Feedback & Reports

River looked to be at a perfect height, although a little coloured. Temperature had fallen compared to previous days and it was a relatively cold day with blustery wind. Sporadic hatch of march brown in the morning but no movement on the surface. Fished various forms of nymph largely duo with kinks and GHPTN. Found a few fish in the faster flowing sections below the pools. Missed a good number of takes - put down to rustiness at start of season! Shame not to see fish on the surface but air and water temperature still felt too cold. Access to the water is ok at the moment although there are a lot of fallen trees and branches that complicate the fishing. Having fished this beat a couple of times now I find it a bit limited. Many of the pools are very deep and slow, and many of the stretches in between are very slow moving. There's enough there for a good half days fishing though. Might be more productive when dry fly is effective.

2 Trout, 1 Grayling

A lovely, warm spring day on a mature and overgrown stretch of river. The high banks make some sections inaccessible, but this is made clear in the beats description so not a problem. Quite wild fishing with banks to clamber up and down, and trees to duck round/under - just the way I like it! One trout caught on dry fly. Saw a big chub mooching, several kingfishers and no people. Wonderful day!

1 Trout

Fished all day, saw a few rises at about 3 pm - but otherwise not much. The river might have been a little too high for perfect conditions. Caught a small trout on a dry fly in the evening.
Saw some otter foot prints on a muddy bank about halfway up the beat. Lovely beat to fish and will hopefully return soon.

1 Trout

Trotted maggots but completely blanked. This is a nice stretch but for much of it is inaccessible due to overgrown vegetation.

River extremely high and colour of heavily creamed coffee. Conditions made it impossible to wade. Accompanying map of beat and marked parking made it easy to navigate around. Tried nymph with indicator for a few hours then gave up. Stayed at The Bell in Skenfrith. What a great place! Give them your business.

2 caught on single upstream nymph, 1 on dry NDT. All returned. All approx 11 inches and looked healthy but a little lean. Lots of fly life, but only a few fish rising. River low but easily fishable. Enjoyable day!
Stayed at The Inn at Skenfrith, which was excellent!

3 Trout

Access was good in the mid section of the beat, few fish rising couple of takes on a dry but due to poor accuracy, missed!

Tough day and ham fisted attempts at striking to taking fish left us with a nil return. That said, beautiful beat that will reward the determined angler....we will be back.
On a positive note, some excellent white burgundy, parma ham and cheese, did not make for a wasted day!

Spent just a couple hours but no sign of anything moving. No fly life and no takes on nymph. Not easy to access water due to steep banks and vegetation. Water too deep to wade in many places.

6 x trout 6-14 inches, Hair Wing Sedge. The session started well enough. I arrived late morning on a cloudy day with some rain predicted, started at the bottom end having a cast at anything seen moving and had released half a dozen, including a nice one of 14 inches, by the time the rain started. This seemed like a good time to retreat to the car for lunch. After half an hour of what seemed no more than a moderate shower of rain, the sun came out again. Back to the river full of enthusiasm to start again where I had left off, and I was horrified to find it completely muddy - less than 6 inches of visibility. The fish had switched off completely. I was very surprised as there had not been that much rain, and wondered if there had been some more dramatic weather event further up the valley. But when I trudged all the way up to the top of the beat, I found the culprit was just one field drain - the one on the left bank which marks the top boundary - and which continued to spew out liquid red mud coloring everything downstream, while the river above was running clear. I have to say, I don't think much of some of the new field drainage arrangements made by farmers in this valley who have converted from stock rearing to arable. The water stayed muddy, so I eventually went home. I did find a shy roe deer drinking at the top end, though, which made a nice surprise.

6 Trout