Skip dinner and go Fishing!

At the height of summer with bright, hot days and low flows in the river it is almost pointless going to the Usk to fish for trout. The trout are sleeping at the bottom and you will just get hot and bothered wrapped up in rubber waders.

However, if you take the brave decision to skip dinner (or eat something early)and head down to the river from about 8.00pm onwards you could be rewarded with some superb fly fishing. The hatches at dusk earlier this week have been enormous. These two pictures of Amelia and Matthew Wright were taken at the hotel's Llandetty Beat  where the spent the evening of June 12th under the guiding hand of, Jimmy Devoy, the Ghillie. Amelia's fish must be around the 3.5 lbs mark.

Somebody else who putting fishing before his supper was, Peter Gavan. He told me he was normally apprehensive wading out alone into the Salmon Pool Beat below the hotel as it normally hides some deep holes within it, but the water levels down he felt far more confident or mid-summers' eve. Fishing between 8-10pm with a Coch y Bondu and a Tups Indispensable he had six trout, with 3 over a 1.5 lbs.

Evening Trout Fishing

That wonderful moment when evening trout fishing is here has arrived. I fished last Saturday and started at about 8pm on a beautiful evening. I set off to the top part of Llandetty where I know good fish live and found lots happening and good sized fish. Using a klinkhammer with a grey body and a grey wolf hackle size 14 I soon found takers but all going short until a fish was hooked. It took off with no respect for the amount of line on my reel and when I finally netted this huge beast it was hooked in one of the front fins and was all of 9 oz!! That part of Llandetty, which has been cleared to make much easier access is well worth a visit.

I returned with my one fish to see Peta into a big fish which she promptly lost it so we needed another fish to make our Bar-B-Q worth while. A few moments later I hooked another just after ten about a lb. Sadly Ali (grand daughter) didn’t score but we all enjoyed the delicious Usk wild brown trout.

I was out last night on Gliffaes middle beat at 8.30pm fishing the same fly in the rough water using my standard tactics of a very short line. Lots of takes to begin with by mainly 5/6 oz fish which I  am delighted to see then, as dusk set in, fish were sipping everywhere. I returned three good sized specimens between ¾ and 1 ¼ lbs. I could have continued for another hour but my dog, who insists on staying by my side, even in deep water, was getting cold and I could not stand the noise of her teeth chattering!

Nick Brabner 

Fly Fishing for Beginners at Gliffaes

Fishing is this country's biggest participation sport and this weekend Gliffaes swelled the sports ranks by another 9 new recruits. Over the last three days we have hosted our tenth, 'Fly Fishing for Beginners' course. Gliffaes is the perfect venue to learn to fish, although not an easy one, we don't stock the river so new recruits have to get used to stalking wild brown trout, which are wild in every sense of the word. This is very much akin to learning to swim in the deep end of the pool. The course is run by Bill Price from Builth Wells who is a qualified Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructor (APGAI for short) and Bill brings a lifetime of experience of fishing and guiding on the Usk and Wye to the course. He is very well assisted by his son Tristan.

Starting on Friday morning with an introduction to the sport; the trout and its habitat and equipment needed to get started. The students then moved out onto the lawns to begin learning the techniques of fly casting, something that looks easy but certainly requires careful instruction and plenty of practice. Saturday morning and the students moved from the lawn down to the river and spent the morning getting used to casting and wading in a fast flowing river. By lunch time skills and confidence were higher and students set off in pursuit of the quarry which could be seen rising tantalisingly up and down the river.

It was not until Sunday morning that someone finally hooked a real live trout as opposed to a tree behind them or a stone in the river, young Ben Scott just 12 from Crickhowell, caught his first wild brownie and I think he still has the huge grin on his face today. Buoyed up by this early success everyone carried on valiantly for most of the day but sadly nobody else was able to catch a fish. Almost everyone left Gliffaes with a huge determination to continue proved by the fact that Bill was able to sell six of his rods at the end of the weekend. Although not everyone left with a fresh Usk trout they did leave with a huge appreciation for how absorbing and relaxing being on the river is with the river, birds, fly life and fish all around them. Not forgetting the huge amount they had learnt over the three days.

(I hope to be running another course next May but need to find another instructor as Bill can't help next year. If you would like to be kept informed of any future fishing courses please get in touch with me or drop me an email.)

