Feedback & Reports

Lovely day, the first I have been able to book using the on-line booking system. I only thought of going late on Friday and was out of vouchers, so only the on-line booking system made the trip possible. A really lovely beat with plenty of interesting pools and runs to explore. All 12 trout I caught were of a decent size (around the half pound mark). Few signs of moving fish during the day, but they were obviously feeding below the surface. I shall have to go and take another look at mayfly time...

We enjoyed some sensational Olive fishing on the Usk over the past few days despite the cold NE winds. Thank you very much for your pre-trip guidance and your excellent and friendly service.
I have attached one or two pictures of our trip. I managed to wrestle a monster brownie on the last day that gave me a run for my money! The fish was carefully returned to fight and more importantly spawn another day. I am writing an article about fly fishing on the Usk for fly fishing and fly tying and Trout and Salmon so I will give you notice of a publishing date in case it is of interest.
Finally if you talk to the nice gentleman who oversees the fishing at Fenni Fach could you let him know that we did very well and caught a number of nice fish on Olives - he came and had a chat with us and was very friendly and gave us some great advice - I imagine that he is wondering how we got on.

Here is the catch return:

Cefn Rhosan Fowr 17th April: 2 Brown Trout (both 2lbs)
Fenni Fach 18th April: 10 Brown Trout (up to 2lb)
Pentscallog 19th April: 4 Brown Trout (all over 2lbs + one monster!)

As you can imagine the fish (4lb8oz) gave one hell of a scrap. I hooked the fish right in the head of the pool and she steadily charged down stream right to the tail (some 40 or so yards - you can see how far it ran from the picture). Chasing fish downstream reminded me of fishing in New Zealand where sometimes you have to follow a big fella over various sets of rapids and through pool after pool..... At one point in the fight the line got snagged on a big boulder towards the back of the pool and grated back and forth until suddenly (and miraculously) it sprang free and the battle was back on.... I just managed, thanks to a lot of side strain, to steer the fish away from the tail of the pool because I think it wanted to plunge down the rapids. My 4 weight was bent in a horseshoe and somehow the light tippet held just long enough to coax the clonking trout to the net.....

Once again I turned up without a pen today so apart from leaving my vouchers I was unable to leave any catch return details. This was my first visit to this beat and it was absolutely fantastic. In three hours I landed 22 beautifully marked brown trout to 14" and lost countless others. After some rain, presumably, up the valley the water colour changed from clear to strong milky tea the sport switched off and I contentedly stopped fishing.

Thanks for all the updates on the river conditions first thing this morning. Things were not looking good on the drive over. It was raining heavily and the Usk below Usk was bank high and brown.

However, the river above Crickhowell was coloured but fishable. There was a huge hatch of Grannom from about 11.30am and some LDOs in the afternoon. In between the frequent heavy rain showers, there was a decent rise of fish. It was one of those days I was glad to have a good waterproof. I found it hard work with dry fries when the Grannom were about.

Two of us managed about a dozen trout between 10" and 16". There was one overwintered stock fish, but the rest looked wild. The beat has not been stocked yet this year. Half and half between dries and nymphs. Saw one March Brown floating past.

Things went quiet about 3pm, and we packed up just before 4pm.

Overall a fantastic springs days fishing. One minute belting rain and high winds, the next the air was filled with flies and fish are rising.

I fished Ty-Newyd with a friend on Friday 13th. The river was still very high despite our not having very much rain over the preceding days - the two sets of foot boards at the top and bottom of the fishery were both under approx 9 inches of water. The water was however very clear which may suggest that there had been a release from the resevoir. We still enjoyed ourselves inspite of the conditions and I managed 3 trout and 3 grayling all of which were returned. Unfortunately my companion did not find any fish.

Today (7 March) on Holme Lacy 3 we had two fresh salmon. One estimated at between 25 and 26lbs caught on a Flying C by gillie Colin Richardson and then a fish between 15 and 16lbs caught by Gordon Lucock. Both returned safely. These are our ealiest fish since 1993. Bodes well!

[i]On Barbel fishing lower wye in February[/i]......can I just say what a marvellous time my friend and I had on the White House Fishery last week and thank you so much for accommodating the extra day for us due to our ?unforeseen? circumstances. We can?t wait to get back on the river in the new season and sample more of the pristine Barbel fishing on offer.

So it happened that we were all home before dinner time. Tired after a long journey, but with lots of great memories of a fantastic fishing week in a beautiful countryside. And with a thankful feeling towards all those people that helped us make the most of our time in Wales. We will certainly return one day.

We would like to thank you and your colleagues for all the work you put into making the River Walk such an enjoyable day. My wife & I were on the "Wye Coach" with Stephen and felt it had been well worth the effort of comming down from Rotherham South Yorkshire. I am sure that we will see you again next year perhaps & hopefully be able to fit in some fishing in the meantime.