AFTER the recent cold and wet weather, Spring has finally arrived as well as the Wye and Usk Foundation reports, with it some excellent trout fishing.

The hatch of Olives and March Browns have given way to a perfect Grannom hatch and the trout have been taking well.

The Usk has fished well with 20 or more fish taken by a single fisher in a day. Similar results have been found on the upper Wye while the Arrow and Lugg are still flowing a bit too strongly – they both take a bit longer to settle after the winter rains.

The rivers Monnow and Honddu are a good bet too and the exciting prospect is that there are many weeks ahead of good trout fishing. Star of the wild streams has been the Edw and Clettwr so far, but not many places have been fished this early in the season.

Salmon fishing was brought to an abrupt end by the Easter rain but not before a 34lbs+ fish was landed from Bigsweir.

There were high hopes that fish would have made their way to the upper Wye but despite good water conditions, the only one landed was a 20lbs fish for Mike Wilkes from Builth Town water.

The surprise was to find fish caught lower down in what might have seemed to have been very high water. Ingeston took two on the 5th April and two small 8lbs fish were taken from Wyesham on the 6th and 7th of April. The best so far was a 24lbs fish for Julian Smith from Sheepwash.

If looking to fish in the next few weeks, for salmon the Wye downstream of Hay is probably best between Hereford and Monmouth but, as levels drop, then you will need to head further downstream. No news from Usk, Tywi or the other Welsh rivers, yet.

Trouting could be good anywhere with Usk, Upper Wye, Monnow and the wild streams all likely places at present