Feedback & Reports

I fished this beat about three years ago and remember a cold day that was made very hard work by the leaves and other Autumn debris the river was carrying. The leaves were still a big problem today but I focussed attention on a couple of stretches that could be fished a bit more easily. I only fished for around three hours and had three very nice grayling, the best 17 inches and around two pounds. The weather took a turn for the worse mid-morning and I knew it was forecast to rain for the rest of the day and I had a lunch appointment anyway! This beat was still well worth getting up early for and the relatively long walk to the river.

Trotted maggot produced several small brown trout and 10 Grayling, the best of which were 4 substantial thick set fish, estimated from their dimensions in the landing net, which was measured afterwards, at approximately 18". A short session, curtailed by the heavy rainfall and stong wind.

River in great condition, fished with a friend who had never fished before. He managed a superb 11lb 2oz barbel and two 4-5 chub. I managed to blank, that's the way it goes sometimes!! Great day and many thanks to WUF, will definatley be going again.

A cold morning with early frost. No fish showing, but 3 nice grayling all came to weighted nymphs and shrimp patterns. The best fish was around 13 inches. This is a really lovely beat although access and wading can be quite challenging in places. I was only able to stay until lunchtime but things had gone pretty quiet by then so I may not have missed much.

Went for a last go at barbel fishing, not much luck. One chub of about 2lbs caught early on using a swim feeder with maggots. Tried pellet and meat on the ledger and swim feeder neither produced anything. The river did seem high and the water was less clear probably due to the rain the day before. Looks like a good spot for barbel and is definitely worth returning when more barbel are feeding and the water is in better condition.

Nice little river can't think why I have not fished it before.
2 x 12 inch grayling and 2 out of season trout. Dry fly and nymph fished NZ style.

19 x grayling 8-17 inches, 8 x out of season trout 6-10 inches, long trotting with maggots. This was a cold, dull day with the river at medium height. A very few l Large Dark Olives hatched after lunch but nothing now rising. The catch included a couple of small grayling, two at 17 inches, but the rest were all pretty solid ones in the 14-16 inch range - a reasonably reassuring review of Irfon grayling stocks. I removed other people's bait hooks from two fish: a reminder that this beat is quite hard fished nowadays.
There were moments of excitement at the end of the day. An out of season salmon, and a large one at that, suddenly decided a small red maggot would be pleasant to chew on. The float disappeared in a very determined way. Rather than sulk on the bottom for a bit, this fish commenced to go horsing up and down the pool at once, provoking the check mechanism of the 50 year old centre pin reel I was using to making the kind of noises not normally heard by grayling fishers - first deep growls and then a chain saw like buzz. Meanwhile my thoughts were running along the lines of "how are we going to manage to deal with this then?" Particularly so as dusk was coming on. Probably it was all for the best that the tiny hook came out during one of the leaps - I got all my tackle back and the salmon, while he was certainly irritated, was surely not compromised by the brief connection.

6 rainbow trout caught on worm.

Cut down all my tackle for the long walk, 45mins later was fishing on this picturesque section. Unfortunately no fish, but a nice day out.

Hard, hard day. River up again over night and powering through. Managed a 3lb chub late in the afternoon on crust. Highlight of day was as I crossed the bridge a stoat was crossing towards me, he lept on to the stone pillar and then lept into the river 18ft below and swam across the powerfull flow and climbed up the steep bank and was gone. Loads of game birds about, the area is a big sporting estate. Will be back in a few weeks time.
Well done The Wye and Usk Foundation.