Guest Report on a Fishing Break at Gliffaes

This piece and the photographs has been supplied by Jonathan & Peter Steeds.


To celebrate our fiftieth birthdays my twin brother Peter and I thought we would treat ourselves to the three day fishing package offered at Gliffaes - what a treat it was!

Although we have done a fair bit of still water trout fishing over the years, we are both pretty new to river fishing so arranged to meet up with hotel ghillie Jim Devoy on day one who took us over to the adjacent Llandetty water and very expertly showed us the ropes. I was delighted with a fish of about a pound after the first ten minutes even though this turned out to be the only fish of the day other than a couple of salmon parr. Of course Jim managed to catch a trout just to show how it should be done.

On the second day we were back at Llandetty and in the cold and blowy weather we struggled a bit and although Peter got stuck into the salmon parr again we couldn't’t interest the trout. Jim’s 50 years of experience of fishing this water rewarded him with three trout to about a pound and on a hard day showed what a master he is.

On the third day we parted company with Jim and went on to the top beat of the hotel water starting with a couple of idyllic hours in brilliant sunshine before breakfast. By the end of day we had six trout between us on a mix of nymphs and dries including a cracking one and a half pounder and another salmon parr. We were both drenched from the late afternoon downpour but could not have been happier. Back to the hotel for a celebratory drink in its cosy bar followed by yet another delicious dinner before rounding off the evening with an embarrassingly slow couple of frames of snooker.

The renowned Gliffaes hospitality is evident in everything – the wonderful atmosphere, the friendly staff, the great food and drink and the marvellous attention to detail shown by the whole team led by delightful owners James and Susie Suter. Add an exquisite stretch of the Usk to all that and we couldn't have dreamt up a better place to celebrate our half centuries. If you could design your own perfect fishing hotel you would struggle to come up with one as complete and as lovely as Gliffaes. We’ll be back before we’re much older!
Jonathan Steeds.

Grannom & Stonefly on the Usk

As I look back over the last two weeks I cannot remember a year in the last fifteen that has produced such dense hatches of grannom, and, in addition, that huge fly that literally crawls out of the river, ‘the stonefly’ has been in evidence. The water has been relatively cold and the result has been of a lack of rising trout for two reasons. One, trout like stonefly, and a stonefly represents breakfast, lunch and tea all in one so collecting the groceries while it is around for eating is dead simple and the old trout takes a rest in between. Secondly because the grannom are being taken under the surface just deep enough not to show. Feeding on grannom as stonefly hatches dwindle is the next dish on offer.

There was a great article in the Trout & Salmon (March) by Louis Noble featuring the grannom and he concludes that the most successful patterns are the ones devised by Dave Collins – the Shuttlecock Suspender and Parachute Emerger. I have friends who have successfully used them, I have not but will make certain I am properly prepared next time.

With the big Dark Olives and March Browns over what is on the menu next. The sort of armory one needs are Light Olives, Iron Blues, Blue Upright  and Usk Naylor and as May progresses Blue and Evening Dun, Ginger Quill, Alder and Pheasant Tail.

We could really do with a top up on the rain front though the river is a delight to be on with all the wonderful wildlife busily building, sitting or feeding. Swallows, house and sand martins, and sandpipers are all in evidence not to mention the wagtails.

Nick Brabner

You might find this post about fishing with grannom on a fishing forum of interest.

High Water on the River Usk

Goodness me we had a lot of rain at the end of March begining of April and the river rose fast and furious, putting paid to any ideas our guests had of fishing over Easter. You would think that everything in the river; fish, eels, inverterbrates etc would all end up in the Bristol Channel, but somehow they all just hide under rocks or move to the edges of the river to ride out the storm. The good thing about the Usk is that the high flows drop off very quickly and within 24-36 hours of the rain stopping the river is back to normal.

This video was taken on Easter Saturday (April 3rd) and just shows the size and the force of the Usk.



Just as an aside, speaking to a couple who were fishing this morning they saw a otter and two cubs swim all the way up our main pool, searching for fish, and paying no head to the two fishermen.

Fishing in March

The 2010 fishing season has been open for a month now and I would  be lying if I said that it had got off to a good start. The very late spring and the cold weather through out most of March seems to have delayed the hatches of Olives and Grannoms and in late March the ever dwindling March Browns, for which the Usk has a great reputation. The very cold water has kept activity to a minimum and with little fly life showing fishing deep has provided the only sparse activity. As the water warmed towards the end of the month rain put its oar in and levels rose into the 'no fishing' bracket.

