Feedback & Reports

Nil return. Fished hard all day - no takes.

Cold and wet day. No fly life apparent and no fishing activity. Great stretch of river and will return with enthusiasm in a few weeks.

No salmon, a pull from a large pike that followed to the bank in the wood and a Kelt seen splashing twice, Nice beat.
Also I stayed in the Royal Lodge in Symonds Yat East and I would recommend to all fishermen. Staff very helpful and good food.

Arrived with river 0.76m and looking perfect. First day out with spring in the air, although a cool easterly breeze limited fishy activity.
Both gave upper stretch a good going over with the double handers but no sign of a needle in a haystack. A sporadic hatch of Olives occurred at 1p.m. but only a handful of rises all day. S.M. had 2 trout, one of 1lb on a Waterhen Bloa on the dropper (also had the same dropper snapped of in a violet take) and one 1/2 lber on a leaded olive nymph on the tail. S.B. had one of 4oz on same nymph.
Very nice to be back out again after a long winter.

3 Trout

A lovely days fishing. Unfortunately no fish caught but there were fish visibly present. Only slightly spoiled when I had to have words with a local who was throwing a stick into the river for his dog where I was fishing and then continued to do so within a few yards of where I moved to.

6 Trout

4 Trout

In spite of very cold conditions, around 4 degrees C at start of day, there was a reasonable hatch of LDOs in the middle of the day and a few fish rising. Two fish caught with one taken appox 1lb. Both fish caught on a poly-winged dry Greenwells Glory. Several other fish hooked and lost. An enjoyable days fishing on a beautiful stretch of the Usk - will definitely come back.

2 Trout

21 x trout 10-14 inches, 14 out of season grayling 9-15 inches. Things are looking up. To be more accurate, the trout are starting to look up. Another fairly cold day and, at 19 inches on the gauge, still quite a big river up here. I couldn't cross to exploit productive areas from the left bank. However, between 11am and 3pm there was plenty of surface activity with a slow trickle of march browns most of the time and an intensive hatch for 20 minutes around 1 o'clock. No need for tungsten today; fish could be caught on the surface or just under it. Woodcock and Hare's Lug was the main scorer of a team of spiders and later I fished dry with a Deer Hair Emerger which also worked very well. If you want an imitation of the whole adult fly, tails and all, try the century-old March Brown pattern from Dai Lewis of Tregaron. In fact, the sport was distinctly better while there were just a few march browns around; during the intensive part of the hatch, there were so many naturals on the water the artificial was being missed. Three cheers for the MB.

21 Trout

No success, river was slightly coloured but fishable. Dry and nymphs tried but to no avail.