Feedback & Reports

We had a lovely afternoon and evening fishing some of this beat. We are relatively new to stream fishing. A bit windy and very wet, there were occasional yellow mayfly hatching on and off during the day, and a lot of small black flies about, but no big hatches and did not spot any rising fish. Tried different surface and nymph patterns but only one bite. Will return, plan to book a guide for next session!
We found the booking much easier than the passport system, all of the streams look very enticing, thanks to the Foundation.

Lovely beat. Started fishing about midday, no signs of any fish showing on top switched to a small gold head lure and managed to catch two small brown trout. Fish until 6.30pm.

2 Trout

Fishing at the top of the stretch under the power lines we had four Barbel between 7 and 8 1/2 pounds and three Chub all about 4 pounds. All taken on feeder tactics and were in pristine condition. The river was in what I would presume to be 'normal' condition for this time of year and wasn't rising or falling. A very enjoyable opening day.

4 Barbel, 3 Chub

Caught nothing.

Water temperature 13 degrees C, water low and clear. Water flow - fast. Only 1 Chub :( No Barbel. Long walk from car park. Be careful when you leave the car park, impossible to see.

1 Chub

One barbel at around 9am, one chub at around 10am. No more fish for 2 days. Everyone else on the entire river struggling (speaking to tackle shops, famous anglers, people doing magazine features etc) except for Lydbrook fisheries. 18 barbel off one of their stretches, 8 off the other including a 6lb chub! That was more than caught on the entire rest of the river on opening day!

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

Other commitments meant we weren't on the river until 14:00 in overcast and very humid conditions. Initial rain cleared and precipitated a hatch of absolutely allsorts - mostly various duns but a few large mayflies.
Sadly no fish landed but three lost - two took PTN and one a March Brown dry. Sadly the rising fish were spooked by a couple of helpful kayakers who seemed to enjoy scattering a family of juvenile ducks.
Nonetheless - this is a lovely stretch. It'll be the full 12-hour shift next time.

Whole stretch including day ticket areas above and below struggled. I caught four barbel caught in four casts then no further bites.

5 Barbel, 10 Chub

This is a cracking stretch with some really great water to go at. I fished beat 3 and 6 and although it wasn't easy fishing I enjoyed the day very much and caught a new float caught PB chub @ 5lb 3oz so very happy!

5 Chub

This was a club visit from Pheasant Fly Fishers, Chippenham, Wiltshire, a small active club of about 15 members who fish for trout and grayling on their monthly trips. Normally visit stillwaters and reservoirs and last year included Cantref, this year Wentwood. This was first club excursion to either Rivers Wye or Usk although some members have fished these before. ( I actually had fished the Ty-Newydd beat some years previously but did not recall until I got there.) A mixed experience of wild river fishers, so help was available, resulting in all rods catching fish. Richard Shaw was top rod with 3 brown trout, 2 at about 1 1/4, 1 1/2 lbs and 3 grayling largest about 1 3/4 lbs. Caught in the gutter runs with gold bead head nymph and klinkhamer - both successfull flies.
An assortment of flies and methods worked, as you would expect, each using what gave confidence.
Some fish caught on dry flies, cream spider pattern on drop dropper to imitate lemony yellow upwings hatching. Some mayflies also hatching. One chap had 3 small browns on a single pheasant tail nymph fished downstream. Another had success with a butcher after he had been advised to try a heavy point fly and traditional wets on droppers about 2 ft apart - fished downstream and across, left to swing around. We all fished debarbed hooks and all fish were returned.
Foundations service was excellent and patient when I could not receive attachment for directions and beat map. We all enjoyed the fishing, a great experience and the view at lunch from hut was stunning. We will put Wye&Usk rivers in our calender again next year. Thank you. Next week - a beginners boat day at Hawkridge Resv.near Bridgewater.

11 Trout, 6 Grayling