Feedback & Reports

4 Brown Trout to 9". Water low and stretch too short. Not worth 5 vouchers. P.S. Lost 1 large trout

What a lovely two and a half mile beat this is (has anyone actually ever got as far as the pub?!) but, without any appreciable recent rain, low water prevails, with many almost stagnant pools, so very spooky fish in the tails. Windier as the day progressed but also more mayfly emerging and, apart from these, little other fly on the water. Fished 10-4 p.m. More fish rising as the day wore on (probably as the mayfly hatch increased?) and most fish taken in the necks of the pools. Hard fishing with low flows and without abundant rising fish but, in spite of this, caught 19 trout to 11-12"; most +/- nine inches. Fish taken on hare's ear emerger and mayfly emerger patterns.

Prior to fishing the beat, I fished until 8.30 a.m. on the Usk, on the Gwent Anglers water above Abergavenny. May and June are the peak months for mini-caddis (Agapetus species) emergence, with early morning and late evening the optimal times for catching fish feeding on emerging pupae. Plenty mini-caddis flying around this morning and fish were almost certainly feeding on emerging mini-caddis pupae with four fish to 1.5 and 1.75lb taken on a mini-caddis pupa emerger.

River very low, no salmon seen. One chub taken on a Silver Stoat. Banks overgrown making access difficult.

Fishing at Llanover on Saturday. Was out yesterday for 3 stints. There was an emergence of black gnats in the morning that tapered off around 9am. Fish rose steadily throughout the early afternoon and then there was a cracking rise to a heavy hatch of small olives from around 7pm-dark. Whilst you could get fairly close to them with a touch of colour still in the water the fish were being very selective, even in the gloaming. Brought plenty to hand but all but 3 were 8-13". I was broken twice by good fish on 3.4lb rio floro that upon testing this am broke at 1lb 10oz!

At dusk I found a giant fish mopping up olives close to the bank. It was too dark to see the fly except on the patches of water reflecting of the sky and I knew I only had one shot straight upstream. At that moment I understood what Chris Yates meant with 'Casting at the sun'! Cast was pretty good, as was the 2nd, 3rd, 4th...and all were ignored as the fish continued to rise...

Saw a 4-5lb sewin jump at dusk as well.

Bright sunshine, cold gusty northwind, cold enough to need a wading jacket on. The pool at the bottom of the gravel run was sheltered and I landed a 10inch out of season Grayling and lost a decent size trout, all caught on a GRHE. I nymphed my way up the gravelly run, into the wind, without any success, although I spent more time untangling my line than I did fishing. Moved further down stream sun was getting brighter, wind was getting stronger, not a fish showing anywhere or interested in anything I was offering.

Reality over came my powers of self-delusion and I realised I wasn't enjoying myself, so I packed up and went to the Griffin to read the paper and have a couple of pints.

Not a good season for me so far.

Despite the low water level - with pools nearly stagnant, the fish were enjoying the occasional Danica as they emerged and also sipping other small emerging flies of uncertain identity. So it was that I fished (from 10am- 4pm) the downstream mile of this delightful 2+ mile beat with James Evans' Border Mayfly and Mike Weaver's Mayfly patterns most of the day and caught (and released) 14 fish and connected with scores of others that were too quick for my reactions! Three of the 14 were 13"/14" beauties with fabulous markings and the remainder all 8"+. What a delightful beat of lilliputian proportions bearing plentiful fish.

2 x wild trout 13 inches and 15 inches, on a small Grouse and Claret Spider retrieved slowly across the wind just before dark. Come dawn, come dusk, the better fish at Talybont move inshore for a brief period and you never quite know what you may encounter. In this case, the larger one was golden and jumped high 4 or 5 times during play; the smaller was silver and sewin-bright - despite the growing darkness I could see it twisting and turning out in the clear water. This lake's extremely beautiful shore has a wild backdrop so that it's a sheer delight just to be there, whatever the result. Walking back to the car with the moon up, there was a great crash and ripples far out in the lake as one of the heavy ones leaped.

First go on a marvellous stretch of river. Running coloured red and still low, but still caught and returned 4 wbt to 11" and missed some more. 2 on GRHE nymph, then in late afternoon 2 on dry adams when a small rise started. Definitely going back!!

Nil catch plenty of fish seen.

After 3 years of fruitless fishing on the Wye and Usk roving scheme we decided drastic measures were called for - hire a guide, and what a difference it makes! As our choice of guide, Frank Williams, was busy for our preferred dates he passed us on to an alternative, Gareth Lewis.
Gareth proved to be well worth the investment and had us catching fish within minutes in, what he informs us, were very tough conditions. In total a count of 5 trout to 8" were landed and several more lost - only small but very welcome. With Gareth's tuition and some wonderful scenery a fantastic day was had by all.