Feedback & Reports

First time fishing on this beautiful little river. Weather was wet and windy but you are protected from the wind by the tree cover. Saw a couple fish rising but other than that not much surface activity. Sadly did not manage to hook a fish today. Will certainly be back for another go next time I'm in the area.

River low & clear, 2 chub on feeder. Best peg is at the end of the beat a long way down. Nice looking spot.

2 Chub

8 barbel caught.

8 Barbel

Bites hard to come by today.

4 Barbel, 1 Chub

With the wind blowing and the rain a constant feature we explored this stretch using various nymphs either as a duo or with a French leader. Upstream of parking produced a cracking brown trout in the morning! At the faster water down from the bridge, 5 big trout were hooked but only the little ones were coaxed into the net! Frustrating as each bite was worked hard for! All in a great beat with some good features to fish to! Would like to return when the spring is no longer confused with Winter!

8 Trout

Water was low and clear. Barbel clearly visibly spawning and therefore quite pleased that we caught any. My colleague picked up all four barbel with a biggest of 7lbs 10oz. An excellent day none the less and looking forward to returning later in the summer.

4 Barbel, 7 Chub

I know I should have read the recent catch reports "before" I booked this beat, but you live and learn, as they say!
We are by no means expert fly fishermen, but we flogged the entire length of this stretch relentlessly for about 8 hours with every fly in the box, but only a single fish was seen, it was about 8" long and travelling downstream like an Exocet missile. This is a real pity because this is a fantastic stretch of water that looks like it should be teeming with fish. Small shoals of fry provided some encouragement for the future but at the moment this place is only good for casting practice. A possible reason for the lack of fish may be that no insect life could be found under any stone we turned over. On the positive side we rescued a sheep who had managed to get it's head stuck in a fence.

12 lbs on fly from rapids. Many fish seen.

1 Salmon

Fished from 16.00- 18.30. A few sedges about. Fish 6-12''. All on elk-hair caddis.

3 Trout

8 x trout 9-13 inches. The first time I have managed to get a day for myself on Monnow Valley, this year, but better late than never. I wondered in fact if I would be too late for the mayfly (I was, although I saw just a few of the big flies). The weather was cold and overcast with a big wind and threatening rain which never quite arrived. Although there were a few insects of various sorts around, most of the day was extremely slow going with very, very few rising fish. I spent the time fishing the water and having a crack at the ones I did see move. By early evening I had done the whole beat, got myself thoroughly tired, and taken just a couple from glides on an Adams and one from under a tree, which seemed to be waiting for terrestrials shaken out by the wind, on a Black Klinkhammer. Plus I had lost quite a good fish at the net, as you inevitably do. The game changer was a spinner fall of blue winged olives immediately before dark which suddenly brought the river to life with good fish rising regularly. A Parachute Tups seemed to work. I lost some more fish - inevitably the better ones - but was kept busy right through into darkness and didn't get packed up and away till nearly 11, tired out but cheerful. An interesting and memorable day, I thought, with what Bernard Cribbins once called a "reassuring level of difficulty."

8 Trout