Feedback & Reports

2 x trout around 10 inches each. I have to comment that I'm finding these days which begin with a frost and then go up to over 20 degrees after lunch with a bright and merciless sun illuminating every inch of the bottom of a slow-moving river, rather tough going to put it mildly. Plus there are the non-angling walkers you meet on the bank who invariably say: "What lovely weather! Must be great for fishing I suppose!" You feel such a grouch if you reply: "Absolutely not; this kind of weather is the last thing we want." Anyway, wherever you go fishing it's a chance to explore the river bed - knowledge which will come in handy sooner or later. This day was saved by a brief and rather sparse hatch of march browns after lunch. I missed about six takes and got a modest brace on spiders - Woodcock and Hare's Lug.

11 trout all returned (4 takeable) on Usk Purple, Donegal Blue, March Brown

It turned out to be a tough day. Clear water and bright sun, not much rising. Just one 10 inch trout.

14 x trout, 6-12 inches, on spiders. A better than expected result, as the temperature remained around 5 degrees all day with a desperately cold downstream wind. There was quite a heavy large dark olive hatch after lunch, truly the "cold weather" fly, but I didn't see a single fish rise to an adult on the surface. The big fish didn't show, but quite a number around 10-12 inches were prepared to come up to spiders fished in the top 6 inches, so I presume they were intercepting the emerging nymphs. A good day, if chilly.

One hot and very sunny day. 2 x 8" and 1 x 10" WBT, one on a Klink and 2 on a spider. All were returned. Caught on the lower and middle sections of the beat. Several missed takes.

13 x trout 6 - 15 inches. A very cold rainy morning with the wind blowing at times from just about every point of the compass, but mostly downstream, so I opted to fish spiders - Dark Snipe and Purple, Hare's Lug and Plover, Dark Moorgame.

5 x wild trout: two small fellows and the best three at 15, 16 and 17 inches. A very cold day, with a harsh downstream wind bringing increasing rain (which we badly need, because the sluggish river is full of algae and other muck). Nothing hatching and nothing at all seen rising, so it was good to find a few taking fish.

2 x wild trout, 14 inches and 18 inches, Woodcock and Hare's Lug. A light large dark olive hatch starting around midday, but fish were more interested in march browns during the afternoon. Incidentally, I have decided for now to stop my worrying about whether this last is really Rhithrogena Germanica in the Usk or not. My reasoning is that if it looks like a march brown, hatches in numbers at times and places like a march brown, trout feed on the nymphs and duns and can be taken on patterns intended to imitate a march brown...well then, as far as I'm concerned it might as well be a march brown!

3 x trout on Waterhen Bloa during a rather sporadic large dark olive hatch after lunch and with a chill east wind blowing: 10 inches, 15 inches and a very handsome wild cock fish of 18 inches. The last-mentioned, at the end, managed to jump through the loop of line I had left trailing below the reel in the current - chaos for a while until the net was brought into play. That will teach me to play fish off the reel!

2 x wild brown trout, 14 inches and 16 inches, Waterhen Bloa from a team of spiders. Both fish in very nice condition. I thought I might as well start the 2011 season on the beat where I finished on the last day of the 2010 one. It was typical for the Usk in early season, a very cold start with fog in the valley till well after lunch. I somehow can't bring myself to fish the Usk with heavy bugs, so the river seemed dead and it was hard going until about 2.00 in the afternoon, when the first large gark olive was seen floating past. Then a busy hour and a half, first trying for a rising fish just out of range, then losing a couple, one taken in a steady glide and finally a handsome one taken in shallow water on a pool tail, which had obviously been feeding quite hard on the ascending nymphs. Everything finished by 4.00 pm.