Despite everything contriving against fishermen, there have been some notable successes. The key ingredient has been the help and advice of ghillie, Jimmy Devoy. His years of experience of fishing the Usk and his knowledge of local fly life shows even when he takes out relative beginners. About 10 days ago he took Tony & Shona Prosser out in difficult and cold conditions but they caught two lovely wild Usk brownies on a Gold Head Phesant Tail Nymph (deep).

Then two days ago Jimmy was out with Stefan Krasz and all of sudden at around 1pm on our Top Beat there was a significant hatch of dark olives for about 40 minutes so typical of this time of year. Fishing to the rise with an Usk Nailer Stefan caught two trout and missed a further four. Jimmy recommends fishing all levels of the river at this time of the year and will always use a dropper and sometimes two but fishing dry when they are rising. He stresses the need for something bright for fishing the bottom; a copper john or a pheasant tail pattern with a gold head and a spider pattern for just under the surface. Fingers crossed for warmer weather which can only improve the fishing.

I have included the latest news (31st March 2010) from the Wye and Usk Foundation below;

Back to winter again and, to the disappointment of many upstream salmon anglers, there has been no proper rise in the river while to the disappointment of many trout anglers, there have been several small coloured rises of cold water. Snow is now back on the hills and tomorrow is 1^st April! 

Trout fishing had been gradually improving although we are still waiting for the main olive hatches of the season. Good reports have been coming in from the Monnow system with some decent catches also being made on the Usk. With water levels rising, trout fishing early next week is likely to be best in the rockier, faster-clearing tributary streams such as the Escley, Honddu (both Monnow) Cilieni (Usk) and Edw (upper Wye).

What will Easter weekend bring? The best hope is that the forecasters have got it wrong and after all there will be some sunshine and warmer days or it pours with rain and washes out the rivers for the week after.  However, we fear that they might break with tradition and get it right, ie cold, snow, wind, rain etc. Suggest you keep a watch on gauges and forecast. The online booking service is available if a late opportunity arises.

For the Foundation, it is a very busy time of year. Today is the last day of coppicing before the teams start fencing and re -liming the headwaters.  We have fish passes to design, consent and build in the Arrow (4), Gavenny, and Llwyd and projects that will redress some of the damage done by diffuse pollution. ISAC, our EU life+ Irfon restoration project has started with a survey and consenting of works which includes restoration of sections of the Irfon forest to manage pH and flows.

The Fishing Season is back

What a beautiful day. I couldn’t resist going to the river with the two black dogs to see if there was any movement. One of the things about the Usk at this time of year is the importance of arriving on time for the hatch, and its early this early in the season. Needless to say I think I was too late, but it didn’t matter. You must be there by 10.30 am.

When the sun is out and its warmth is having an effect on your back you really feel that at last winter is losing its grip. On my knees looking under stones with a shallow flow I found exactly what I expected – trillions of fresh water shrimp and a good spattering of nymphs mainly olives, but I am not expert in distinguishing which are which in the nymph department. This year on the Usk we are doing a survey on March Brown numbers so if you do come and see any bring home a sample and identify where you saw it.

As I walked up the beat most of the wildlife one expects to see was there, mallard now all paired, the odd dipper but not many about as they are sitting, and I didn’t see a kingfisher though plenty of noisy wrens! Joys to come will be the various wagtails, sandpipers and later sand martins, house martins, swallows and swifts.

It is a stunning river and a delight to see the whole thing springing back to life. No reports of any salmon yet. Last years official catch was 488, well down as were all other rivers in the UK except for the Dee in Scotland which was 7% up probably because of 100 % Catch & Release law.

Nick Brabner

Useful links
River Usk March Brown Survey

Riverside Clean Up

Getting Ready for the Fishing Season.

Fly fishing season begins on March 3rd on the River Usk. Gliffaes Hotel has two and half miles of fishing on the Usk so before the season begins we have a day cleaning up the river bank, yesterday was the day. A lot of rubbish is brought down by the high winter flows on the river and before all the trees and shrubs spring into leaf makes this a good time to clean up.

We managed to fill a one tonne builder's bag with everything we found as this short video will show you.



Fishing at Gliffaes Hotel is open to non-residents but please call us on 01874 730 371 to check availability.

James Suter