Feedback & Reports

looked great with coloured water on the rise , gently but surely felt like a struggle allday though. lost a few to snags and hook pulls but ended up with the 5 to 7lb or so all in great virgin like condition. Used piloni garlic soft pellets and ground bait. no fish on normal halibut pellets. car smelt like a French onion sellers van afterwards fish seemed to like the shade on the far bank until late on when middle of the river was more productive. Lovely sunny day after heavy early morning showers

5 Barbel

I fished beat 5, a truly stunning location on a huge bend in the river. Despite working hard all day I only managed one barbel and two chub but I think this was more to do with a rapidly rising river putting the fish off the feed until the light began to fade. The bailiff was helpful with recommendations and directions.

1 Barbel, 2 Chub

Its lucky I started early today because the river was rising rapidly all morning (it had come up 1 foot by lunchtime!). Gave it a bit of a go in the afternoon but by then it was too coloured and I really only had one spot that was fishable!. all fish caught on nymphs fish under an indictor. Grayling to 12" (most were 11-12") and the trout were all quite small.

5 Trout, 11 Grayling

lost a fish first thing from fast neck of Lady Alexanders. River then rose and coloured rapidly by about 10 inches and finished my day at 11!

Still some extra water but this dropped during the day, the river lost it's colour and the weather became slightly colder. However, Chris was at it again, landing 4 of the barbel (including another near double at 9.13), As on the previous day, all fish were caught on pellet (one chub was over 5lbs).
Well done to Chris who accounted for 20 of the 26 barbel landed during the 4 days-not sure what that says about us 2 other also rans-we'll try harder next year!!
As always (this is our 5th annual trip) a very enjoyable few days spent in this beautiful area-it's good to catch fish, but it's great just being here. Hope to catch up with you next year Don!

6 Barbel, 2 Chub

One salmon caught, about 12lb. River rose rapidly and coloured at midday and became unfishable.

1 Salmon

Arrived with river 0.66m and nice colour. Fished hard for 7 hrs Only two fish seen at tip of Rock and Cables. G.E. had a good pull fishing on the opposite bank but that was the sum of the action, except S.B. Going for a late afternoon swim ! No salmon but enjoyable day ended with four of us talking about fishing pint in hand on the sunny pub decking. River rose to over 1 metre in next 2 hrs. Back soon but time running out.

I found the river in excellent shape, a few inches up and slightly coloured, and immediately started getting busy with trout to a pound or so on heavy nymphs and the spinning rod (most returned). It was a fine day and I didn't think there had been much rain, so I was surprised when the river began to shoot up - I measured four inches in 15 minutes at one point. Unsurprisingly As the water coloured up the trout stopped taking and the fun was over. No sign of salmon except for one heavy splash from the head of the pool. I stuck to the main pool, which amounts to a good 300 yards of some of the most salmony-looking water on the Usk. It's easy enough to fish when lowish, but it gets a bit tricky once the walkway is under water (ie when there's more than about a foot of extra water). At any height most of this pool is far too rough to wade, and because of the high bank and trees it's very difficult to cover it with a single-hander - I was alternating the spinner with a trout leader on a double-hander. There is some justification to earlier comments about difficulty of access on this beat. It doesn't appear to be possible to reach the left bank unless it's low enough to wade across by the island. The upper part of the right bank is extremely overgrown (though very trouty when low). Please note that the 'white gate' is long gone - there's just a gap leading to a steep and narrow path down through the jungle to the water. Best to access the main pool by following the public footpath downriver and climbing over the barbed wire.

6 Trout

Very windy rough day with no sign of life. Nil caught. Litter a problem once more and the road is in a terrible state and could cause damage to cars. Why not fill the potholes ????

Second successful day as we caught the river at just the right time. Barbel were steady all day interspersed with chub, the biggest 5lb 2ozs. The highlight of the day though was watching a big male otter feeding on, oblivious to our presence.

15 Barbel, 10 Chub