Feedback & Reports

After arriving after midday we decided to take a walk down the whole stretch. Firstly, parking in the orchard and walking up river to look at possible pegs on the No1 stretch. The upper parts of the stretch are somewhat overgrown and would prove difficult to fish without the use of waders. Saying that, the stretch did have some very promising looking runs.
We opted to get back in the van and drive down to the parking in the lane for the lower stretches. This stretch proved to be more to our angling needs. Plenty of pegs with good flow, pools and cover for daylight fishing. We decided to fish the lower stretch and covered most of the pegs available.
A pellet approach was used on both rods for the day. Opting to start cautiously with a 8mm pellet and PVA bag. This approach brought about instant success with two Barbel above the 9lb mark. The bottom pool producing the smaller of the days catches. Light lose feeding of pellet also brought about good results with the chub often being first on the bait.
In summary, a very good day in wonderful surroundings. A word of caution, the cattle in the field did get a little lively at times during the day so not for the faint hearted.

11 Barbel, 9 Chub

Slow going on a very hot Saturday morning, a few chub and eels showing. Late afternoon was better with barbel up to ten pound and chub to 3 or 4 pound. Sunday a few more chub and barbel but generally even slower than Saturday. There are supposedly 11 pegs on this beat but barely 6 or 7 are useable and if it rains probably only 4 or 5 because of the precipitous nature of the bank. Also car parking is now restricted and if you haven't got a 4 by 4 you'll have a heck of a job parking near the line of trees.

10 Barbel, 10 Chub, 8 Other

Fished all day until 20.30, pellet and groundbait feeder. Biggest barbel going 9lb 15oz

12 Barbel, 5 Chub

10 Trout

3 Barbel, 9 Chub

A difficult days fishing despite almost perfect weather conditions. I was predominately looking to catch Barbel but after some 5+ hrs without a touch, feeder fishing with pellet and maggot I decided to trot a small piece of luncheon meat down the same swim which produced just one bite, a chub just under 5lbs in beautiful condition. The river definitely has a wild / natural appeal but much of it is not fishable it was also surprisingly noisy with a strong small of diesel for a good part of the day due to the farmers field irrigation pump in operation. The Foundation were excellent throughout the booking process and I definitely want to try another section some day.

1 Chub

Salmon 5lbs yellow FC single hook caught rising coloured water 0900hrs.

1 Salmon

My first Wye salmon at 09:00 on an Usk Grub from the Doghouse. Expertly netted by Mick, to whom many thanks for advice also.

1 Salmon

First time at this cracking venue, it was very overcast and fairly windy when I parked up at about eleven. Has been many years since I've done spinning, so was a nice change to hang up the dry fly fishing outfit for this visit. Caught either side of the dam. Quite savage takes on mepps spinners and some bespoke spinners made for me which worked a treat and were catching fairly deep down and retrieved fairly slowly. Four nicely sized rainbow trout kept and released two cracking perch on debarbed spinners, which makes releasing a doddle. Thoroughly enjoyed the visit to Usk Reservoir and shall give it another go very shortly. A great sporting four hours !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4 Trout, 2 Other

River very clear but with still a good flow in most pools. I struggled, dour is the word I think. Landed 2 (7") on small nymph but saw little else. Maybe the evening would be better? Checked the catch returns and most do seem to find it hard work on this beat. Wonder why, it has some lovely runs and lively pools.

2 Trout