Feedback & Reports

When we arrived we decided to walk to the bottom of the beat found this hard going due to where the cows had been walking and the ground very bogey . The bridge across the ditch was unsafe to cross. When we reached the falls found the water was running fast. Walking back along the fence line which was all barbed wire did not find many places to gain access to the water, passed a couple of trees which had fallen across the river (should be removed ). Access on both sides of the river looked very scarce. Stopped for lunch and decided we would walk the top part of the beat. We were disappointed to find again that there was no where to access the river apart from one stile ( when stepped on fell apart ) looking to the other bank there wasn’t many places to access the water. With the water flowing so fast wading would have been too dangerous with not having access to get out of the water. Probably needs to be fished when water is lower and not running fast to enable for wading.
2 fished 1 small grayling caught.

1 Grayling

A first time reccie here for me today . Set in a stunning valley and time actually seemed to slow down here ! Beyond peaceful and hot in the sunshine today! 0.47m on the Byton gauge and seemed to be pushing through the pacier sections at a fair old lick and the colour was enough for me to be not too adventurous with the wading in any steep sided gravel pools! Same in the pacy water really. A few bits of fly around but not much moving on top but stuck with the dry, such a nice day for it.

Went downstream to start and is pretty much socked in down there with herbage/trees but enough places to squeeze in and fish ok. Seemed to me though that its going the way of some of the wild streams sadly with no foliage management and good fishing opportunities being lost. Had a walk above the bridge in the evening up the r/hand bank but the left hand bank looked to have better access on the whole! The bendy bits just above the bridge looked deep and very interesting indeed ! Nice pace on them too today.

Looking forward to running a deep nymph or stick float through them sometime this winter. Lots of small olive nymphs/stone clingers and loads of shrimp on the rocks up in the fast water at the weir. The local kingfisher was putting on some great close up flybys today and dippers busy busy as ever.

Couldn't find the grayling today, too busy just enjoying the peace and good weather I guess!

3 Trout

5 Grayling

1 Trout, 2 Grayling

1 Trout

Great days fishing on a lovely beat…. Nothing rising all day and had them all euro nymphing. Majority of trout about 8” and grayling similar size too. All caught in the faster water.

9 Trout, 14 Grayling

Lost 3 trout. Probably fished to high in the water. Not 1 surfacing fish all morning. Below bridge very difficult access without waders. Fishes nymphs and spiders.

I fished from 1400-1830, strong winds occasional rain and sunny spells.
I've not been on this beat for a number of years so memories are faded, but it felt like fairly low water. There was something of a milky hue to the water, which I remember from other Lugg beats but hadn't previously associated with this one.
There was some fly life about so I fished all of the streamy water with various CDC mayfly imitations and suspended PTN patterns. No rises to naturals but dozens of splashes from tiny things (2-3”) in the shallow, fast moving water and one small grayling (5"). Aside from that, nothing on the dry. I had another equally small grayling and a tiny trout (4") on the PTN - but only when I fished it across the current and retrieved, there was no interest in anything dead drifted. Given the stream is so small and foliage is intense, there is very little scope to fish across.
Eventually, I realised that the fast, steamy water that I remembered as being full of trout years ago wasn't going to produce anything so I started again and went through the few deep pools in the lower half of the beat with a long leader and heavy nymphs -tricky with a 6' 3wt rod... I don't particularly like that style of fishing but it brought 3 grayling quite quickly, the largest at 14".

Access is good, especially below the bridge. Above the bridge a couple of fallen trees and plenty of vegetation growth make a section of around 50m unfishable, but it's a slow moving flat stretch so didn't feel like a great loss.

1 Trout, 4 Grayling

Tough going today. River low and cloudy. First time fishing here in summer, a lovely private beat but feel it fishes much better in early spring/ autumn.

Lots of fly life but saw only one rising fish all day which I managed to tempt on an Adams dry. All other fish to nymphs.

5 Grayling