Our wonderful game fish;

 

It's hard to pick my personal favourite. The thrill of catching a large salmon is a great reward for typically hours of casting and patience waiting for the right conditions. However if you hit a shoal of grayling on a winter's day, or successfully stalk a wild brown trout in its own hunting ground, or strike into a monster sea trout under moonlight, you realise that all varieties of game fish in our local waters have their own unique charm and excitement. Accordingly there is a different approach and technique to each and you can't beat a little local knowledge to help your success rate and chances.

 

Please see below a quick regional summary guide to each...

The Usk, known locally as “God’s Own River,” is probably the best brown trout river in Wales, with a very good average size of fish. Heavy trout of 18 inches and upward are quite common. Different parts of the Usk suit different styles of fly fishing, from the wide gravel flats with fast flows in the middle and lower river, nicely suited to the north country spider wet fly fishing which I love, to the deep rocky gutters further upstream which need to be searched with nymphs. Dry fly fishing is good everywhere. The best of the Usk fishing is in March-June, although late evenings can be good in hot weather and the river recovers to some extent in September. It is a river which still has significant hatches of fly: early large dark olives, the famous March brown, grannom sedge and then the August dun late in the year.

The upper Wye is now producing some very good trout; of its tributaries, the Monnow is sometimes challenging to fish but can be very special around mayfly time. Over in Herefordshire the Lugg and Arrow are justly famous medium-sized trout streams, also with good mayfly hatches. A tradition of border angling grew up here and the fishing is still of a very high quality. The Irfon, a fast-flowing Welsh tributary which joins the Wye at Builth Wells is now producing some very large trout along with its famous grayling and fishes especially well at the back end.

Trout

Matching the hatch for wild brown river trout

 

 

 

Salmon

Single and double spey casting for returning Atlantic Salmon

 

Salmon runs on the Wye, as with other British rivers, continue to be a concern. The Wye (together with other Welsh rivers now) is the subject of a compulsory catch and release order. Since a low point at the end of the 1990s, the Wye and Usk Foundation with various funding partners has been working to improve the habitat and remove obstructions to re-open salmon spawning grounds. This programme seems to have been successful as catches began to increase again. There have been associated benefits for other species including trout and grayling in the tributaries. At the same time, we have less control and perhaps even less understanding about what happens at sea to affect the growth of different classes of Atlantic salmon. Several years of drought have coincided once more with reduced numbers for the total rod catch. Despite this the Wye is still a river which can produce big fish – 30 pounds on occasion and there is little to match the excitement of hooking and landing one of the UK finest game fish.

 

If you would like to get in touch, I would be happy to give you the latest information or any advice I can.    

 

The grayling fishing of the upper Wye, like the coarse fishing on the lower river, was for years a well-kept secret, overshadowed by the concentration on salmon. Today, it is regarded as the great success story of the river and the grayling fishing here compares with any in the UK. Grayling are also found in some of the Wye tributaries, such as the Monnow, Lugg, Arrow, Ithon, and the Irfon especially has some very good fishing: 18 inch fish turn up regularly. The best months for top of the water sport with either dry fly or spiders are September, October and to some extent November, but a winter hatch of large dark olives can bring them up, even on a freezing afternoon after the turn of the year.

Personally I fish right through into March as conditions allow, using either heavy nymphs or long trotting. The key to success in late season is locating the big shoals which grayling have formed by then; it is important to know the likely spots and use an extensive searching method. This is where long trotting with the centre pin reel running a tiny hook and bait up to 60 or 70 yards away will score – I recommend you to try this delightfully delicate method if you have never done so. 

Grayling

Shoal fishing for grayling in autumn & winter

Sea Trout – Sewin

Night fishing for migratory trout in South West Wales

Welsh Sewin, meaning the "silver one". It’s said that fly-fishing by night is the absolute pinnacle of the sport. Certainly the thrill of a big sewin’s take in darkness and the sheer violence of the fight which follows will have any angler’s heart racing and will not easily be forgotten. Unfortunately, sea trout are comparatively rare on the Wye although the Usk has a small run. And generally, as with salmon, there are serious concerns now about the future of sea trout. Even in the famous rivers of Carmarthenshire, a few miles to the west, runs are much reduced.

Is it still possible to meet up with one of these wild “children of the tides?” We believe the key to consistent success in sewin angling today is to learn how to fish systematically and alone in darkness, to learn how to cover some likely pools effectively, and then to fish them regularly over several seasons. This involves a fairly dedicated attitude (especially from your family who might miss you on mid-summer nights) but we will be delighted to take you out on beats which do produce double figure sewin and give you the experience of night fishing. Realistically, you probably won’t catch the first night out – but you can never be quite sure! Note that catch and release is now compulsory.