Feedback & Reports

1 Trout

Hoped to have this small beat to myself but sadly not. Some great fish here but not a lots of 'shots'.... lost both the best 2... so frustrating!!!

Great new work by the owners for access. Respect.

5 Trout

Nil caught. One lost fish. Bright, mostly sunny day, light breeze.

Didn’t fish

have to say, this beat feels like it has been overfished, and on top of that, the trout population seems to be a shadow of what it used to be. I was fortunate enough to have ideal conditions but despite that, very few fish were rising, and the ones that were rising displayed all the hallmarks of being over pressured. A great disappointment.

Fishing Passport Note : Compared to other popular Usk fisheries, and club waters, Upper Tower would not be considered one that is over-fished. Rods are limited in number each day.

6 Trout

Tough day with very few rising fish and a downstream wind. Despite fairly coloured water, the fish were very picky.

4 Trout

Was surprised to see a few changes to this beat on arrival - a new bankside style over the fence to the beat start, a grip on the fencng further up, some boards with pool names and some signs of clearance amongst the jungle of Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed - even a few pockets of nettles, garlic mustard and celandine poking though, more than I can remember at this time of year. Very well done to the new owners Rachel and Shaun - it's great to see that this beat has now landed in good hands. I've offered to help with a working party here before, and will offer an extra pair of hands if you want to attack that further later in the year! (I do habitually destroy some of those invasives as I walk along the bank, worth all visitors doing that too to make a dent - just make sure you don't take any scraps away on your boots or let it fall in the river -every little helps!)

Anyway, to the fishing. It was very tough for most of the day, but I did manage to find a couple of small mayfly hatches in the early afternoon. A few LDOs but also some smaller, darker mayflies - I think maybe iron blues? They completely ignored my LDO patterns anyway but a switch to a small iron blue dry produced three. The biggest was a beauty - 19", and led me a merry dance down the river. I was worried I would not be able to get that in, as it powered off into the main surge of the river which was pretty high after the recent rain. However the through action of the bamboo did it's job beautifully not only with a gentle cast but cushioning those runs (a Phillipson Powr Pakt #5). Still nearly lost it nearside, as the crafty bugger then ran under a log projecting under the bank - I had to wade out for some instream gymnastics to gingerly poke the line off the end, thankfully the fish was still there. After that everythign switched off again, a couple of half-hearted knocks on wets but they weren't really interested. Thanks again for a lovely day out!

3 Trout

First time for me fishing this water, very nice stretch with lots of options for nymphs and dry fly fishing. Met the new owners Shaun and Rachel who have done a huge amount of work, and are continuing to do so to improve the access across the whole fishery.
Morning started off quiet with only one take on the nymphs but unfortunately it didn’t stick! Around 2pm a fast and furious hatch of LDO’s and MB’s took off which made for some really exciting dry fly action at the top of the beat. Had some pointers from Shaun who was very helpful and happy to show me around, all three fish pushing 2lb and all on dry fly. Will definitely be back soon!

3 Trout

Pleasant day on the water. Plenty of mayflies, but no visible fish activity. 1 bite on a ptn that escaped. Water rose in the afternoon making it a bit more challenging.

Just me fishing. Some flies hatching late morning when I arrived, but that quickly shut down as a strong gale came down the valley from the north, The Met Office weather forecast was completely wrong - instead of light southwesterly wind and lots of drizzle it was bone dry but with a howling northerly. That's upland weather though I guess, really lucked out. I had to switch to a #6 and even that was hard to get out most of the time. No rises all day then, but managed to winkle out two on wet flies - probably when the fly was right in their face, very hard work! One big highlight in the afternoon though - a large salmon breached only about 12ft from me like a whale, porpoised from head to tail. Definitely a salmon - steel grey back and could see the indented tail. Believe another salmon - maybe the same fish - boiled by a rock a bit further up 20 minutes later. Amazing, first spring-run salmon I have seen on the Usk. Lovely to see the swallows and sand martins back too, also pairs of red kite, sandpiper and two noisy osystercatchers! Always something nice to see up here even when the fishing is slow, thanks again!

2 Trout