Feedback & Reports

Great way to start the season off. 9 Chub caught 2lb - 4.5lb, 5 Barbel 3lb - 7lb, all caught on pellet.
Great wild life as usual, saw Jays, Buzzards and even a Peregrine falcon.

As usual lots of canoes on the river they were all very considerate once you made your presence known. Definitely will be booking up again in the future.
Thanks to everybody at Wye and Usk.

I found the upper reaches of the beat quite difficult to fish even with a 7' rod, but still managed to catch 3 Trout up to 12" on nymphs.
There was no significant hatch of flies on the day.
The weir pool and lower stretch were quite pleasant, though the river is perhaps a little smaller than I'm used to.
The clearance work planned for the upper stretch will no doubt improve its fishability.

11 Barbel to almost 7lb and 6 Chub to 2.5lb. This is one of the most Angler friendly beats I have fished with the vegetation strimmed and even a map in the hut showing the most productive areas. Very useful for those fishing it for the first time.

River very very low, very very slow , paddling rather than wading.

I arrived early about 7.30 and took a 12 inch trout on a hairs ear emerger that was feeding under a tree in a "pool" below what would normally be some fastwater about 50 yds down from the parking area.

I worked my way up to "sewage pool" which I was pleased to find was not a literal description! The river at this point was only 5-6 ft wide, running quite fast and shaded by overhanging trees. A 7ft rod would have been ideal instead of the 10ft rod I had. By kneeling in a convenient hole I managed to flick an oliver emerger along side a log lying in the water and collected a nice trout about 10 inch.

I worked my way up to the top section under the A40 which in the hot, bright sun devoid of cover, looked singularly uninviting. The unusual smell that greets you in this area is a decomposing sheep by the way.

Decided to cut my losses at midday and return in the evening. Stoped at Sweets in Usk on the way back to Cwmbran and had a cup of tea with Jean, what a lovley lady and what an amazing shop, topped my fly box up with a few of her very reasonably priced flies. Hand made at internet prices, with a free cup of tea thrown in.


Returned about 7.30 nothing much happening until 9ish, prolific hatches of Yellow Mays. Lots of fish up and feeding but not ineterested in what I was offering. Tups, Yellow Mays, Griffiths, Adams, Iron Blues. Finally got one on an olive merger which took of like an express train, unfortunatley divesting itself of my fly on the way. Too dark to tie another fly on so i left

A stretch of river worth another visit after the river has benefitted from some prolonged rain.

In case you are wondering who vandalised the picnic benches it was the sheep. They get stuck under the bench and fight their way out. I saw one in action.

Group of five - others to do own reports. Fishing above Rhayader below where the Marteg joins. Caught one Brown aprox 10 inch and some "tiddlers". Also saw saw one very large brown estimate 3 lb and some good Grayling.

In evening fished the Ithon (staying Severn Arms)and caught 12 inch Grayling.

After the glories of Glanusk this was something of a disappointment. The day looked promising with some respectable cloud cover, but the fish were just not in the mood. I arrived around 10 a.m. and packed up, fishless, at 7 p.m. For most of the day there was little going on, small fish dimpling the surface after tiny flies. There was rather more activity toward the bottom of the beat where a small stream enters the river: a decent fish was indulging in a series of acrobatics here but resisted my blandishments. I went through all the usual dry fly options: adams, klinkhammer, black gnat, hare's ear, olive etc. and trundled a succession of nymphs through the deeper water at the top of the beat. No good. According to the fishing book at the gate there had been some spectacular catches here in the last couple of weeks, so perhaps the fish were a bit 'browned' off. I hope to return next year for further investigations.

Thank you once again for allowing me to fish this brilliant river. I had a fantastic weekend on Whitehouse. In 3 days I caught 65 Barbel to 9 lb 2 oz, and at least as many chub.
The more I fish this river, the better it seems to get, although the river was quite low and little flow, it didn't seem to matter, the fish were hungry for my baits, mainly small 8mm pellets and small cubes of meat. I also saw a lot of salmon jumping all weekend.

Very hot and bright day with an early start for the first days Barbel fishing. Arrived to find the gate padlocked at 6.30 but a kind Pole told us a sneaky way in via range rover.

Who said eels did not exist as a switch from pellet saw 5 in quick time, all carefully released plus a load of nice chub.

Biggest Barbel went 11lb but a few were lost in a very snaggy bottom at the lower end of the vanstone pool. Saw one salmon but loads of barbel rolling around pretending to be salmon.

Left a bit early, tired, burnt and happy. All canoeists well behaved so thank you.

Well this was never going to be an easy day was it? Bright and cold, with a low river.....and little insect life.

3 trout rods ventured forth none the less. First cast in to the flats by the hut yielded a 14" trout - but little else moving. However by dint of mobile fishing 20 fish came to hand - mostly trout up to 15" but a couple of small grayling too.

But then there were two 23" fish!! One was a female grayling. If you google this you might come up with a suggestion that an alaskan grayling of this length weighs over 4lb. We have caught enough to know that this fish didnt weigh that - was quite thin - but in good condition who knows? The other 23" fish was making its presence very conspicuous in the tail of Heirag - I suspected a trout and still thought as much until it was a rods length away at which point ... a chub! Never mind, a nice fish any way.

Also spotted a couple of clonking eels in Upper Heirag but didnt fancy those on a fly. So a challenging days fishing duly rewarded.

Fishing with group of friends - others to do own returns.

Caught - 5-6 "tiddlers", 2 Grayling aprox 8 inch, 2 Trout aprox 6 inch.