Feedback & Reports

The river was swollen and sub-zero temperatures meant I had to de-ice the rod rings every few casts.
My guest had cried off and so I fished alone from 10.30 - 15.30. The fishing was tough and I caught only in the slower deep water towards the middle of the beat. As ever, wading was difficult but particularly so in the high water.
I fished two heavy bugs (3-4.5mm beads plus lead under bodies) as deep and slow as I could. Success came when I managed to fish the flies at the desired speed (which, with the amount of water in the river, wasn't easy).
Grayling ranged between 12'' and 15'' and I caught several (unexpected) small OOS trout.

3 Trout, 5 Grayling

Perfect condition, but fish hard to locate. Fished full length of beat picking fish up on route. Best grayling of 18".

1 Trout, 7 Grayling

Washed off!

Caught 3 grayling on a pink shrimp and a squirrel flash back nymph. I parked at the top of the beat with the plan to walk to the bottom and fish up. I found my way blocked by either treacherous wading or steep banks and vegetation. Fell in a couple of times.

3 Grayling

Took a gamble with the river being high but well worth the effort. If I didn't know the beat as well as I do, I'd never have got in the river. But after carefully positioning myself on the shelf, I fished the shallow water under the trees as the gutter was unfishable. Proved the right move with plenty of fish were there avoiding the fast flow. Took some lovely Grayling to 16 inches and a number of trout similar size who clearly did not know what the date was! Testing, but enjoyable days fishing.

5 Trout, 10 Grayling

6 Trout, 6 Grayling

Four good fish all on nymphs the largest was just over 2lb then 2 of around the 1lb mark and another just over half a pound! Really nice beat wading tricky in places.

4 Grayling

River not as low as I was expecting, but it was very clear and full of leaves. Mainly fished bottom end gutter with klink and dink and caught a small grayling and trout, both fish about 10". No other sign of life. Some heavy rain in the afternoon.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

4 Trout, 2 Grayling

Lovely stretch of river. We started on the lower section dabbling in the gutter and although we scared a couple of good sized fish lingering in the shallows we were unable to tempt anything from the gutter itself. 2 grayling of 10" taken on copper john and hares ear nymph over a gravelly section before moving up to the upper section where we had 2 nice brown trout of 14" and 16" on Black Magic and red tungsten head hares ear. Light was running out as we got to the top and after taking one too many tumbles mid-water we decided to call it a day. Great fun and what a way for my pal to get his first fly fishing experience...a 16" Wye Brown!

2 Trout, 2 Grayling