Feedback & Reports

According to Nathan, the very helpful ghillie who met us with a lovely cup of tea at the hut, the river was in perfect nick. Bang on height, decent clarity, a tad cold to be fair but an overcast day, so no bothersome sunlight ... the trouble is that the place was devoid of fish! Absolutely as dead as a doornail, which was a shame there is some lovely water, particularly for the fly along 'Little Run' pool and 'Cockpit'. There is also one other thing visiting anglers should note. Although 'Cadora' is listed as one of the best spots on the beat, apparently if the members fishing the other bank are on Cadora, then you are not allowed to fish it! It causes trouble we were told. However, this ought to be pointed out in the blurb as technically it could be construed as mis-description of the beat.

Cold and windy day with showers on a low and clear Monnow. No signs of fish moving, and no success with nymphs in the pools or head of pool runs. Brief sunshine at 4.00pm saw a few flies emerge and a couple of splashy rises in one pool, but could not tempt them either. So, a blank but at least back on the river again!

Blank. This beat has been fished fairly hard in recent days and weeks and has produced some salmon. I fly-fished it as assiduously as possible, but no joy this time, although a large trout from Island Stream was some consolation. For once it was a day of good conditions (for fishing), cloudy with some drizzle, although the cold wind came back in the afternoon. Fish showed in most of the pools. And, believe it or not, not one single canoe came through.

Arrived expecting a difficult day as temperatures were forecast to fall dramatically. Found the river to be very low but this enabled me to get into the river right at the very start of the beat which I've never managed on previous visits. I'm glad I did as there were a number of trout rising to small gnats flitting across the surface, however it soon became obvious they were going to be difficult to tempt given the flat calm, slow moving shallow water and they slowly disappeared, time to move on.
At least lunchtime a few olives started to emerge but the fish only responded when they were joined by a brief but substantial hatch of March Browns, I then took a nice fish of about 12" on a dry fly. The weather then took a turn for the worse so I headed back but by the time I reached the first field again it had improved so I spent a very pleasurable hour or two dry fly fishing taking another reasonable trout and somehow missing three others before the wind got up colder than ever and the rain started, time to call it a day and head for the B&B.
A difficult but very enjoyable day on this wonderful beat, thank you WUF.

2 Trout

Fished from 2pm til dusk. Few fish rising at the downstream limit of the beat but we couldn't tempt them. 4 taken from the faster water on nymphs. A hatch of upwings with some rising fish for about an hour started at 18.30 and we managed to take the rest on a soft hackled dry including what we thought were the fish who snubbed us earlier! Largest was about 11 inches. A very enjoyable afternoon.

8 Trout, 1 Grayling

Cold day with downstream wind, difficult fishing. Very little showing until a brief hatch of small upwings around 3pm on the streamy water at the top of the beat. Missed a few trout slashing at my flies, caught one.

1 Trout

No Salmon caught, 3 trout caught on my Salmon fly ( 2" Silver Rat tube ). Returned to river.
A small hatch of Dark Spring Olives but not many trout rising for them.
In any case an enjoyable day.

No salmon seen. The 'other' fish was a salmon smolt.

1 Trout, 1 Other

The river was in beautiful condition with plenty of fish evident although a cold NW wind and temperature of just 10C made fishing difficult. There were sporadic hatches of olives and March Browns from 11.00 but no rising fish until a slight increase in temperature around 14.00. Even then they were only in sheltered pockets under trees on the far side. In the end each angler got one fish of about 10-11 inches on a Parachute Adams and Gold Head PTN. They were both in great condition with one returned and one kept for the pot.

2 Trout

Not really worth fishing at the moment. Very low water only one point of easy access from what I could tell and Ill defined area for this public ticket. Feels like trespassing wherever you fish! Over grown even now with fallen trees and a lot of detritus. Didn't even get the rod out, just waded down stream a distance to where I estimated the public stretch ended. Permits are no longer available from the next villages petrol station as they once were and nobody is sure where to now get them from so you're reliant on using the online system when the valley has no phone or Web connection. So hopeless for spur of the moment opportunism. Also seems that you can't book fishing on the day even if it's marked available? So this area needs forward planning but there's probably not much to go at even then. Local informs me it once was stocked but no longer. However some large brown trout have been had in the past.

WUF Note: Wild stream beats are just that - wild. Often the fishing is much smaller/more enclosed, but can still provide good sport. However we will look into the clearing schedule and add this beat in to ensure it doesn't get too overgrown. The booking system for wild streams is designed so that permit holders are able to 'roam' on available beats that haven't been pre-booked, this means that they are unavailable to book on the day, as stated on each beat page.