Feedback & Reports

A completely different day to yesterday. The cold wind had dropped and the air temp was a few degrees higher as a result. There were fish active throughout the beat as we arrived at around 10am, which continued up until our departure at 3pm. A few true Mays were spotted among the yellow Mays and a good number and variety of olives. Many of the trout were caught on cdc olive emerger patterns. Klinkhammers also worked in faster water with some fish coming to nymph too. We ended up with 17 trout to just over 2.5lb, all returned.

17 Trout

Tough day with cold downstream wind restricting fly hatches. 7 trout caught, biggest was around 1.25lb, all returned.

7 Trout

Overcast with sunny intervals, no wind. River in perfect condition. Huge hatch of olives from around 11:30 to 14:30. Also some March Browns, a short burst of Hawthorn Fly and the occasional Mayfly. Fish rising on the flats at either end of the main pools. No obvious activity in the faster riffles. Lots of fish coming up to my fly but swerving away at the last moment. The occasional take, which was swiftly rejected. Worked through the olive patterns in my fly box. What worked was a standard light olive but on size 16 hook. I think the clear calm conditions on the flats gave the fish too much time to check out my fly-tying skills. Two nice WBT to the net. A thunderstorm at 14:30 put an end to the hatch and the day's fun. It's a long walk in the rain back to the car park at Ashford House !

2 Trout

Mostly cloudy day, with light winds. Fished dry all day, and had 7 trout in the net of varying size. Lost at least that many, just couldn't keep them on the hook today.

7 Trout

1 Trout

1 Trout

1 Trout

5 Trout

Very quiet, think water still cold.

2 Trout

First time at Ashford House for some time and, although it’s still early spring, it looks like access to the river has been improved a little. The landowner needs congratulating as the first meadow is looking lovely being full of wild flowers, hopefully this is deliberate and will continue to improve.
Very few fish seen, the first rose during a brief hatch of March Browns and took my fly first time but I missed it. The second was spotted on a shallow glide rising intermittently and took a dry after a bit of stealthy positioning and casting. The resulting fish put up a good fight and was a good size but unfortunately was in terrible condition with sores to one side and a damaged dorsal fin.
Headed home not long after catching as despite being mostly warm and sunny a brisk downstream wind was making presentation difficult.

1 Trout