Feedback & Reports

Difficulty using the parking at the sawmill on the southern end of the fishery.
There were already 2 vehicles parked and the owner/operator of the sawmill was very unhappy about a third vehicle.
So parked at northern spot instead, no problem for me.

Never really got going today; with the paucity of fish being largely down to doing the wrong things at the wrong time. Apart from a couple of tiddlers, the fish were a decent size; Trout to 12" and Grayling to 14". A combination of French nymphing, conventional nymph fishing and dry fly; with most of the fish on nymphs. A brief encounter with something much bigger; which will live in the
memory long after all the others are forgot

3 Trout, 6 Grayling

Heavy rain but river low and clear. Not many fish showing but they were there, Grayling (1/2lb max) all came to dry fly and trout (3/4lb) to ptn. Good variety of water to fish across a long beat though access difficult through wooded section and stiles over fences decrepit.

1 Trout, 5 Grayling

Only two rods fished.
Hot and dry again – so we planned to fish well up the river on a favourite beat. The fish were not in the usual places….we started at the top end without too much success, so transferred down to the sawmill stretch and pretty soon located the fish. 28 in total, all but two were grayling and up to the usual standard – only a few under 12”, most 12 -15” but best two 18 & 20”. All on dries . A great day.

2 Trout, 26 Grayling

hard going pressured the day before, fish in the pools fish very spooky moving away from the nymph picked up fish in the pocket water and deep gutters

1 Trout, 9 Grayling

3 lost, nymphs water low and clear, site fishing to fussy grayling, hard work but good fun.

7 Grayling

I spent most of the day on the top half, with the pocket water fishing well carrying a good flow of cold water from the Elan dam release. The usual plan of attack with long leader nymphs in the morning and Dries in the afternoon which unfortunately was cut short by heavy rain, a black foam beetle pattern was getting a lot of interest.The Grayling were all of a good size with a 17"+ the largest, the best trout was 16" and in fine condition.

12 Trout, 22 Grayling

My first visit to this beat - and a generally favourable impression

I note that the other angler on the beat thought there was compensation water in the river. With no reference point, I did not appreciate this at the time - but the water certainly felt cold

Anxious to explore the whole of the beat, I may have rushed through productive water and spent too long walking the bank and/or fishing skinny water (very much a case of "what's around the next bend?"). Most of my fish came from the bottom of the beat. Quality fish - a few smaller fish; but everything else was 12" plus, with a couple at 14" plus. As my old mate Tom Dixon would say "about a pound". Mind you, with Tom, anything that he catches over 8" long is "about a pound"

Fished a team of spiders - with most of the fish coming to the point fly

15 Grayling