Feedback & Reports

2 grayling caught on nymph both approx 7". 1 trout caught dry fly approx 5"

We were washed off Gromain today - many thanks to the folks in the office for efficiently sorting us out an alternative venue!

The Usk was slightly coloured when we arrived but falling and clearing throughout the day. Weather was rather more like end of September than flaming June - grey and a cold breeze. Sporadic hatches all through the day - mayflies, yellow may duns, large & medium olives and blue winged olives all identifed. Never enough to get the fish feeding solidly but they were there none the less....

12 fish came to hand - 3 x 14" fish looked like stockies going by their fins but the rest were wild usk fish. Top prizes? 16" and 19" beauties - spotted like leopards and built like torpedos with big rudders. The 19" fish took 10 mins to land on a 4 wt outfit. All fish taken on dries - parachute ginger quill and parachure greenwells.

Another super Wye & Usk day on a beat we had not fished before - but certainly will again. And many thanks to the owner David for meeting us at short notice and showing us the lie of the land.

23 x trout 6-9 inches. A new beat for me and a very enjoyable session; a bit chilly and a reddish peaty colour to the water with not much rising, but prospecting with a small Klinkhammer brought them up. This upper Usk tributary seems better populated than most. All mine were small, but I saw a couple of larger fish in apparently unassailable positions in the lower uncoppiced part. Beware the odd pieces of trailing barbed wire around the beat, both on the banks and in the water - one such snagged my waders.

Just two grayling ( 1/2 lb ish ) on nymphs. Some trout seen in the water.

I parked up and fished the roadside bank at the top southern end casting and moving hoping to contact with fish. The water was very colored and the strong wind was driving waves onto the exposed bank churning up the mud. There were fish moving on the surface and I managed to raise a couple and miss a positive take. A local angler seemed to be doing better despite the conditions.

My first taste of the Roving Voucher scheme, Raised a couple of fish and missed one good take. I personally found it progressively harder going casting and wading as I moved upstream. Fish there but it takes some angling skill and experience to catch.

A good days fishing after the rain had past, but no takes on The Vanstone Pool, or the other pools further upstream. Despite the lack of fish it was a good day out in very pleasant surroundings (plenty of large blue/green dragon flies navigating the banks & numerous Buzzards circling overhead).

Between us we had 9 good trout on spiders and 5 on dries, parachute adams mainly. The successful spider was an Endrick Spider fished on the point with deep, fast water giving the best results. Met the owner (Tiggy??) and due to some confusion she had rods on the upper beat in the morning which we should have been on. No problem though and all sorted out very amicably.

A very enjoyable day catching fish in the morning on small CDC emerger patterns before moving onto Mayfly patterns as they started to hatch in the afternoon. Around 10 fish caught between us - best 2lb. Evening looked as if it would be the best time as the rise was going very well when we had to leave. A peaceful setting for a lovely stretch of river and lunchtime Wye Valley beer was in top condition.

12 x trout to about 12 inches, most of them much smaller. An opportunity to photograph the famed "Welsh Black Fin Trout" which certainly have an interesting colouring, copper merging to black, especially when first seen through peaty water. I also noticed a tendency to an underslung jaw and large upward looking black eyes. Anyway, it was good to meet them in their ancestral home. A Grouse and Claret on the point and a Bibio on the bob seemed to work well enough. All in all, a delightful morning until wind and rain stopped play later in the day. I walked round it and found good fishing at the top, but do be careful of some of the boggy areas - treacherous in places. I should mention also that the track is just fine for 4WDs, and that you could probably get a 2WD down it with care - but not a 2WD you are particularly fond of, I would suggest. My only problem is that I clocked 113 miles from my home (it's the wrong end of the catchment for me and in fact I think this land drains into the Dovey). But then again I note the Star Inn at nearby Dylife does B&B for 25 pounds.