Feedback & Reports

Hard and difficult days fishing river low and clear very little stream. Plenty of Canoes.

1 Barbel

Largest about 8lb and all caught around dusk. Very low and clear.

3 Barbel

Maggot and hemp, feeder, 4' fluorocarbon, small hook. River low, mist first thing, hot, cloudy spells. JB silvers on the mag feeder. Barbel last thing 6lbs bracket.

1 Barbel, 8 Chub

Low river, misty first thing, bright and sunny. Mag, feeder. Small chub up to 1.3/4lbs. 6lbs bracket barbel, last thing. JB silvers and small chub.

1 Barbel, 8 Chub

One of the driest Septembers on record I understand and this was reflected in the river conditions. Water very low with hardly any flow, tried pellet feeder in the middle of the beat and trotting meat in the faster water by the island with a negative result.

Even though this is not WUF water, I thought that the post might be of interest to folk trying to tempt Usk trout rising in the low water at the moment. Just went down for a couple of hours in the sunshine, before and after midday today, to find fish sipping. Seine netting the surface netted small (about 3mm maximum) midge pupae. Put on a small (Varivas 2300 size 22 Ultra Midge hook)bi-vis CDC shuttlecock, olive midge pupa and caught trout from 8-14". Abdomen tied just with olive Ultra thread with a small black thread thorax (the whole thing only about 2.5mm long). Once the rise stopped, I checked the net again and found no midge pupae, just empty pupal shucks! If anglers see small dimpling rises and fish smutting in the next week, try some of these - you just need good eyes to see them and here, the bi-vis shuttlecock helped.....a bit!

6 Trout

I could lie and say my first fish was a 'double' but according to my new scales it weighed in at 9lb 13oz, a PB for me. The other one was a mere 5lb 8oz caught on last knockings. Both fish in superb condition and fell to usual halibut pellets and groundbait feeder.
Thoroughly enjoyable day, even though bites were slow, presumably due to low water conditions. Canoe traffic was light and not an issue. I was surprised to see a David Walliams look alike making his way down river towards the Bristol Channel.

2 Barbel

20+ and as many missed takes. Fish throughout the beat. Adams, PTN, size 16 and a 14 GRHE took the largest trout - 1lb in one of the falls. Low water as expected. Great days fishing.

20 Trout

Started early on this chilly September morning but my efforts to get on the river didn't materialise into fish. A heavy fog stuck to the river until mid-morning, this made spotting anything very tricky. However by 11am things had cleared and I managed a few trout to 15". All swimming off safely.
Another trip planned soon.

4 Trout

Weather was always going to make life difficult with low water & sunny conditions from 8am onwards. Even when the sun went in, it didn't seem to improve matters at Loxsters pool(RH bank). We had a fishless first 3hrs before moving. At about 12.30 now fishing some streamier water on beat 4(LHB), I landed a barbel around 7lb, my friend picking one up a tad heavier within a half hour before it went dead again. Deciding that faster moving water was the way forward, we moved on to beat 5. I landed another 4 fish up to 7.5lb and a chub of around 4lb, while my friend landed a similar mixture of chub and barbel before the light went. A great day's fishing considering the conditions.

9 Barbel, 5 Chub