Feedback & Reports

2x brown trout (3/4lb and 1/2lb) taken on nymphs (yellow sallie size 14, bead head Kern emerger 14). 1x grayling (1.5lb) taken on copper bead head nymph size 18/20. 1 x grayling (roughly 1lb) hooked but not landed taken on copper bead head nymph size 18/20. A stunning day fishing during which we both caught fish. We saw kingfishers. A hatch started about 2pm after the sun broke through early cloud, that had been preceded by a rainy, cold morning. Nothing taken on dries, or spiders, or surface emergers. All fish taken on indicator rigs in rifles or fast water. Best fish big old grayling. Rather manky thing its dorsal fin split 3/4 way down and bottom side of tail fin worn down and 'rounded'. Absence of bigger trout.

I caught 3 small grayling of about 6-7 inches and 2 trout: one of about 9 inches and the other, a good fish of about 13 inches. All fish safely returned. They were all caught on hare's ear nymphs except one of the Grayling on PTN. All action in the slack just beside a couple of streamy pool necks towards the top of the beat.

No fish caught. Saw only one rising fish all day. Access to banks on western end of beat not very easy - was with 10 year old son and not wearing waders. Not a problem, but would have been good to know. Himalayan balsam abundant in places - is there a control strategy on the Lugg?

A fantastic day weather wise wasn't quite matched by the fishing! 2 WBT caught on size 20 PTN's fished NZ style under a klinkhammer. Both small, about 6". A small hatch of olives early afternoon, but no fish seen rising all day. Tried dries in the flats, nymphs in the riffles and bugs in the holes, to no avail. Beautiful beat, saw a kingfisher doing a low flyby, which is always a nice sight. Thanks to Seth for pointing me in the direction of this lovely, tranquil beat.

Unfortunately we failed to interest any fish with dries, nymphs and bugs and it was only during a small early afternoon hatch that any rises (three in total) were observed.
As is always the case when fishing along these type of rivers it doesn't always matter whether fish are landed or not as it's all about spending the day in such wonderful surroundings. Although we saw no fish we did see an array of wildlife including kingfishers, roe deer and an otter so went home relaxed and seriously content.
Thanks as always to the WUF for helping us discover yet another beautiful part of the country.

A new season. The Lugg was in excellent condition, the fish were elusive and the anglers rusty. One Brown Trout and two mini Grayling. Better days ahead...

2 x grayling 16 and 18 inches, Pink Shrimp. Another mild day by recent standards. The Lugg was a nice colour, but still very high and fast. Apart from a few parr, I had a real struggle through most of the day trying to work out where the grayling had wandered off to. However, I was lucky enough to bump into a brace of good ones before dark.

A super day out but, sadly, no fish! Probably more a reflection of our lack of grayling fishing expertise rather than lack of fish. That said, it was very windy and the river was somewhat cloudy and rose in level quite rapidly whilst we were there; presumably due to rain storms up the valley somewhere! We gave it all we had; czech nymphs, beaded pheasant tails and even dry red tags, all to no avail. Definitely a beat to come back to. The extensive barbed wire fencing was a bit of trial at times particularly as stiles were few and far between and some broken. Nonetheless, a wonderful tranquil setting with some super runs - those grayling are in there somewhere and we will be back!!

17 x grayling 6-19 inches, 10 x out of season trout 8-14 inches, taken by bugging and in fact nearly all of them chose a Pink Shrimp from the cast.

A dull day around 5 degrees, with rain at times and only occasional glimpses of the sun. Nevertheless, Lyepole was as beautiful as ever although not quite so quiet as usual - I could hear a hunt going on in the next valley. Highish water (1 foot 1 at Byton gauge) but colour was fining down during the day. Just above the bridge, I met an otter fishing by day, as they often do in high water. I like to think they don't do too much harm to the fishing, unlike those "black death" cormorants, and in fact fish were taking just minutes after she passed by me on her way downstream.

However, of a very mixed bag of grayling, some small, some middling, a couple of fish at 15 and 16 inches, and a real specimen at 19 inches...well the big one, a nice looking fish in every other way with heavy shoulders and a massive dorsal, unfortunately had a nasty and quite fresh wound on its back. I'm afraid this looked more like an otter bite to me than a cormorant slash. I'm sure it will recover.

The trout were as active as they have been elsewhere this autumn, excellent condition wild Lugg fish, full of fight and pep...and no sign at all of spawning.

Altogether a delightful day and I was so engaged that that I totally neglected to eat my lunch.

Very dissapointing day's fishing, two small grayling caught and returned. This was once a wonderful beat in the past, it has now declined with the quality of the fishing and fish stock.
These are my comments that I hope will be taken into consideration. Too much barbed wire fenching along the river bank with poor access. Young heffers were in and out of the river. Cormorant's spotted in the river valley. I shall not return until I hear of the river's improvements from the W.U.F

WUF NOTE: please see OB catch return from 4/12/11