Feedback & Reports

Great last day on river for us for 2015/16 season. As per the venue detail the Orchard entrance impossible to negotiate without a big 4x4. Weather running up had been cold and so Chub were the target, with the hope of Grayling, Dace, Perch and Chub.
Managed 8 good Chub up to 4lb 15oz and a Brownie of around a Pound, all taken on maggot, trotted and feeder fished.
Baited a couple of swims for last knockings with hemp and fished meat over the top, hooked 2 Barbel one took 40 Yards of line and then kited under a tree, and came off,
felt like a heavy fish. The second found a snag mid river!!!! On 12lb line straight through on a 2 1/4lb Barbel rod I was gutted to have lost them.
If river fines down by the 14th, with the rise in temperature whoever is booked in will clean up. Feel free to cancel, I can be there in a heartbeat!!

1 Trout, 8 Chub

No bites forthcoming - believe water temperature too low for barbel. River otherwise in good condition. Legering meat, boilies & pellets to no effect.

Booked the fishing mainly for casting practice, rather than in expectation of catching anything. The river was quite clear, but perhaps 6" too high. Didn't see any salmon, but caught a 2lb brown trout.

1 Trout

The water was very cold 5 degrees and running quite fast though reasonably clear. Tried many slack areas with deadbaits for pike. No joy. Baited up with a few pellets and sat on them later in the day for Chub & Barbel. No Joy.

4 x trout 10-12 inches, Tungsten Hare's Ear and Dark Moorgame. Still very cold with a downstream wind but the Usk is at a more reasonable level. A small dark olive hatch around 2 PM, but the fish were not yet tempted to the surface. I had to go deep with a nymph on the point of a team of spiders.

4 Trout

River was in good shape but couldn't buy a bite. Tried trotting, ledgering, groundbait feeder, bread, pellets, meat and boilies. Not a sniff.
Lovely location though with good parking, short walk to the river and plenty of easy swims to fish. Looking forward to coming back after June 16th to have another go.

As there had been so much rain, we thought we'd try an upstream beat early season, the logic being the salmon could be anywhere in the system. We'd anticipated the water would drop quicker than it did so there was probably 8" too much water on the beat. However, it looked very fishable and the water was pretty clear. My companion had a good sized grayling on a cascade fly and, having swapped to trout tackle, I had a tiny trout on a shrimp. We stayed at the Old Vicarage along the road, which was very cosy and hospitable. The day was marred by the fact that the path to Edw Pool and Abernant Stream was completely blocked by a fallen tree. It is obvious that work has been carried out to make the path more user friendly but the tree has fallen since then I believe. The beat details really ought not include these pools as this is the third time I have booked this beat and haven't once been able to access the top two pools.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

Weather fine but biting NW wind. Water .96m and good colour. Had another trout masterclass from John Phillips fishing his usual team of assorted spiders and coming up with two trout one over a pound, the other around 5oz in difficult conditions. I had one pull on Waterhen bloa.
I had an hour on the salmon double hander with hairy mary tube and no takes but water too high and fast flowing really.
Better luck next week though the height today (Wed) will be back up to almost 2m by this afternoon, and recent weeks suggest it drops very slowly.

2 Trout

River in good condition but very cold. Tried for pike and failed miserably. Did catch a single barbel in the afternoon which made the day.

1 Barbel

Landed 2 but had another on the line too. For the landed fish one was around 10 inches the other around 13. Fast flowing river and cold too but still, fish in the net at this time of year is a bonus! Thanks to Oliver Burch.

2 Trout