Feedback & Reports

After the torrential rain Saturday and heavy downpours yesterday I arrived to find the Monnow heavily coloured but within normal levels. I didn't fancy wading in such conditions so spent an hour walking the banks before deciding it give it a go anyway as I was fairly familiar with the beat. I started right at the far end and found a few small fish rising, I lost two or three before bringing two small chub to hand. I noticed a few Mayflies among the plentiful fly life so switched to a Mayfly I'd tied with yellowish CDC wings. The river was still very coloured and very few fish were rising, the Mayflies were few and far between but the trout seemed to be waiting for them, I started catching as I prospected my way up river having trout rise to my Mayfly first cast on a number of occasions. There was a lull around midday as the trout seemed to get bored waiting but as the day progressed the Mayflies got more numerous and the trout responded by giving their locations away by rising to them, from then on it was just a matter of casting at showing fish and I took fish after beautiful fish, all in lovely condition and fighting fit, all were returned that way too. I lost count of how many I had, I've said 12 but it was probably far more than that with numerous fish missed and slipping the hook too. A really great days sport rounded off by dinner at the Bell before standing on the bridge and looking into the still murky river and watching the still rising trout before heading home. Thank you WUF for a fantastic day.

12 Trout, 2 Chub

1'3" still dirty after w/e rain, falling. We tried every pool on the beat - no salmon seen and none caught. A few flies hatching with intermitant trout rising - 1 caught on trout gear.
Osprey overhead- a beautiful day to be on the river.

1 Trout

A late evening session - 8.00pm - 9.45pm. 6 trout, best 15 inch. Most fish 11 - 12 inch. Flat calm and fish taking tiny buzzers made things tough. Bigger fish moving, but at range and cruising fast.

6 Trout

An hour and a half's very enjoyable fishing on the Rectory starting around 3pm. An array of insects were coming off - mayflies, yellow mays, various olives, stoneflies and sedges with trout rising sporadically to them. The water was still quite coloured after the weekend's rain, which meant we could get very close to the fish without detection. Sharing a rod we had 14 wild browns to hand using cdc olive emergers and parachute Adams, and missed twice as many more. The fish were all around the 3/4 pound to a pound mark although there were some bigger ones rising just out of wading/casting range (of course!).
Trout fishing on the upper Wye should be at its best over the next few days with the water still carrying some colour.

14 Trout

Great fishing. A little bit of navigation required to find the different spots - a map matching the typed details would be more easy for people unfamiliar with the area bridge names etc.

5 Trout

Lovely day fishing nymphs and wets. One 10" wbt landed and a much smaller one on a dry at the end.

1 Trout

Three rods fished and we couldn't believe the river was fishable after the day before - it was choclate brown and swollen. We had been washed off Fenny Fach on the Saturday.
Penpont on the Sunday was fine, slightly more colour but well fishable. My friends Peter and Marco mainly fished dry they both caught well, I fished mainly on nymph and caught some good fish biggest around the 2lb mark. Still lots of Mayfly around.

27 Trout

1 Trout

An quick afternoon session. The Arrow was full and carrying a bit of colour following rain earlier in the week. Three fish of about 6”, one to a GRHE the other two coming up to a small Blonde Wulff.

3 Trout

What a different day, overcast with heavy showers, river very coloured, very few olives hatching and no fish showing. Fortunate to be with guide Oliver Burch who knows this stretch very well with the best areas and access spots - some lovely beats but alas unable to interest fish in dries or nymphs.