River guide
River Usk in Monmouthshire
5 checked stretches so far — day tickets, club waters and guest tickets, each checked against the club's own pages.
The lowdown
The River Usk runs through Monmouthshire, with this fishing around Usk and Llanbadoc. This stretch has additional fishing upstream and downstream of Usk town, plus public-road and town access around the area.
Around Usk Town Water, the river offers pools, runs and glides over a mostly gravel bed. It is described as consistently productive and particularly suitable for trout fishing, with easier wading than on many other parts of the Usk.
Close season reminder
Coarse fishing on English rivers is closed from 15 March to 15 June inclusive. That's the law for coarse fish on rivers — it's not a club rule, and game-fishing seasons work differently.
GOV.UK — Freshwater rod fishing rules: when and where you can fishStretches
5 of 5 checked stretches. No rankings — we don't know which is "best" on your day, and neither does anyone else.
Usk Town Water
River Usk · Day ticket
Usk Town Water is a cracking, roughly two-mile double-bank stretch around Usk, with pools, runs and glides from Llanbadoc Church down to the fields at Llancayo. It’s particularly geared up for fly fishing for trout, with a gravel bed and generally easier wading than many parts of the Usk.
Checked 12 Oct 2026
Mardy Beat, River Usk
River Usk · Day ticket or members
Mardy Beat is a cracking middle-section stretch of the River Usk, run by Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance. You get almost 1.5 miles of left-bank fishing, with pools, runs, tree-lined banks and some proper useful groynes up top.
Checked 12 Oct 2026
Kemeys Commander Beat, River Usk
River Usk · Advance booking through MTAA
Kemeys Commander is a cracking 1,270-yard MTAA beat above Usk, with fishing on the left bank facing downstream. It runs through rural farmland near the village and historic Chain Bridge, with access via Lower House Farm.
Checked 12 Oct 2026
River Usk – Ysbytty Beat
River Usk · Members only or guest ticket
Ysbytty is a cracking 1,070-yard middle-Usk beat near Abergavenny, run by Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance. It fishes from the east bank only, with wild brown trout and migratory fish water when conditions line up.
Checked 12 Oct 2026
Chainbridge Beat, River Usk
River Usk · Day ticket or evening ticket
Chainbridge Beat is a cracking, rare day-ticket section on the mid/lower River Usk, a few miles upstream of Usk town. Just over a kilometre long, it offers salmon and wild brown trout fishing across six named pools.
Checked 12 Oct 2026
Pins mark the access postcode each club gives, not the bank itself. Exact boundary map: see rights holder.
Access & tickets
River trout full-day ticket
Wye & Usk Foundation
Fishing Passport day ticket
£15 (as listed 12/10/2026)
Covers: Usk Town Water
Weekly trout ticket
Wye & Usk Foundation
Fishing Passport ticket
£45 (as listed 12/10/2026)
Covers: Usk Town Water
Half-price evening ticket
Wye & Usk Foundation
Available from May to September after 1pm on the day of fishing; evening fishing permitted from 5pm
Covers: Usk Town Water
River Usk Mardy weekly permit
Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance
Weekly permit, purchased before fishing through the MTAA booking system.
£40 (as listed 12/10/2026)
Covers: Mardy Beat, River Usk
Adult trout-only guest ticket
Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance
Per day. Must be accompanied by a full MTAA member.
£15 per day (as listed 12/10/2026)
Covers: Mardy Beat, River Usk
Adult salmon guest ticket
Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance
Per day. Must be accompanied by a full MTAA member.
£25 per day (as listed 12/10/2026)
Covers: Mardy Beat, River Usk
MTAA booking
Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance
Advance booking through the Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance booking system is required.
Covers: Kemeys Commander Beat, River Usk
MTAA booking
Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance
Book fishing through Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance’s online booking system.
Covers: River Usk – Ysbytty Beat
Environment Agency rod licence
Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance
Carry an Environment Agency rod licence; factory security may ask to see it.
Covers: River Usk – Ysbytty Beat
Full-day salmon ticket
The Wye & Usk Foundation (Fishing Passport)
Fishing Passport ticket
£45 (as listed 12/10/2026)
Covers: Chainbridge Beat, River Usk
Evening salmon ticket
The Wye & Usk Foundation (Fishing Passport)
From 5pm; half-price evening tickets are available from 1 May after 1pm on the fishing day
£22.50 (as listed 12/10/2026)
Covers: Chainbridge Beat, River Usk
Junior salmon ticket
The Wye & Usk Foundation (Fishing Passport)
Fishing Passport ticket
£15 (as listed 12/10/2026)
Covers: Chainbridge Beat, River Usk
Species
We only tag a stretch with a fish when the club names it. Some clubs name fish across all their water rather than stretch by stretch — those are flagged on the card.
| Stretch | Carp | Tench | Bream | Roach | Pike | Perch | Barbel | Catfish | Trout | Rudd | Chub | Crucian carp | Eel | Zander |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Usk Town Water | ● | ● | ||||||||||||
| Mardy Beat, River Usk | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Kemeys Commander Beat, River Usk | ●* | ●* | ●* | ●* | ●* | |||||||||
| River Usk – Ysbytty Beat | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||
| Chainbridge Beat, River Usk | ● |
● named by the club for this stretch · ●* named across the club's waters · blank = not named (not "absent").
Rules — who runs what
Day tickets are booked through the Wye & Usk Foundation’s Fishing Passport booking page. Season rods are available separately through the Fishing Passport scheme.
Club pageMerthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance
Book in advance through the Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance booking system. MTAA offers weekly permits and guest tickets, with no tickets sold at the venue.
Club pageThe Wye & Usk Foundation (Fishing Passport)
Tickets are booked through The Wye & Usk Foundation’s Fishing Passport scheme. A maximum of three tickets is available per day.
Club pageFished the river recently?
Pick the stretch you fished and add a 20-second update there — one stretch at a time keeps it useful.
Each stretch page lists its own key rules. You'll need an Environment Agency rod licence on all of them.
River levels
Measured readings straight from the Environment Agency. These are the nearest gauges we've matched — not readings from the stretches themselves.
No Environment Agency gauge matched on this river near these stretches yet.
Tips & reports
Our take (editorial, not club advice): on any decent-sized river, a lead that holds bottom without dragging is half the battle — go up in weight before you go up in bait. A bit of extra colour after rain often brings barbel and bream closer in, but a fast-rising, debris-filled river is dangerous; if in doubt, don't. Weather tools built for still lakes don't translate neatly to rivers, so we haven't bolted a lake-style weather score on here.
No angler reports on these stretches yet — we'll only show real ones once our moderated river reports are live.
Where this comes from · checked 12 Oct 2026
- GOV.UK — Freshwater rod fishing rules: when and where you can fish
- fishingpassport.co.uk (fishingpassport.co.uk)
- Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance — home (mtaa.co.uk)
- The Wye & Usk Foundation (Fishing Passport) — chainbridge (fishingpassport.co.uk)
Rules, prices and ticket availability change — the rights holder's own page always wins.