Fly-to-Fish

The trout season is well under way now and I've grabbed some time to post a few images and musings on my experiences to date. A series of trips to the Usk, Monnow tributaries and the Barle in Devon have proved reasonably successful in what has been a highly variable start to the season.

It all started on 3rd March in high wind and squally showers at Fenni Fach on the Usk. A "blank" was the result with a glum trip home after painstaking efforts to defeat the conditions (and canoeists) in search of the fist brownie of the season. It took a change in weather conditions bringing some spring warmth in early April to turn the trout onto more consistent feeding.

First wild brownie of the season, netted at Glan-yr-Afon, Usk

My first fish of the season was netted at the Glan-yr-Afon beat on the Usk, followed by another 4 fish during an Large Dark Olive hatch, providing fantastic top-of-the-water sport. More warm weather in early April instigated some spectacular Grannom hatches as witnessed at Glan-y-Cafn, a new beat offered by the Wye & Usk Foundation, where some hefty fish were netted by myself and ever-present fishing buddy Pete (he caught his largest wild brownie here and was highly chuffed!).

A good fish taken during a Grannom hatch, succumbed to a CDC & Elk caddis pattern

Then another cold spell arrived and spring seemingly ground to a halt. Snow on the Brecons definitely affected water temperatures in the Usk catchment and the bonanza of previous weeks seemed a distant memory. The conditions were also dry once again, just as they were last year and the threat of drought became the main talking point.

Wintry scenes return to the Brecons......

.....but not cold enough to stop Pete wading into the chilly depths

Right on cue however came a prolonged deluge and everything went into spate. No fish-able beats were available now until the spates had subsided - but salmon anglers were unpacking their spey rods across the country in anticipation. For my part, a holiday to Devon was planned along with the opportunity to fish some of the famous rivers around Exmoor. The timing wasn't good however as the UK continued to soak up weather fronts full of rain, so I was restricted to one window of opportunity during a brief respite in the wet weather. I found the river Barle in full flow and very challenging to fish, but managed 3 trout as reward for my toil. The rest of the holiday was spent entertaining our two Labradors who positively revelled in the wet weather!

Alfie & Jack seemed to enjoy the wet weather during a visit to the River Barle in Devon

And it's only in the last 2 weeks that our local rivers have fined down enough for trout anglers like me to venture out again. Conditions have still been quite cold with variable results at different beats, but things seem to improving with every trip so I think spring is back on course at last; and it won't be too long before the chance to fish a long evening rise will be upon us. It took a while for the river levels to normalise, but I've been fortunate to experience some great small stream fishing as well as experience the Usk coming back to life over the last few days. Overall, a very pleasing and educational start to the season with late spring/early summer harbouring high potential.