Feedback & Reports

Evening conditions looked good at 1'5", but did not see or contact any salmon. One shad (2lbs) and several small-ish brownies caught during decent evening rise, with varied hatch/spinners/sedges. The only bigger brownies appeared just before dark.

4 Trout, 1 Other

I really like this beat for the long stretches of different waters, allowing you to put in a length of time with your options, a time to learn and improve in my case.
A warm sunny day was greeted with a consistant flurry of fly life but the reluctance of the the rivers inhabitants to rise proved puzzling.
Two small wbt were brought to hand from the faster water, once again to a partridge & orange spider in a team of three between a hares ear and snipe & purple.
Not much of a return for the time (eight hours) spent but a thoroughly enjoyable day was had.

2 Trout

None caught. Not many biting at all.

Sunny and only light breeze. Plenty of flies about but very few rises. Caught 7 trout max 15in all on dry fly.

7 Trout

I believe I have been catching sea trout even though the Usk is not a renowned sea trout river and the time of the season seems out. The two I took for the pan were very pink fleshed. I expected them to be a silver brown trout but I now think they could be early run sea trout. Caught at dusk on dry fly.
WUF Note: Some Usk (& Wye) brown trout can be very silver in appearance with dark spots and without much in the way of red or yellow markings. The fish caught were likely (but not definitely) browns.

5 Trout, 9 Sea Trout

Fished for a couple of hours in the morning. Nothing caught or seen but very pleasant morning.

Very warm with good cloud cover. Fished the fly all day. Only one salmon seen all day.
In my opinion, the beat is in need of some urgent bank maintenance. Banks are very overgrown and access points to the various named pools are not clear at all. The area for car parking is no longer user friendly, as it's a long hike back and forth to the car if a drink is required throughout the day. I have the impression that the riparian owner is not too bothered about whether this beat is fished or not. Shame really, as this is good fly water and would benefit from the attentions of a good ghillie.

River very coloured after overnight rain. Unable to fish.
It should be noted that the footpath to the top of the beat is impassible due to fallen trees.

WUF note: We are investigating the fallen trees and hope to have them cleared in the near future.

8 x trout 7-14 inches. Conditions looked ideal - the river up just slightly after showers, a tinge of colour, a clouded sky which threatened more rain (which never arrived), warmish. In fact it was all quite slow fishing, with nothing much rising until after lunch, although olive uprights, medium olives, a few yellow mays, the odd true mayfly plus some terrestrials were all observed on the water at times. Spiders didn't work well, so most of the work was done on dry fly and also New Zealand style nymphs. Hard work, but a very pleasant day.

8 Trout

Tried wet flies and nymphs but don't think I had any takes. Saw one or two rises between 2pm and 6pm but didn't fish dry fly because so few rises. The other rod on the beat told me he'd caught fish the previous evening from about 7pm on dry fly but I left the river before then.
I hope to fish this marvelous beat again. The river here is very beautiful and the flow so varied and full.
Thank you for enabling me to fish in such glorious surroundings.