Feedback & Reports

2 x trout 10-12 inches, size 16 Adams. I found the Monnow very low, as expected, but strangely coloured with red silt. I believe the EA are due to breach a dam upstream at Kentchurch sometime this summer, and wondered if work there might be the cause? Whatever the reason, the river seemed almost dead, with very little hatching and almost nothing rising except tiny dace. About 7 o'clock in the evening, things perked up just a little and I managed to pick up a brace before leaving.

River running fairly clear and lower than prevous days. Had a huge bulge under the fly very early in the morning but failed to generate any further interest. After this initial activity the river seemd to be dead and even the fly life seemed to be having a day off.
By 9.30am the canoe traffic made fishing virtually impossible and this persisted until after 6pm. Alowed the river to rest before recommecing fishing into the evening. Packed up when shad made an appearance.
This really is a lovely stretch of water for fly fishing but I would stress the importance of an early start and/or late finish at the weekends to avoid the canoe traffic.

We had 3 rods on the Abernant beat and three rods on the Pwll y Faedda beat between 6 of us. An excellent sunny day.
Abernant catch: 10 trout and 2 grayling caught mainly on goldheads and czech nymphs. Biggest trout about 1lb.
Pwll y Fedda catch: 5 trout, 7 shad, 1 chub and 2 grayling. Shad were up to 2lb.
A variety of flies were successful including goldhead ptn and black spider patterns. Never caught shad before and interesting that they were only caught on the Pwll y Faedda beat. No fish taken. Water temperature was very high.

There were certainly a few salmon showing. The nearest I got was one actually coming out of the water to take a red flying c as I was just lifting to recast (top end of Cadora). I've never had it before - it got the heart racing but unfortunately it was all so sudden it broke the line so, nothing to show for it.

4 x trout average size 2lb.

I booked both this beat and Wyebank which I fished in the evening with a fly rod. First time here but I know the river here, but my advice to other anglers is fish it early, say 7am til 10am and late, say after 5pm and be content with a break from fishing whilst the circus comes to town in the form of the canoe armada. Plenty of entertainment to be had sitting having lunch in the Lower Lydbrook car park as I did, watching them turn over, fall in, etc. I would not thought it was possible to gather together so many fools in one place.

Back to the fishing, clearly plenty of salmon in the beat I saw them early in the morning on Legg Meadow Crib and just below the Wood Crib in front of the house. Spinning I hooked something large at 0830 and lost it a minute of so later before it had time to declare itself a salmon. Caught and hooked and lost loads of shad and a large Chub during the late afternoon weighing perhaps 4lb. I will fish it again but I'll make sure it is not during school holidays. Going when I did was surely my schoolboy mistake.
Finally a suggestion, would it be possible to cut back the overhanging bankside trees below wood crib so anglers would find it easier to wade the edge of the deep water channel and fish down towards the house?

I fished both this beat and Courtfield earlier in the day.
Fished this beat in the evening.
Easy enough to fly fish down the fast water towards the Old Wharf but I did not contact any salmon. No fish seen in Wyebank whilst I was there. Thanks to Rudi for giving me the low down on the 2 beats.

I found this venue quite difficult due to the overgrown banks and the frequency of deep unwadeable pools. Not much fly life - one or two mayflies, yellow mays, olives and some midges. The water was fairly coloured with visibility not much more than a couple of feet. I only saw three or four rises all the time I was there. I had one brown trout, lost one and rose a couple more and that was it.

Brilliant day's fishing, apart from the stunning scenery. Total of over 10 fish, with a brownie up to 3lbs and a number of grayling up to 2 1/2 lbs.

I fished an evening session on a very warm, bright day. I tried a small GRHE fished NZ style in the deeper runs but to no avail. I then cast to several rising fish with a tups indispensible but changed to a small black gnat after chatting with the beat’s owner. Had a couple of tugs but didn’t bring any fish to the net. The beat owner caught a couple of nice WBT on a black gnat - the one he kept was a 2lb fish.

Anglers should be aware of the close proximity of a caravan park to the river. When I arrived to recce the beat earlier in the day there were a couple of dozen people sunbathing and swimming. The last of the happy campers didn’t leave until around 6 pm. This was my first visit to this picturesque beat and I would fish it again - but not in school holidays!