It's getting boring now.  No rain in the offing whatsoever and colder again next week.



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What a contrast to the views expressed in the WUF report below.  Days lost through high water mean the prospect of fish later.  Days lost through no water and low levels mean no prospect of any new fish at all until conditions change and we get some rain and 'oh dear' lose a few days fishing but with fish running.   there was obviously not enough rain to get fish much above Erwood as one would have expected.   You can't have your cake and eat it!

This is what they said in February 2017,
"The other wild card is the weather: dry years don't help; a regular flood now and again offers everyone a chance; a wet year favours the upper river on the Wye and is a bonus for smaller rivers."

Salmon Fishing Report

March 2017
The problem with March was that it rained too often to allow more than a few days fishing. On the Wye, the season opened on the 3rd with high, coloured and unfishable water and it wasn't until the 12th that the first salmon was landed. Not surprisingly, the fish was taken well upriver, Richard Wothers being the lucky angler. The fly-caught fish was 41", weighed an estimated 26lbs and was taken from Adams catch, Spreadeagle. Over the next week a further eight fish were landed before yet another flood brought fishing to a temporary close.

Other catches included: an estimated 28lbs for Steve Dawes from Whitney on a Flying C; a 45" fish for 88 year old Ernest Coleman from Wyeside, Hay; 12lbs for Gordon Nutall at Ingeston; an estimated 35lbs from the Cow Pond at Winforton to Terry Ward on a cascade sink tip combo, something of a feat from one of the deepest pools on the Wye; 20lbs for Monty Bishop on Devon from Holme Lacy 4; 17lbs from the Nyth on fly and a second Ingeston fish of 20lbs for Duncan Read on fly.
Then came yet more rain which quickly put the rivers up. Meanwhile on the Usk, which comes into good fishing order much more quickly, the first fish came on the 24th from Llanover, a fly caught 13lbs fish for Simon Jones. By the 25th, parts of the Wye were just becoming fishable and Steve Dawes added a second fish at 32lbs on a spinner from Whitney Court, beat 1. There were no further reports from the Usk but fish trickled in on the Wye taking the month end total to 21. Full details, as always, can be found here.
What was encouraging was the size with more than half over 20lbs and three over 30lbs. Many were surprised to see that some of these fish were already colouring up and even getting a small kype. Some wondered if they were in fact kelts but when the arrival of these larger fish was a much more common event in the '60s and '70s they turned up as early as late December and early January so by March some changes in their condition would be expected. Hutton even recorded, by scale reading, that a silver springer was once caught in October.
So mixed messages from the month. The good news was that on the few days the river fished below Monmouth anglers were seeing fish and those that they caught were, in some cases, covered with long tailed sea lice. Although the average size and the number taken on fly was encouraging, the March catch itself was nonetheless a bit of a disappointment, even though many days were lost. We shall all be hoping that April brings some good news as, like March, it started with high water.

Finally, at the start of every season we ask all anglers to remember and follow good salmon catch and release practices, which can be found here.