Passport to the Rivers
While much of the Foundation's work concentrates on the physical improvement of Wye and Usk tributaries, a major part of the pHish and UP! Projects are to make available the fishing on both rivers. Our "Roving Voucher " scheme has focused on the opening up of new fisheries created by our habitat work on the tributaries while our 'Booking Office' has been created to take day, week and season rod reservations for salmon, trout, grayling & coarse fishing on the more established main river fisheries. Our aim is to get you fishing with the minimum of fuss and at the same time, to give the farmers and landowners an economic incentive to look after the rivers.
The Foundation's Passport offers a great variety of fantastic water. Now is the time to start fishing the Wye again for salmon, with the best runs for 10 years and an encouraging number of the famous Wye 30lb-ers. See our "River Reports" section for all the news so far this season. Click the adjacent image to request your free copy of the Passport.
The Wye fishing in the last century was very salmon orientated. Apart from a handful of the tributaries and some stretches of main river at the top of the system, little was mentioned about trout and almost nothing at all about the superb grayling fishing, which continues throughout the autumn and winter. Wye coarse fishing has always been excellent, particularly downstream of Glasbury where the river is host to a range of species. Huge chub and pike and the prized barbel are all common while dace, perch, roach and even bream are also found here. Recently, barbel have been pushing up the river and are now to be found as far upstream as Builth.
The Usk, on the other hand, has always been as well known for its brown trout
as well as prolific salmon runs and occasional sea trout. The trout fishing
is some of the best in the country and if you want a freestone river 2lb-er,
the Usk is the place to come. The last two years have seen resurgence in
the upwing fly hatches to go with the summer sedges and a corresponding
increase in the average size towards the magical 1lb mark. Catches of 20
to 30 trout during the large dark olive and march brown hatches in spring
are now commonplace, followed by consistent fishing to sedges and BWO's
during the summer.
In addition to its heavy runs of summer salmon and grilse the Usk also
has a decent spring run of salmon that peaks in May, a fast improving sea
trout run, and some good coarse fishing below Abergavenny.
