County guide
Fly Fishing in Monmouthshire
26 bookable beats 6 rivers 6 fisheries Day rod £15–£50
2 beats sell day tickets
You can book a day rod without joining a club or syndicate.
A typical day is £24
From £15 to £50, across 8 beats with published day rates.
The River Usk has the most beats
11 to choose from, the easiest place to find a day at short notice.
About fly fishing in Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire fly fishing on FishingBeats is the lower Usk, the Monnow and the Black Mountains Honddu, the small Grwyne Fawr, two beats on the lower Wye, and two stillwaters. We list only part of the county. Most of the river water we list is sold through the Fishing Passport, with members’ water from two societies and a seasonal estate let alongside.
The Fishing Passport is an online booking system run on a not for profit basis by the Wye and Usk Foundation. It doesn’t own or lease any water; each beat stays with its owner, so book ahead. A beat such as Aberbaiden on the Usk can’t be booked on the website: the owner agrees each booking first, and an answer can take 48 hours or more. Wild Streams are small wild brown trout waters, booked online or by phone, with bookings closing at 6pm the day before. A Wild Stream beat nobody has booked is open to holders of a Wild Stream Season Permit, £100 for one rod or £140 for two.
The Usk holds salmon, wild brown trout and sewin, and for trout the early season is usually best, April to June. Usk Town Water is two miles of trout fishing from Llanbadoc Church to Llancayo at £16 a day, with no salmon or sea trout fishing. Abergavenny Town Water, just over a mile below the Merthyr road bridge, is £25 for salmon or £15 for trout, all catch and release. Chainbridge, a few miles above Usk, has six named pools and is £46 for salmon or £26 for trout. Llanover Estate lets three beats near Abergavenny by the season, two rods on each, and publishes no price, so ask the estate office. Crickhowell and District Angling Society has members’ water at Abergavenny (Red Barn and Cadfor Farm) and at Gobion (Pant y Goitre and Bridge Meadow), where the society says most of its recent salmon have been caught.
The Honddu rises in the Black Mountains. This is the Monnow’s Honddu, not the river of the same name at Brecon. Its five Passport beats (Half Moon, Maes y Beran, Lower Henllan, Lower Stanton and Pandy) are Wild Streams, fly only and catch and release, with rods of 6½ to 8 feet rated 2 to 4 weight suggested. Lower Stanton and Pandy also hold grayling. The upper Grwyne Fawr, a remote Usk tributary, is wild brown trout water over bedrock, and studded soles are a must. On the Monnow, Skenfrith is £24 a day for trout and grayling, with good mayfly hatches. In Monmouth, Monmouth and District Angling Society has the Monnow at Vauxhall Fields and about six kilometres of the Trothy, a small wild trout stream with a mayfly hatch in May and June. It is members only, with no day tickets.
On the lower Wye, Cadora Backs and Wyesham are catch and release salmon beats. Cadora Backs is half a mile of left bank, a low water beat that fishes best when the Redbrook gauge reads 1 metre or less, at £50 a day for one rod. Wyesham is the first beat downstream of Monmouth, about 2½ miles of double bank. Llandegfedd Reservoir, near Pontypool, is 434 acres, with the county boundary running through it. It is stocked with rainbows, holds a few wild browns, and is fished from the bank or from boats. Ravensnest, near Tintern, is two small woodland pools, fly only, at £30 for a catch and release day or £8 for each fish you take home.
It suits an angler who will book a beat ahead and fish a small stream on a light rod, and who doesn’t mind that the club water here is for members only.
Four ways into Monmouthshire
Most people arrive here with one of these four questions. Pick the one that sounds like yours.
Where to fly fish in Monmouthshire
Every beat and fishery we list in the county, plotted against the boundary. Click a river to read what that stretch is like.
Fly fishing rivers in Monmouthshire
Every river we list in Monmouthshire, busiest first.
What a day actually costs in Monmouthshire
Compare with other riversTypical, lowest and highest full-day rod, from 8 beats with published day rates. Half-day and evening tickets are left out rather than doubled up.
