Feedback & Reports

River coloured, very cold. Only saw one March Brown hatch mid afternoon. No fish showing whatsoever. Fished upstream, downstream with nymphs, wets and dries to no avail. Quite a lot of agricultural litter trapped in bankside shrubs (sacks, twine, tyres, etc). Wading mildly uncomfortable due to depth, flow, water clarity and river bottom.
Would still fish here again, but when it's warmer and clearer (so fish could be seen) with a better chance of a hatch.

Water still very high ,still snow on higher ground .windy and cold.

3 x trout 10-12 inches on Tungsten Hare's Ear nymph, 16 x out of season grayling 6-15 inches on spiders near the surface. About as cold as it has been all month, which is very cold indeed, both water and air. The trout don't seem to have entered into the spirit of summer time yet and stayed obdurately on the bottom. Out of season grayling, however, obviously thought it was still late winter and just a few large dark olives provoked rises quite freely from them. We do seem to be stuck in this unfortunate weather pattern.
Meanwhile the Usk has also continued to be pretty tough. Small hatches of large dark olives have produced a few rises, but often lasting for only 10 minutes or so. The occasional March Brown has been reported from the Abergavenny area, but not in any significant quantity.

3 Trout

R B took an 8lb fresh salmon with sea lice. Caught at 2.45pm on a yellow belly Devon minnow. M H assisted with the landing.

1 Salmon

A tough day. Blustery winds and water a touch high I fancy. No fish seen and no pulls. Some cracking water for the fly though.
Note for anyone fishing this beat for the first time - If you are parking on the left bank and following the map, DO NOT attempt to stick to the track around the field unless you have 4x4. I tried it and lost - car grounded wheels spinning. Couldnt dig it out or jack it up enough. I went for a wander and luckily a hero from the electricity work procured a 4x4 and pulled me out, but only after 3 hrs of futile attempts by myself. It seems that regulars keep away from the track as the field is pretty flat. WUF - may be a good idea to do some hole filling if the farmer values his field!

Cold and very windy day. Hooked and lost one small trout on a weighted GRHE a few yards up from the bridge. Water clear and low in places. A half decent hatch of olives got underway around 1pm. At 2.30pm I managed to break my rod so that was that. No rising fish whatsoever, so I continued to deep nymph all likely looking pools until the aforementioned breakage brought an end to the day. Tree creepers, grey wagtails and a sparrow hawk provided additional entertainment.

Bright for much of the day, but the wind was very strong, gusty and cold. It made the last couple of days seem quite balmy in comparison! The LDO hatch I had hoped for never materiised and I spent much of the day bumping heavy nymphs along the bottom. But to no avail. Another blank day, but a very lovely place to spend it and one to which I shall definitely want to return. Looks like the weather may improve next week by which time I shall be back at work. Still, it makes a change from "You should have been here last week"!

Very cold, bright with strong easterly. Good hatch at around 2pm of what I think were March Browns! One 3/4lb fish on wet March Brown. Many thanks.

1 Trout

Still very cold although there was much more sun than the last few days. There must have been some fly life coming off because I was treated to the extraordinary sight of a bat feeding in the middle of the day. It was scooping insects from the surface of the river just below the bridge. But that hatch was of no interest to the fish. Although I was warmer than the last few days, I still saw no fish and caught none.

Fished for a couple of hours am. Very cold first real sunshine of the year but it didnt help the fishing.