occasional trout was waiting in ambush. Having something visible to go at is most of the battle, particularly so on this beat.

9 Trout

Lovely days fishing, but sadly no Salmon caught. The river was perfect at this beat, albeit a bit low.
Very few trout rising. There was a small hatch of Olives and the odd Mayfly. My thoughts are that no Salmon are in this beat, even though there was a rise in river levels in the earlier part of the week. A sustained rise in water levels for at least a week is required. Dippers making their presence obvious on the river and even a Hare showed interest at my car.
Good day again Denis

37" hen fish on an Usk grub

1 Salmon

River 0.48m on the Bredwardine guage and dropping, and a nice tea colour after the rain earlier in the week. Great to be out again having not fished a river for the last week and so grabbed a few hours in the morning on the local beat before the wind really got up later in the afternoon. Fish rising on arrival at 9 a.m. and the odd one still doing so when I had to leave at 1 p.m. In spite of olives, YMs, the odd OU, sedges, midge, gnat and a few Danica providing a diverse potential bill of fare, fish appeared primarily to be taking the olives, as all fish were taken on a size 16 Universal Baetis Ducks Dun( see Gwent AS website if interested in tying details). OU, YM and mayfly patterns passed unmolested! Judging by WUF's catch returns, and reports from GAS on the Usk, the rivers at last seem to have woken up, now that the cold easterlies that plagued us for much of the last month seem to have gone. Fish ranged from 10, 12, 14 to 16" with two of the latter +/- 1.75lb.

14 Trout

A quick evening session hoping to see some Mayfly. Fished 19.00 to 21.00 and no Mayfly seen.
Plenty of BWO spinners and a few Sedge. Some rising fish but most caught prospecting the tails of the runs. 6 Trout to a small IOBO.

6 Trout

An embarrassing blank on what should have been an excellent day.
Arrived in sunshine with a light breeze down stream, plenty of swallows swooping over the bay and a good hatch. I made my way down the beat and on arrival, found fish taking off the surface. As I set up the breeze got stronger, and as always this year it was downstream. The water was fast so I fished a size 14 klinkhammer, and on the second cast had a fish on then off again. For the next hour I had numerous fish rise and lost eight, some of which were a very good size. I can't say why I was losing them, possibly because of that wind hampering my presentation. There was then a very heavy shower, which had hail stones, so I switched to nymph, but no takers. Every time the wind dropped the fish came back on the surface, and I switched so many times from dry to wet. Right at the end of the day I lost another fish this time hooked on a nymph, after many expletives I went home. Really nice beat, fish a good average size, will return for definite.