Feedback & Reports

Once again the Usk trout tested us - and mostly won! When we set out from Churchdown it was a soft day - gentle overcast, no breeze - but the weather fluctuated throughout the day between warm sunshine and cold breeze during cloudy interludes. Not a good recipe for dry fly fishing. This is a lovely beat with lots of easily accessed water and there were sporadic hatches in the faster streamy stretches - LDOs, medium olives and brook duns - and occasionally the fish would rise. But persuading them to take an artificial was another matter! However within 30 mins of our starting J hooked a cracking fish on a para ginger quill - took at least 5 mins and several heart stopping moments to bring to hand - 20inches +, must have been at least a 2lber. (Separate email with picture). However the next fish risen wasn't until 3 in the afternoon - and then 4 fish took in 5 minutes, all lost or missed! Finally just to add ignomy a further fish was hooked which I suspect was of a similar stamp to the morning beauty - only on for a few seconds, but stripped line off reel in that time. Final score Fish 5 -Bullocks 1!

1 Trout

Arrived with river showing 0.72m on gauge, slight tint and falling slowly - perfect. Fished very hard with the 15 footer for almost 6 hrs with no sign of salmon. A lovely day for casting exercise though.
Six trout 1/4lb up to 1 1/2lb took exception to my Golden Killer. All were safely returned bar one little bleeder.
On a more concerning note, the fly hatch was very poor and only saw two rises all day. Has the unprecedented winter flooding decimated the insect population? It's beginning to look that way.

6 Trout

We arrived about 11.30am and fished with nymph PTN size 16 and 18 gold head a couple of rises taking terrestrials no hatch. Lovely brook, caught 2 trout and lost about 4. Finished at 4.30pm and went to Abbey Dore for the evening hoping for a rise. Good weather warm with little wind.

2 Trout

2 Salmon lost on beat 6 and 4 on a 3" red waddington and a 1" size 12 monkey tube. Fished floating lines only. 4 fish seen on same 2 beats. River running a good height and clear. Excellent fly water on mid and lower beat 2 , beat 4 and the bottom of beat 6. Beat 6 produced 7 trout to 2 lb - fit and very aggressive.
Saw 1 canoe on beat 2 and no other rods - seems extremely under-fished. There are fish there on the mid river and enjoying little attention apparently! A real pleasure and much helped by Terry Ward's kind advice. We enjoyed a quick lunch at the Boat Inn at changeover between beats.
Strong 'recommend' for Whitney Court.

Conditions perfect. Water 2ft 4ins. No fish caught although we saw 2 fish during the day. Colin the Ghillie excellent as always. Very enjoyable day.

5 Trout

Fine spring day. River perfect. Four fish between 6 and 12 inches, all on dry fly in the afternoon when temperature warmed there were and some limited fly hatches. Foundation's service impeccable again.

4 Trout

Heavy rain over previous days had coloured the water, however it improved throughout the day. Caught one very small (5") brown trout on a wet Greenwells Glory. Beat itself was very pretty but found that a lot of it couldn't actually be fished due to steep banks and undergrowth. Booking office were very helpful. I was on holiday so couldn't print out the details to leave on windscreen as required, so they contacted the owners of the beat to let them know. Great system for booking fishing - I hope I will be back in the area in the future to use it again.

1 Trout

Three 6" trout caught on dries. I should have landed more as there were numerous fish rising. River level good with plenty of slower deeper runs.

3 Trout

No salmon caught or seen. One chub about 5lb caught on salmon fly which made the heart miss a beat!

1 Chub