Feedback & Reports

The river was on the low side, but I managed a few fish to spider patterns. There were few fish rising despite sporadic hatches.

3 Trout, 1 Grayling

Had a lovely day on this beautiful beat , I had just driven up from London and had arrived in paradise , the level was good , nice warm day , lots of fly around, counted at least 5 different species , there was lots of hawthorn flies too , there were sporadic rises all day.
I fished dry right through the day using midge patterns , plume tips and even small mayfly patterns (Danica) .
There was a nagging down stream wind which hampered presentation but this was my first real dry fly fishing this season so I persisted. Probably would have connected with more fish on nymph in streamier water. Ended up with 5 good fish lost around the same number .
Lovely day .

5 Trout

Nil dabloon this time, never mind the fish gotta win some days lol just good to be out relaxing in a great place where you can just switch off and as Mr Schwarzenegger said I'll be back

Caught 4 fish between the 2 of us. Best fish was 2lb brown, others were all 1lb all returned.

4 Trout

lovely stretch of water what was fished, all trout between 8-14 inches and one grayling 8 inches. All was going ok as never fished this beat before until I exited the water at the fish farm. On getting back in the water above there was a herd of cows paddling in the stream and when I tried to walk around them they followed me up the stream lol. So only a third fished. there were plenty of olives and mayfly on the water with your regular midges also. Not many sizeable rises today so opted mainly to fish heads of pools to try and target larger trout on nymph. I feel if i had of managed to fish the rest of the beat icould of picked a fair few up on dry fly as above the fish farm the pace of water is much slower and does look good dry fly water

10 Trout, 1 Grayling

Salmon caught of fly from the Stones pool 12 lbs

1 Salmon

Early start. River in good order 0.68m and caring a nice colour. Both fished hard with double handlers. A fresh 10-12 lber showed on Rock a few times to keep us engaged. A fish of similar size showed under the cables. Another fine day in the countryside. Caught trout of 1lb and 1/2 lb on a feeler cascade (safely returned).Salmon unimpressed by our efforts.

2 Trout

Fished up the runs with a gold ribbed hare's ear size 14 nymph. Great fishing for Wild Browns, caught eight up to 1.5lbs. 3 hours of relaxation in a wonderful geological location. Slippery under foot. One salmon showed in middle of the beat. Not many rises and no takers for the dries but perhaps I was not on the river late enough.

8 Trout

Both c.1lb. Low water, few rises. Caught on nymph.

2 Trout

6 x trout 6-15 inches, Deer Hair Emerger. A day changing gradually from warm to cool and then rain as an Atlantic front came over. A very few olive uprights, yellow mays, and later some true may flies, but little reaction on the surface from the fish yet. I found myself roaming up and down the beat looking for risers, although those found would usually take. As usual at Monnow Valley, I have a "big fish / great escape" story to tell. This one rose once upstream of my position and took my Deer Hair Emerger with a great swirl a few seconds later. There followed about two seconds connection after I set the hook, then one angry jump showing his impressive dimensions, and he broke the tippet. I suppose I was holding rather hard because he was right next to alder roots, but that will teach me to use adequate nylon!

6 Trout