Feedback & Reports

River falling this morning and looking good! I was only able to fish an hour in the morning but it looked promising. Nothing caught though. Thanks again to Barry who owns this stretch for his infectious enthusiasm for fishing!

The river was around 9' indicated by the water level monitors.It was an overcast day with the odd light shower blowing over. Used a vibrax spinner for 8hrs across the entirety of the beat, yielding a small 1.5lb rainbow.
Would certainly fish again.

1 Trout

Working at Newport shop for the morning so I decided to have an hour fishing before work. Landed one salmon below the wires, about 9lb, and saw another show lower down in the deep water. I didn't have time to fish for that one as work beckoned but fish that show in that area often take. Water .77. Fish took single hook FC.

1 Salmon

Great to be back at Chainbridge and with some very decent water conditions! We caught one each on tube flies 7lb and 11lbs in the morning so we enjoyed a celebratory beer in Usk at lunchtime and had a trip to Sweets tackle shop - wonderful!
Thoroughly enjoyed a relaxed afternoon/evening session even exploring some of the deep spinning water at bottom of the beat where two residents showed out of reach below the wires! Then fished it all again and second run through the rock pool resulted in a 10lb hen on an Usk grub I'd just bought - (thank you Jean!) Interestingly, all three salmon caught were coloured and we felt a little surprised we saw nothing showing/running through during the day with such perfect running water and big spring tides? Many thanks to the beat owner and WUF for arranging a wonderful days fishing. Excellent!

3 Salmon, 1 Trout

Arrived at 7.30 a.m. greeted by a rainbow but with river higher than expected at 1.14m and carrying too much colour. Persisted with a large feeler cascade and a beautifully marked brownie of 2 1/2lb was landed on the 15 fter and safely returned. River barely moved in the day but colour improved marginally. Should be a good weekend!

1 Trout

I arrived at the beat before 7 am in anticipation that the river level and conditions would be ideal to provide a chance to catch fish that should be running. Alas, the water level was a tad high and with still too much colour (all subjective of course!). Just after 7:30 am I did detect a run of fish moving through including a spanking fresh fish of some 15lb showing itself just above the neck of the Rock Pool. Spinning together with fly fishing using a sinking line (2/3) with a copper tube I covered the likely spots but to no avail. All I had was a couple of pulls from trout which I guess is an indication that the spinner was visible to the fish. It was unfortunate that I had to leave at lunchtime to attend to an issue that had arisen at home. Apart from the rain I had an enjoyable outing. I wish everyone fishing the Usk in the coming days tight lines as the water should have provided the opportunity to move run into and up many parts of the system.

Only my second visit to this delightful stretch of the Usk with light rain falling most of the day and more water coming down than on my previous visit. Several fish seen moving through and by mid afternoon the water had cleared and the flow had lessened slightly. A coloured fish of 6-7lb was hooked on a black/red- gold blade flying 'c' in Wood Stream pool but shed the hook before we could become better acquainted. Many thanks to Barry, the owner of the water, for his kind advice and guidance prior to my visits.

Arrived early morning in rain, river was bear brown but fishable. 7.8 on the gauge. I used spinner and by 10 am had 6 browns up to 2lb all returned off barbless hooks. Fish in top condition river then rose 2 feet. Access good, locals friendly and helpful contact with owner by phone very informative and friendly.

6 Trout

This beat has lots of variety for trout and salmon fishing. I saw all of it, and I tried and waded up much of that which was possible before the water level rose. I spent most of my time prospecting for trout using a 9ft 4wt rod and dry flies only - my choice as I also had spiders and nymphs with me, as well as more powerful and longer rods. It was cloudy and rather cold all day, with a strong upstream wind, and a little rain in the breeze. There were a couple of short hatches around me as I waded, but I saw very few rises – even in the long, smooth and still glides - apart from a couple of obvious big splashes in deep water off the wooded bank. I only caught two modest trout and, to be honest, one of them caught me. However, I really enjoyed fishing this lovely river, and getting to know the beat, and I would certainly like to fish here again – probably with a single handed salmon rod made up too. The very helpful owner of the beat phoned me before I started fishing to give me some tips, and he also called during my fishing, to thoughtfully warn me about a head of water heading my way – which I greatly appreciated. He had been watching the gauges and saw the flow of water coming downstream after yesterday's rain. The river started crystal clear, but by the time I left as the light faded around 8:30pm the level appeared to have risen in a very short time by more than 18 inches, and turned a chocolate colour. By the way, it was 2am on the day of fishing when I decided to book this beat – so the WUF online booking service was just what I needed, thank you.

2 Trout

Only able to fish mid-morning to early afternoon, hard going due to warm and bright conditions, 4 brown trout 8-9".

4 Trout