Feedback & Reports

Lovely beat to fish, water levels ok ish on the Honddu but very minimal rising trout. Fished the heads of pools with brass bead nymph size 16. All trout in the 8- 12 inch range bar one which was about 13 inches and was snapped by one of a decent size. Fished from 11.30am-3.30pm and the majority of fish came between 2-3pm. After 3.30pm not a touch.

16 Trout

15 x trout 6-19 inches, all on a dry Monnow Gosling. The first two fish, taken within 100 yards of each other, were 19 inches and 16 inches. Most of the rest were in the more regular 6-13 inch size range, and then a 17 inch fish came at the end. Wow! Where do these magnificent fish come from? All of them, large and small, were in absolutely the pink of condition, fin perfect and fat. If you want to understand my feelings about this very special day, scroll back and read my report from the same beat in October last year, when it seemed devoid of life. On this occasion the flow still seemed very slight in the middle of the beat, but the pools were populated all right. A variety of flies around from about 10 AM, including olive uprights and iron blues, with various sedges. A very few mayfly began to show from about midday, but a mayfly pattern was what they wanted. Photos to follow.

15 Trout

A 12 lb Salmon on the fly

1 Salmon

This is such a great beat, but today was not our day. Warm and overcast, there were no fish showing: not a rise in sight. So, sadly, a blank.

Fished for about 2 hours in the late afternoon, a few fish rising, mainly small

1 Trout

River fairly low. Nothing rising in upper section though the odd sulphur May, olive and mayfly hatching. Nymphs brought a steady series of plucks and hooked (and lost or landed) fish to just under the pound. All returned. Delightful warm early summer's day with plenty of birdlife...dippers, kingfisher, sand martins, blackcaps and a mother goosander with 10 chicks! Found rising fish on far bank of lower section in afternoon and tempted a few on mayfly. As I left (far too early) an otter crossed the river. Magical!

12 Trout

No fish caught, but I missed a lot of takes on the surface, I must be a bit rusty.

My first visit to this lovely stream this year. Escley 4 seems to be the top part of last year's Lower Escley and the bottom bit of the Middle Escley, but it's still a good hunk of the river and will give you a very good day's fishing. Plenty of fly life about including a few mayflies (I wasn't sure if the mayflies were just starting or finishing) but strangely very few rising fish. Still I was able to tempt 6 good sized trout to the net, all 10 - 12 inches and all took a small DHE, my can't fail fly.

There are ALOT of water gates across this river especially when you get into the middle Escley section, so be prepared for plenty of scrabbling up an down banks and climbing barbed wire fences.

6 Trout

This beat seems to be plagued by out of season and out of water depth kayakers who's lame excuse of..."Oh, I sorry I didn't know...." did not stack up. I told them that they should not be in the water and to get out as soon as they could but they lamely ignored me and kept going. I had no opportunity to tell them were to get more information as they were gone.
These 3 were kayakers had all the right gear; spray-decks, safety equipment etc so knew what they were up to - just paddled straight through the pool I was about to fish. How would they feel if my fishing activities stopped them having a paddle?
I pay to be able to use the water - these people do not and then ruin it for others.
Reading the past fishing reports it does seem to me that this beat suffers more than most on the Usk.
So, WUF & NRW - over to you.
Fishing Report now follows: Lovely beat with varied water. Water and weather conditions were good for me. I suggest to have a wading stick as even at these lower water levels, it helped me to get to places I would not otherwise attempted. 5 WBT to 13" to the net and managed to land (what I think was) a 10" salmon. All were taken on a soft hackled CDC dry fly - see onstream-guide.com for the pattern. Managed not to hook a kayak, will try harder next time but will probably need to go up a weight or two.

1 Salmon, 5 Trout

Fly and worm no fish caught