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As well as being a premier Welsh salmon river the Usk is also acclaimed as one of the best wild trout rivers in the UK. The Welsh name for the river is “Afon Wysg”, appropriately meaning “river abounding in fish.” Starting at the Usk reservoir, the river flows in an easterly direction through stunning scenery, passing to the north of the Brecon Beacons before starting to take a more southerly bearing through Abergavenny and the town of Usk itself, joining the Bristol Channel at Newport.

The quality of Usk tributary fishing is well reflected in the difficulty in obtaining it. Rivers such as the Grywne Fawr are renowned locally for their wild brown trout fishing and we are lucky to have two beats on this magical little stream. The Grywne Fawr is located one valley west of the Honddu, a tributary of the Monnow (not to be confused with the Usk’s own Honddu!) and a wonderful trout stream itself. This is a good area to be based for a few days of small stream fishing.

Much of the Passport’s other Usk tributary fishing is in the upper catchment, where the Cilieni, Senni, Crai and Bran provide some wonderfully remote, small streams to explore. On the lower catchment, the Afon Lwyd (Grey River) is a small river in South Wales which flows from its source in the Black Mountains, through Pontypool and Cwmbran before flowing into the river Usk at Caerleon. 30 years ago, this was one of the most polluted rivers in the UK, carrying effluent from mines, steelworks and urban development (hence its name). A comprehensive clean up has enabled trout to recolonise and Natural Resources Wales and WUF are removing the various barriers to migration so that sea trout and salmon may again return. It remains essentially an urban river and one is never far from remnants of the post industrial age but we see it as a triumph that fishing is now available via the Fishing Passport (Llantarnam Abbey beat).