Written By: Dr Stephen Marsh Smith
On Date: 19/3/2017
WUF Fishing Update - Usk Fishing For Sale And Two New Usk Beats Join The Passport A share in just over a mile of salmon and trout fishing on a prime beat of the middle Usk has come up for sale. The Ithon Fishery Company has 8 shares in total and shareholders may fish at any time, taking or sending a guest(s) by arrangement. The annual average catch is approximately 24 salmon but with potential for much higher catches as it is very lightly fished. The trout fishing in this part of the Usk is first class. The guide price is £31,000 and anyone interested or requiring more information is asked to contact the owner direct on ag@charlcombe.com
Wye salmon fishing has been slow with the first week lost to high water and fishing initially confined to the upper river. However, this has been partly compensated with some very large fish. We haven't yet received any reports of catches from the Usk, which tends to be a slightly later river for salmon.
The first Wye salmon was a superbly conditioned springer taken by Richard Wothers (26lbs) on fly from Spreadeagle at Glasbury on Sunday 12th March. This was followed by reports of fish of 28lbs (from Whitney Court, giving Tiggy Pettifer first prize in our sweepstake - congratulations to her!), 32lbs, 20lbs and a "minnow" of 12lbs from Ingeston. However, the fish opposite estimated at 35lbs was taken by Terry Ward from Lower Winforton on a fly from one of the Wye's deepest pools, the Cow Pond. This pool is also where the record Wye salmon of 59 1/2 lbs was caught by Doreen Davey back in 1923, so Terry chose his spot for a large fish wisely!
Trout fishing took off from the very start of the season with some spectacular lunchtime rises to strong hatches of March Browns and Large Dark Olives. The trout are in excellent early-season condition this year with some very impressive fish being reported from the upper Wye, Usk, the Taff and the Rhymney. Oliver Burch will cover these catches in more detail in his March report but in the meantime, trout anglers should make the most of these favourable conditions - the larger fish are hungry and haven't seen an artificial fly for a few months.
Trout and salmon anglers will be interested to hear that two wonderful new Usk beats have joined the Passport scheme in the past week. Green Bank and Old Clytha are both on the middle/lower river below Avergavenny, the latter at £10 per day ticket being a good option for those wanting to fish for just a couple of hours. In other Passport news, we are delighted to say that the popular Llyn Bugeilyn has re-opened for trout fishing day tickets for 2017.
After a slow January and February, the Wye's coarse fishing finished with a flourish, boosted by the end of February rain. Some decent catches of barbel were recorded from the middle river and some of you may have read in the press about
a huge 49" pike caught from the river around Hay by twelve year-old Thomas Macdonald-Ames. A good final few weeks of a season will only increase coarse anglers' longing for 16th June!
Finally, there are a couple of spaces remaining on the April Spey casting courses run by instructors Illtyd Griffiths and Jonathan Morris. Please see here for more information and for booking details
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