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A full day in Monmouthshire typically costs £24, from £15 to £50 across 8 beats with published day rates.
| Month | Cheapest | Typical | Dearest | Beats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| February | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| March | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| April | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| May | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| June | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| July | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| August | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| September | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| October | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| November | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
| December | £15 | £24 | £50 | 8 |
Day ticket fly fishing in Monmouthshire
Browse all 26 beatsDay tickets and permits on Monmouthshire's rivers. Each listing includes pricing, species, and booking details.
River Usk
Aberbaiden
£24 per rod 2 rods
River Monnow
Skenfrith
£24 per rod 2 rods
River Usk
Usk Town Water
£16 per rod 10 rods
River Usk
River Usk, Llanover Estate beats
On enquiry
River Usk
Abergavenny Town Water
£15 per rod 6 rods
River Wye
Cadora Backs
£50 per rod 1 rod
River Usk
Chainbridge
£26 per rod 3 rods
River Usk
Glan-y-Cafn
£26 per rod 4 rods
River Monnow
Monnow Valley
£24 per rod 3 rods
Ravensnest Fly Fishery
Ravensnest Pools
£30 per rod
River Honddu (Monnow)
Honddu Half Moon
On enquiry
Fish species in Monmouthshire
What the beats above hold, and where else in England you can fish for the same species.
Three different kinds of operator, and most visitors want the first. A fishery or estate owns the water and sells you a day on it. A club or syndicate holds water for its members, sometimes with day tickets alongside. A guide or agent sells days on water somebody else owns, and often comes with you.
Fisheries and estate waters in Monmouthshire
Fishery operators taking bookings on Monmouthshire's rivers. Each listing covers tickets, accommodation, and equipment hire where available.
Clubs and syndicates in Monmouthshire
Membership bodies holding water in Monmouthshire. Some sell day tickets alongside membership, others are members-only, and a few run a waiting list.
Fly fishing guides and booking agents in Monmouthshire
Agents selling day tickets and guides running days on Monmouthshire's beats.
Finding fly fishing near you in Monmouthshire
The map above plots Monmouthshire's beats and fisheries against the county boundary, so you can see roughly how far a stretch is rather than just its name on a list. Tap a marker for a quick read on price and species before you go further. If you're weighing this county against somewhere else, or want to see every day-ticket beat in the country at once, the full beat map covers all of them.
A day ticket is usually a half day or a full day on the water, so it's worth weighing the drive against how much fishing you'll actually get out of it. A longer trip makes more sense for a full day than for two or three hours in the afternoon.
For scale, the River Usk rises near Black Mountain, Brecon Beacons National Park, and the River Honddu (Monnow) rises near Near the Gospel Pass, Black Mountains. Beats sit further downstream from there, not at the source itself. The map above is the more exact guide to which stretch is closest to you.
Fly fishing lessons and tuition in Monmouthshire
FishingBeats doesn't list fly fishing schools or dedicated instructors: the agents and guides above are the ones selling day tickets and guided days on Monmouthshire's beats. Some may be willing to teach alongside a day out even where it isn't sold as a separate product, so it's worth asking rather than assuming either way. That's a different thing from starting from scratch, though: a guided day generally assumes you can already cast, where a lesson teaches the cast itself, and most UK fly fishing lessons for that begin on a stillwater rather than a river. How tuition, guided days and courses fit together is covered on the agents page. Once you can put a fly out, easy beats rated for a first visit or beats where you can arrange a ghillie are a reasonable next step, and a few beginner-friendly beats to start on is worth reading before you book.
FAQ
Monmouthshire fly fishing FAQs
The questions people ask before booking a day in Monmouthshire, answered from what we actually list.
01Is all the fly fishing in Monmouthshire private?
02What does a day's fly fishing cost in Monmouthshire?
03Which Monmouthshire river should I fish first?
04Do I need a rod licence to fish in Monmouthshire?
Worth a read
Fly fishing in other counties
Nearest first, measured from where Monmouthshire's fishing actually is rather than from the county town.
£24 typical day
Day rods from £15 to £50
