Feedback & Reports

Day 3 of our week long trip to the Wye saw me and D on this beautiful stretch, the walk was not as bad as the horror stories I have read about, we settled in a swim opposite the weir garden early doors. D had a lovely 9lb barbel first cast followed by 2 more from the shingle beach later afternoon, I couldn't buy a bite all day, not a tickle, water was up and a strange very dirty chocolate colour, pellet / boilies feeder tactics used.

3 Barbel

Nice days fishing plenty of small chub and dace to keep us busy ... I put down 20 other, but to be honest lost count!!! all barbel were small beauties around the pound mark. Nearly all fish came on maggot feeder as struggled to get bites on pellet..

5 Trout, 1 Grayling, 5 Barbel, 6 Chub, 20 Other

The river looked good with a bit of colour still in it, CH went into the woods and had 4 although lost lots of tackle, BT had 1 in the middle of the first field and I had 3 and a couple of chub from by the hut, thanks to the young lad who put me right later in the afternoon and rescued my day, all fish on the normal methods and bait, pellet feeder.

8 Barbel, 2 Chub

After yesterdays rain I expected the river to be a lot worse than it was. It was up a bit but still clear enough and well fishable. Only fished the bottom of the beat because the top stretch was running much too fast. Used French leader in the shallower parts and indicator and nymphs in the deeper runs. Plenty of fly life around but strangely nothing rising! Grayling to 16" and trout to 12".

2 Trout, 12 Grayling

Level and flow had returned to "normal" overnight and with very little debris this made for much friendlier fishing conditions. The 6 barbel (one double-10.10) came to pellet and all of the others to hair-rigged meat.

6 Barbel, 4 Chub, 1 Other

River up a bit and fast. Sporadic action kept the interest going on feeder and pellet. A very pleasant day in lovely surroundings.

6 Barbel, 6 Chub

Fishing the beat as a prize in a WUF raffle, my wife and I arrived at Chain Bridge at a delayed 11 am expecting the river to be high but not 1 metre up a and of a colour that would do justice to a mixture of Irfon and Ithon at their worst. We had been well briefed ,however, by Bari, the owner and kind donor, that being the Usk, it would fall during the day and even clear a little.
Fly fishing was out of the question and we spent the morning exploring the beat, even making the occasional cast with a yellow FC more in hope than expectation.
After a prolonged and excellent lunch supplied by Charles at the Chain Bridge Hotel, Bari's prediction was spot on and the river had fallen a few inches and was marginally clearer.
I started fishing again with a yellow tailed FC and connected with a coloured hen of around 12 lbs just upstream of the bridge at about 4.30 pm. It was quickly released and swam off strongly.
I was most impressed with the beat, especially the Rocks pool which must be super to fish in good water conditions. Very many thanks to all concerned for a most enjoyable day. Strangely enough in over 70 years of salmon fishing, this was only my third Usk salmon.

1 Salmon

River was very coloured, but a decent flow. Wading tricky as couldn't see my feet at all. Fished for four hours this afternoon and managed 6 wbt between 7 and 9 inches. All took a weighted hares ear with an orange bead.

6 Trout

I had a lovely days fishing at Whitney court yesterday. My first time there and I was really well looked after by Terry Ward, a really nice chap who took the time to show me the six beats and give me the benefit of his knowledge of the fish holding areas and wading routes, thank you Terry.

Lost a nice salmon in the Island Pool. It put up a good fight, jumped clear out of the water and shook the tubefly out, what a shame. It was a nice fish, clean looking about 12/14 lbs would have been a good result after two hard days of fly fishing.