Feedback & Reports

A lovely beat, very quiet place to lose yourself for the day. The river was slightly coloured and really fancied my chances early on but fishing was difficult. Took two small fish from the large pool at the bottom of the beat nymphing. Moved further up and started to target the far banks under the overhanging trees with a dry even though little was rising, which produces two fish to about a pound.
As this is a split beat, after a few beers for lunch at the Bell, moved to the upper beat, which at first looked a bit bland and not very fishy. Turned out to be very wrong as the stretch between the bridge and the Lodges proved to hold a lot of fish, took another 8 but lost twice that amount, 3 of them being good fish. Fish hard fighting, in beautiful condition and all seemed to run straight towards me and shed the hook. I always use barbless hooks but have never lost so many fish.
Good hatches of Sedges, Yellow Mayfly and other uprights and also some 'Proper' Mayflies which you don't see too often on the Usk.

12 Trout

Lovely overcast, mild day. Saw a kingfisher scudding upstream when I arrived which is always a good start. 10 bt to 3/4lb. Caught on emergers and grey wulf. There was a decent hatch of mayfly and good dry fly life.

10 Trout

10 lbs & 8 lbs spinning.Levels still a little on the high side for fly on this beat.Should be O.K. Tomorrow.

2 Salmon

Fished over the bank holiday weekend, 23-25 May. Mick has done some excellent work to make the rover more accessible and generally more pleasant. Nothing to report on the Saturday and Sunday, aside from some sporadic splashes in the Vanstone pool. On Monday, hooked a good fish at the bottom of the Vanstone but after a few blistering runs it escaped...devastated.

As indicated in the beat notes this is certainly a whole day expedition, especially if you add the return walk round the lanes back to the car. Enjoyable and completely engrossing small stream fishing. Steady trickle of mayflies all day - one 10" trout obliged on a grey wulff but not generally interested yet. 7 others 6-12" on smaller drys and nymphs.

8 Trout

The river was at 1ft on the webcam with a little colour. The weather was overcast and cool (14 degrees) with a chilly breeze. The was a succession of hatches throughout the day, with a late afternoon mayfly hatch finally bringing the trout to the surface. Most fish were caught on nymph, but some were on dry mayfly.
The fishing was good, but there was no sign of the larger grayling or trout. The resident otter and mink will surely take their toll on this small stream, especially since the fish are trapped between the two weirs during the summer months.

7 Trout, 6 Grayling

Two fish caught on CDC F fly, largest fish approx 15 inches.
I spotted a MINK stalking along the river bank.

2 Trout

2 Trout

4 Trout

Tenkara klink & dink, first section up from Olchon is a joy to fish easy wading over flat bedrock that would put many a pavement to shame - caught most of 7 wbt here, none very large. Middle section pools met same camping party as mentioned by PL on Saturday, can't really begrudge people enjoying the environment. Lots of fish rising so the trout weren't bothered by campers, more down to inept fishing with an audience - a tree every other cast. Try again another day.
Top section from below footbridge up is hard going over broken bedrock in coloured water, with livestock fences every 20 yds and lots of barbed wire climbing to get around them - holed waders wet leg so gave up before end. Nice beat but access could be a tad less challenging - they're sheep not deer - although I met the couple who farm the middle/top sections on a previous recce & they are nice friendly & interested.

7 Trout