I am thinking about fishing Big Well Fishery in Monmouth. I have never fished it before and wondered if anyone else had, and what they thought of it. Have you fished it this summer, and what did you think of it?

Members of my club down there a couple of years ago, we all had fish, mainly limits. Reasonably easy access, I only needeed to fish the top pool which was then the deepest, used nymphs/damsels etc best pattern was a juicy lucy or y.b.t. (yellow beaded thing). Kamasan b110 size 10. Yellow thread, yellow marabou tail (short blood plumes) Yellow ostrich body with 5lbs. nylon rib overhand knotted to shank then overwound, 5 yellow glass beads on soft brass haberd. pin cut and bent double to prevent beads sliding off. This is curved and held onto top of shank with nylon ribbed between each bead after ostrich wound up and tied off. Sounds a bit "fiddly" but don't even think of using less than a 7lls point as they can hit this one hard as soon as it touches the water!

Another couple you might want to try are:-

A very thin epoxy coated bloodworm on a c.j. red hook with 5 strands of red marabou tail is very good as well, fished on a static drift. A blue comet, l.s. 10 blue marabou tail with some crystal flash, blue hackle wound at tail end and silver body.

I had the misfortune to go to this place when I was fishing the Usk, it was baking hot and thought I'd just try it out as I was waiting for someone to take me fishing on the Usk.

It consists of a set of ponds that should be holding goldfish not trout. A 3/4/5 wt rod is sufficient to cast the length of any of these ponds. They wouldn't look out of place in a garden centre imvho.

It was one of the worst couple of hours I spent "fishing" in my life. If I hadn't have been waiting for someone I'd have left immediately on arrival.

Sorry if this is so negative, this was a couple of years ago. Perhaps its improved. Perhaps I had a bad day. But, I do type this with a clear conscience, personally, I'd never go back there.

Thanks for that, I'm not a great fan of such small waters. I like to move around a lot to find fish but it seems I'll cover all the water in about an hour!

I might try it just for a couple of hours and see for myself.

I fished Big Well a few times in the past. The last time was last December.

Pros
Good quality fish.
Very friendly staff.
Excellent cooked breakfasts.
Comparatively cheap to fish (I think it's £10 for C&R)
Crystal clear water in at least one of the lakes.
Great place for teaching my 10 year old to fish.

Cons
Basically what MichaelL said. It feels like you're fishing a pond in someone's back garden. If there's more than 4 people fishing on the main pond they'll be casting across each other, it's that small.

A yellow 'buzzer', czech nymph or a bloodworm imitation fished static under an indicator usually works well there.

To small for me Baggy!! Where are you based? By the time you have drove there and found it!(you have to go through a residential area in Redbrook on the chepstow road.). You might as well go to Llangdegfedd. Harder fishing i know, But proper fishing i suppose i am a bit biased i love reservoirs!!

Tim

I live between Newport and Cardiff and fish Dyffryn Springs but the water's warmed up and the fish are not interested. I used to fish Llandegfedd years ago and enjoyed fishing from a boat mostly, but then I opted for the easy life of small stillwater fishing with small flies as I got a bit bored stripping lures. But I must admit it takes a lot to beat a day on Llandegfedd in September when they are feeding on fry. I will probably be out there in the autumn.