Feedback & Reports

No salmon caught or seen. First time out with a spey rod so as much a casting exercise as anything else - actually went quite well! Had a few strong pulls - probably trout, distance released a few trout and had one fat wbt that must have been pushing 3lb to the net, released. Would have been a good day to have the dry fly rod handy, but resisted. Lovely beat, easy access, easy wading and big fish - I'll be back.

1 Trout

No catch to report. It was a bit cold, so the fish weren't 'on'.

8 x trout 10-17 inches, various spiders. This new beat took a bit of finding. On the instructions: I made it 2 miles less on the A4042 from the Abergavenny roundabout to the left turn on the outskirts of Llanover than the 5.4 miles given – oh, I see, the miles and kilometres are transposed in the directions – plus the brown signs to various churches are currently hidden by vines. Anyway, what you do is drive through Llanover in the direction of Newport and turn left on the outskirts just before the national speed limits sign, after which the directions are good. Once parked on the field, I think this place is a delight. The wading and access is as about as easy as could possibly be, to some very wide open pools – it looks more like parts of the middle Wye than the Usk. Dark clouded skies and an increasingly cold wind, as so often during this past April, seemed to put paid to finding any rising fish although a few olives were trapped in foamy patches and the birds were certainly helping themselves. Nothing was done with the dry fly rod on this occasion but a team of spiders produced a few trout from the fast water, including a couple of good ones. On the right day with rising trout, I suspect you might be busy for hours on just one or two pool tails. I never got round to putting the salmon rod together, although there are some interesting looking pools. Given the amount of fishing available, the price is reasonable and it would be nice if we had this one all week!

8 Trout

Cold day with downstream wind, difficult fishing. Very little showing until a brief hatch of small upwings around 3pm on the streamy water at the top of the beat. Missed a few trout slashing at my flies, caught one.

1 Trout

A wash-off rebooking, originally two rods, now me and my 6 year old son. Wasn't able to fish in the morning and arrived at mid-day with a rise underway. As I walked down to the shingle 2 big fish bow-waved out of the shallows and a cracking fish rose in the very tail of tail pool. I wasted 30mins waiting for it to rise again while fish rose higher up. Explored the beat and found some more rising fish at the bottom of the beat. Took a while to work out what they were on, but #16 dark green loopwing was finally accepted by a couple of 11"ers.
Spent some time teaching my son to cast before going back up to tail pool. Picked up a 12" fish on the loopwing and missed a much bigger one before the rise completely petered out around 2pm.
Changed to klink and dink and worked up the run below. Nothing until the very top and then it was a take a cast. First went just over 2lb in the net, second 3lb 4oz (my best Usk trout for 2 years) and third 1lb 10oz. Quality wild trout! All caught just off the main flow at the very top of the run. Went down and tried the run below the ford with the same tactic. Again nothing until the very top when I picked up a 10"er and missed another take.
Packed up at 3.30pm with the salmon rod unused, despite a salmon showing in the run below tail, it was the trout that had my full focus.

7 Trout

Washed off. River was high on friday and came up 2ft overnight.

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