Feedback & Reports

River higher than expected considering other section of the Usk I fished earlier. Weather foul! Heavy rain so forced to fish with nymph. Caught 2 trout max 12in. Rain finally stopped play.

2 Trout

AT's description of this beat has it off to a T - but having been here before we knew what to expect! The river was slightly coloured when we arrived but clearing so we thought no problem with mayfly fishing. Of course then it rained - and rained - we got soaked and the river got more coloured but that didn't stop us and we fished till about 6pm. Whenever the rain stopped the mayfly hatched and the fish went bonkers. We hooked 12 on para mayflies but the long shank hooks don't hold well and only 4 came to hand. Dropping the fly in to the fishes window of visibility was likely to produce a violent reaction with fish coming at times from nowhere - fantastic and very exciting fishing with the coloured water giving us a bit more cover than usual. Thanks WUF for one of the fishing highlights of the year.

4 Trout

Caught a 8" brown trout after 3 minutes on a wet fly. It started raining soon and only caught a 4" brown trout 30 minutes later.
River looked not very clear and casting is almost impossible because of the vegetation. Nice day, but had to stop because of heavy rain.

2 Trout

Fish returned alive, difficult conditions, windy and cold. Caught on olive dry fly, about 10" long, water very clear.

1 Trout

The fishing started off fairly good with a few yellow mays hatching off and a few fish rising. After a few hours and 6 trout the rain got very heavy and the fishing got tough. Fished a little long but then the river started to colour so I went home.

6 Trout

9 x wbt. Mayflies hatching throughout the afternoon but not in any great numbers. A sedge pattern in the faster water did the trick with the fish smashing the fly. Thanks to the Wye and Usk.

9 Trout

3 Trout

A real pleasure to fish this very beautiful stretch of water in warm sunshine.. Caught a brace of trout each just under about 2lb plus a dace all on GRHE nymph. Plenty of mayflies hatching but very little evidence of feeding apart from the two trout that were caught. Yes it's overgrown and steep sided but well worth the effort.

2 Trout, 1 Other

OK - The Escley is an absolutely beautiful stream, but crickey it's not easy to fish. You need to be fit to get the best of it. The river is bordered on both sides by a barbed wire fence and it has very steep sides and in the lower half of the beat it seems that every 100 or 200 yards there is a fence across the river, which means climbing up the sides over the barbed wire, up past the fence, over the wire again scramble down to the river and carry on, all hopefully without breaking rod, getting net caught on barbed wire, tearing waders etc. But when you do get to the water, it is a joy to fish. Lovely deep pools below waterfalls, the air full of mayfly and other hatching fly, rising fish that will eagerly take a DHE, Grey Wulff, klinkhammers etc. Good luck !!

6 Trout

Fished for a few hours in the early afternoon. Sunny and warm with lots of Olives and Mayflies about. No sign of fish apart from one solitary rise and lots of fry in the margins.