Feedback & Reports

A poor day as far as the Barbel were concerned. Couldn't locate them in any of the usual spots on this beat. River very low and lots of surface/sub surface weed coming through making life difficult. Heavy overnight rain later and early next morning made the rest of the week (on non Wye and Usk swims) much better.

1 Barbel, 10 Chub

6lb stale hen Grilse on fly.

1 Salmon

An enjoyable if damp day. Six fish but modest size. Wading itself not a problem; access to the water challenging but there are a number of very fishable stretches for the bold and the nimble. Reference in the beat guide to two pools which promise good fishing would be more helpful if they were marked on the map.

6 Trout

9lb coloured salmon caught on a small cascade.

1 Salmon

River colouring up after rain. Lots of weed coming down making fishing difficult at times. Chub to 4.5lbs and barbel mainly between 6 and 8 lbs. 2 largest 8lb 12 oz and 9lb 2oz.

9 Barbel, 8 Chub

The river had risen slightly over night and seemed quite coloured, overcast all day with intermitant rain. Caught the most beautiful brown trout about 10" around 10am and missed/lost several others all on a black gold head nymph, the only thing that saw any interest all day. I also landed what I would believe to be a Salmon parr around 6" to the same fly on the next cast! Had a couple of more pulls in the afternoon around 3pm but had to leave by 4:30 so missed what looked like it could have developed into a relatively decent evening session as flies were begining to emerge along with a few trout.
Most amazing stretch of the fantastic river, first time I've made it out with a rod in a couple of years, what a fantastic start. Thanks to all at the Wye & Usk foundation.

1 Trout, 1 Other

With the rain clearing and the Brecon gauge up a few inches I made a last decision to fish the evening session. Rewarded with 5 trout 9-15 inches + several missed or lost. First 2 to small tungsten hairs ear nymph in pocket water and the rest on a parachute adams in the riffles and heads of pools. Lovely atmospheric still evening with heavy cloud.

5 Trout

The major difficulty of the day was the amount of dis-lodged weed floating through the swims in large and small rafts, making some swims unfishable. The day was overcast with some rain. The fishing was better than expected and not many canoes went through. Unfortunately, the farmers diesel pump was extracting water from the river until later in the day disrupting the tranquility.

4 Barbel, 4 Chub

Fished an evening ticket (after 17:00) and started at about half-five in extremely humid conditions. A steady trickle of various colour mayflies coming off and fish rising fairly steadily; to the point that we were preoccupied for the first hour with covering rising fish in the slow sections - ones we seemed to spook bar a 1lb WBT taken on a spider of all things.
Leapfrgging up through the faster was where the action was more consistent. Four fish of 8-9oz were taken on Parachute Adams, Sherry Spinner and GRHE before fading light stopped us just short of Poplar pool. The fish were still rising with alacrity when we left and we only did so because wading was becoming very tricky indeed in the gloaming.
A beautiful stretch and one which we'll visit very soon to cover the four-fifths we didn't even look at!

5 Trout

Just the one change chub today. Really worked the section hard but a difficult day.

1 Chub