Feedback & Reports

Nil. My first time on this beat and it was a beautiful spring day. Sunshine interspersed with fluffy clouds, about 12 degrees, soft southerly breeze. Should have been perfect. But, the river was pushing through stronger and higher than I had anticipated. I read that this beat has challenging wading at the best of times but today the river height made acces very hard, even in chest waders. There was a hatch of LDO but no rises seen. A beat for lower water I think. The gauge at Abergavenny was 1 foot 8 inches. 4 kayakers seen.

4 Trout

Lovely beat to look at but wind and rain stopped play.

Heavy rain and river was quite full. Only fished for an hour. No fish but did see a few rises.

Lovely day's fishing, water was clear and good height and the sun was out too. Caught and released 5 brown trout between two anglers on gold headed nymphs and hares ears. Great start to the season!

5 Trout

Conditions were very good and there was a cracking hatch of LDOs and later a couple of flurries of March Browns. The first 2 fish that I saw rising were put down by 2 whitewater rafts that appeared on the river as soon as the hatch got properly underway and duly sailed over the risers. Barely a fish rose after that. Unusual for this beat as I have fished it in all sorts of conditions and whenever there has been an LDO hatch very early season, the fish have come up for them. Perhaps it was just one of those things or maybe the rafts put all the fish down, but it was odd. I managed 3 trout to a nymph / spider combination with a Waterhen Bloa accounting for 2 of the fish so the day was reasonably successful. Disappointing that the rafters seem to have no respect for the rules. I met the owner and his family who were out on the water and they were very nice and friendly.

3 Trout

Quite high water made large sections of the river hard to get to and wading was quite hairy in places. No hatches or surface action but caught a decent fish on a PTN, working the near bank. Great day regardless of conditions, thanks to WUF.

1 Trout

Lovely bright day. Lots of trout but mostly small. Largest fish around 1.75lbs.

Very early start, bright warm conditions with a slight breeze. Only two fish to the duo all on the nymph, one at 8" and very pleased to land one at 2lb 6oz my biggest fish of the season and on the last trip as well.

2 Trout

This was the last day for me fishing the Usk this year so I decided to try any methods I have thought about using all season but not actually tried. The river was carrying a good amount of water but was still fairly clear so a streamer fished upstream was tried in the faster water and deeper pools which was hard work and only produced one fish but not the monster I was hoping for. Around midday pale watery upwings started coming off and a few more fish to 15" fell to a size 17 Para Adams, a change to a French leader with a peeping caddis and black magic nymph produced the highlight of the day when I hooked into a lump of a Trout in the pocket water above the bridge. The fish powered a good 3 meters with just its tail in the water before taking me on a stumbling dance around the rocks. I tried to keep it upstream of me but eventually it got down stream and spat the hook. Roll on next season and round two with that fish, a great memory to take into winter.

7 Trout