Feedback & Reports

The water level was very low, we fished the Chanel all the way up with a gold head nymph not a fish in sight.

The river was down to its bones and the fishing was very hard. Nothing rising, but they never do here! No sign of any fish and thought a blank was on the cards.
Walked the full beat both sides, which if you know this water, you'll also know that's hard work! Concentrated on the pocket water and saved my blushes with a tiny grayling, and then out of nothing a slight pull on my tiny tungsten hairs ear produced a stunning fish of 22 inches which I would think was around 3 and half pound.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

Arriving at the lower section parking around 10 o'clock I was on the river for half past. A short walk from the saw mill I found the river. Access from this bank is easy and as far as I could see most of the way up. I started out using klink and dink, the gulley is in this section. As I moved up the beat I noticed some olives coming of so switched to dry fly. I didn't see one rise all morning. Just after lunch saw an Large dark olive hatch and rising fish appeared all down the river. I managed to take a 16 inch 2Lb brown trout with a jingler dry fly during the hatch. I tried a few different methods during the afternoon but to no avail. It's still early season but the fish are there during the hatches. The day was very sunny and bright too so a few things not in my favour. I really enjoyed my day none the less. A beautiful place to fish.
Please note - The wading in this section is very tricky, there are a lot of slippery boulders and bed rock river bottom. In my opinion a wading staff, felts and studs should be essential.

1 Trout

Only fished for a few hours, with the river a little high but running clear. Plenty of Fly activity but nothing rising to them. Opted to fish New Zealand style to see if I could tempt one up. Which I didn't as all the fish took my tiny Olive Nymph. A couple of grayling to 13 inches and some great Trout to 19 inches.

5 Trout, 2 Grayling

My first trip to this part of the river this year, and I hope it gets better than this! The river was slightly high, but not coloured and looked more than fishable.
Worked hard and even in desperation fished right up to the top limit, and did not get one bite, no sign of a fish all day. This beat normally doesn't produce as many fish as you would take further down stream, but the fish are normally bigger, but not today, left with my tail between my legs about 2pm after being there from dawn.
I see that the beat was fully booked the day before, and I look forward to reading the catch report, to see how they fared.

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