Feedback & Reports

A fine sunny day after the wet of previous days and the Usk was falling and clearing. A nice looking beat with plenty of wadable water (and very convenient parking), but no insect life and only saw 3 rises in 8 hours. However we managed 8 trout between 6 and 16 inches to downstream wets and upstream nymphs.

8 Trout

Nil catch.

This beautiful stream was in superb condition. Fished wet downstream for two hours on a warm and sunny afternoon. Saw little fly life and no rising fish but connected with a good fish which I lost. It is a great shame to see Himalayan Balsam invading the banks of this stream.

I checked the camera at Brecon a little after 7am and decided to try this beat for the day. However, when I arrived in Sennybridge just before 9am the river told a different story. It had risen considerably and taken on a lot of colour in the space of 90 minutes. So unsure what to do I decided to hang around for a few hours and see what happened. By 1pm the river level had dropped approx 9inch but was still quite coloured, I decided I'd get kitted up and give it a go. I fished the backwaters and creases with heavy nymphs until 3pm but to no avail. As this was only my 2nd time on this beat I was reluctant to wade to far into the river to try and access better water due to it's speed and lack of visibility. Due to family commitments I had to leave shortly after 3pm but I'm sure given better conditions this would be a superb days fishing.

Fished from 4pm till 6.30pm, overcast and began to rain. Blank session.

River was very high so just the peg by willow under bridge was fish able. Barbel up to 7lb 2oz. Chub 4lb 7ozs. Still a good day in tough windy conditions.

4 Barbel, 1 Chub

River much cooler than previous recent visits with a slight colour. Fished the Hut beat from early to midday when the expected slug of water arrived putting paid to fly. No fish caught and none seen but very pleasant session especially as no canoes.

River up and coloured to create what appeared to be perfect summer barbel conditions, however no-one told the fish and we struggled to eventually catch 6 quality barbel from a mid beat swim. Favoured pegs at top of fishery did not produce; beach peg continues to be very snaggy and must be full of lost leads and swimfeeders!

6 Barbel

Fished 8.30am till bout 1 pm. About twelve to hand, few lost, all taking size 16 bead heads mainly from where I could find any deeper water. After passing over the Wye to reach this beat I was slightly shocked to see that the heavy rain on Thurs/Friday had caused the stream to rise at all and no colour in the very shallow water, never the less, crept up on a fair few and had half days sport taking mainly fish in the 9-13 inch bracket. Amazing to see how many fry were in the Escley every pool. Had several hence using size 16 instead of size 18 - 22 which would be my normal approach in such water conditions.

12 Trout

Arrived on beat at 2.30pm and fished until 8.30pm. The river was in great condition, the best it's looked this season so far. The river was carrying 5ft of extra water and dropping off nicely.

Finished with several barbel from 6lb to 9lb, all caught on feeder and pellet tactics.

3 Barbel