Feedback & Reports

1 x 7lb hen fish - returned.

5 x trout 7-10 inches, small Pheasant Tail Nymph under a Klinkhammer. Another of these "nothing much rising" days, although a few sedges were around and the first of the autumn large dark olives have begun, warm as it is. I mostly searched the pocket water at the bottom end with a New Zealand style set-up. Something larger came up to a dry fly in the Crawnon Pool at the very overgrown top end. I was hopeful for a few seconds, but it came off before I could get a look at it. I tend to regard this as not the easiest of middle/upper Usk beats - the wading certainly isn't - but probably one of the most beautiful. After a late lunch, sat in the sun outside the village shop with a coffee and an icecream. As far as the trout rod is concerned, that is probably "goodbye" to the Usk from me this year.

1 trout - returned.

2 small trout - returned.

Did not fish

Whole days fishing. S.M. from Burleigh, Glos caught 11 WBT, I caught 8. Majority of the fish were between 0.5 and 1 lb. All were returned. A few larger fish hooked but lost. Many missed. Fish were taking PTN, Parachute Adams, Klink and Sedge.

Fantastic piece of water. I fished for about 4 hours and only covered 5 or 6 of the pockets. I caught 26 brown trout the best of which was 48 cm.

Thanks to Frank Williams for a brilliant day.

Fished a couple of hours each day from 28th August to 2nd September. Water very low. Total of 8 brown trout caught - largest 12" but mainly around 8 to 9". All caught on self tied gold headed olive nymphs fished New Zealand fashion under yellow foam headed elk hair caddis.

Fishing spoiled to some degree by children and dogs swimming in deepest pools on two of the days. No sign of salmon moving because water far too low.

A very slow day with very few fish moving. Weather and wind conditions were reasonable but nil fish caught. Tried all sorts of methods, all sorts of water but the best I could manage was a fish of about 1lb hooked for about 3 seconds on a weighted olive nymph hung about 18inch below the surface.

This was my first visit here and was very impressed with all aspects of it. I will return..

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!