Wye & Usk Foundation News

Following heavy rain last Sunday, the rivers have at last been given a good flush of fresh water. Most of this rain fell on the Brecon Beacons, with the Usk up by some 5 ft at Abergavenny on Monday. This was enough to entice a few fresh grilse and summer salmon alongside some colouring springers and from the lower river and the week saw the first favourable salmon fishing conditions for quite some time on the middle reaches of the Usk. The Wye also rose and coloured but unfortunately, not by the same extent.



Just when we looked set to see a really good summer spate the heavy rain on Wednesday night missed Powys and the rivers actually continued to fall on Thursday! Heavy showers yesterday have put both rivers back up by a foot or so today. With a damp week forecast and some fresh salmon now in the middle Usk, for those able to escape, now would be a good time to start planning a summer salmon excursion!



Trout and grayling fishing on the main rivers and tributaries has been re-invigorated by the rise in levels and drop in water temperature with good daytime fishing returning to both rivers. Some good catches have been made to the nymph on the falling spate with quality fish showing in the catches for the first time for a while. We would advise you to make the most of it, as when the rivers drop back the daytime fishing will again become difficult.



A couple of dates for the diary are the 14th October when the Foundation is holding its Annual Meeting at the Three Counties Hotel in Hereford. Here you can catch up on the activities of the Foundation, hear our plans for the future and have your say on what we are doing. It is also a very fishy meeting so if you want to talk fishing it is a great place to do so.



On the 27th November we will be hosting our annual river walk, when you will see some of the Foundations work and hopefully salmon and trout spawning and running up waterfalls. Further details of both dates are available on www.wyeuskfoundation.org.



Finally, a very warm welcome to those who joined our membership at the CLA Game Fair at Belvoir Castle over the weekend. It was also great to meet many of our existing supporters who dropped in to see us at the Fishing Wales stand.