Sunday, 22 March 2015

Early start to the river season on the Wye and Usk at Longtown

Red and I set off on a cool cloudy morning in Bristol to fish the Longtown beat on the Wye and Usk Wild Streams. Pleasantly surprised by this lovely little stretch of the upper Monnow. An upland stream cascading through the Brecon's with a beautiful backdrop. The river was gin clear and fairly low but steely cold topping out on the thermometer at about 8C. We fished plenty of runs but found it tough with the deeper sections only showing signs of fish. By midday Large Dark Olives were trickling off frequently but rises were scarce. We had a couple of tugs each from fish in the deeper pools and I watched a small WBT chase my nymph in fished deep. After a short lunch break in the glorious sunshine we set off again changing tactics to heavier nymphs. I was rewarded immediately with a good fish and to my surprise it was lovely Grayling at at least 15" and well over a 1lb which I quickly returned.


The afternoon wore on even with the warming sun but it still did not bring the trout on the feed. Despite the hard fishing Dippers, Grey Wagtail and Wood Anemones added to the ambiance and contributed to a pretty special place.

Red casts to likely looking run.


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