Feedback & Reports

First trip of the season on a new beat.From noon onwards there was a steady hatch of LDO's and a few march browns with the odd fish showing themselves.Due to a strong and blustry down stream wind and sporadic heavy rainstorms a dry fly could not be presented correctly.Two beautiful 13" fish did fall to a bead headed PTN making the day every thing it should be, a couple of hard won wild fish from a beautiful stretch of the Usk.Both fish were returned.

2 Trout

River falling and peat stain clearing. Warming up, trout rising to large dark olives - I think! As I was casting a 2.5" tube I didn't contact any of them - salmon didn't seem to want it either.

Hail, rain, wind, freezing.... No fish caught but enjoyed the scenery.

Fished a duo. Klinkhammer and nymph, fish took the nymph. Nice hatch around lunchtime. Should have caught more but missed plenty of strikes. Still cold, rainy and windy. Rivers started to colour and rise in the afternoon, called it a day at 4pm.

1 Trout

Fished for a hour in the morning and a couple of hours in evening. Water in excellent condition for the high water catches. A big fish showed in the Bridge pool and a solid pull in the same pool left me wondering.

Overcast day with high SW wind, thankfully somewhat warmer than recent arctic conditions. The river still quite high and slightly coloured. One 12" BT caught on gold head ptn. Some fly life but no fish rising. My first trip to Skenfrith, but I will be back as it has some lovely pools and it must be a great dry fly beat when the trout are rising.

1 Trout

No fish caught or seen. The river was running a little too high for wading and most of the pools had very little definition at that height and add to this a strong westerly blowing straight down the river made for some tricky casting.

4 x trout 15-16 inches, dry fly and spiders. Somehow the morning didn't look promising. A downstream gale blowing and a lot of coloured water still coming down made me wonder if I had been over optimistic booking on so soon after a freshet. Ashford House is a new beat for me, so everything to learn, and now it was hard to see the bottom to get into it. A few Large Dark Olives through the morning, but nothing rising to them.
All was put right just after lunch, when the sun came out and, for about an hour at the top of beat, a fairly intense March Brown hatch took place. The Usk used to be famous for this fly, now it's a rare treat and spectacular indeed. Some really super fish were rising for a time in fast, shallow water on a pool tail, and of course there were the ones which came off, one way or another. These including one of those dreaded "open hook" incidents caused by a trout which powered off in the current (Partridge company, is there no chance you can go back to making and tempering hooks by hand like you used to?). Flies which worked were Dai Lewis' dry March Brown, Woodcock and Hare's Lug, Dark Moorgame.
This beat has an excellent reputation and I'm certain it will turn out to be one of the significant Usk beats in the WUF portfolio. One of a number of advantages is that you leave your car securely parked in the owner's drive - not to be sneezed at. Thanks to D C for his advice on the pools.

4 Trout

River looking lovely with good flow and clear. Very little insect life and a stiff wind. Casting difficult and I probably spooked any active fish before covering them. Nil caught.

A wonderful beat but very tough conditions on the day. Unfortunately the olives did not put in an appearance which was odd given the recent lift in temperatures. Very strong downstream wind made even nymph presentation tricky. A solitary but lovely 2lb brown caught and returned and a similar sized fish lost.

1 Trout