Feedback & Reports

High water... fast flowing... but at least a beautiful day....

River still up at 1.2m on the Ross gauge and coloured so no good for fly but had a go anyway just for the exercise. Predictable result so tried spinning for a few hours, again nothing. Levels need to drop to under 0.8m, 0.4m to 0.5m being safest and best for the fly.
No dramatic changes to the beat from last season apart from some judicious pruning of willows which will make life so much easier when wading the right bank; thanks to whoever was responsible. Be back soon!

Nothing seen or caught. The river was quite high with the Ross on Wye gauge at 1.45m, so spinning was the order of the day.

Bit of a tough day with the river up 0.5mtr and coloured so spinning was the order for the day; didn't help that I left the waders in the kitchen either!
The usual suspects put in an appearance, chub and shad, (the Pulpit was full of kippers), but after lunch a solid take on Black/Gold FC was followed by a 20lb+ fish clearing the water and heading upstream..... My line however was going downstream!
After a short but spirited tussle I netted a 6lb cock fish which took almost 15 minutes to recover... Swam away strongly enough though, eventually. Didn't see the 20 again unfortunately as shortly after the river coloured even more and began to rise again.
For any coarse anglers smart enough to read this, the second and last pegs on left bank are looking very good ( but snags under willow) and first peg under willow on right bank is full of chub but shelves up quickly; no more than three rod lengths down... Tight lines.

1 Salmon, 1 Chub, 1 Other

Not been to this beat before, but water still appeared high after the recent rain and was very coloured. High water level and some very wet steep banks made access difficult. The access path on the left bank especially has become very overgrown and difficult to use. Tried a variety of flies at various depths but no success.

Wasn't expecting much and wasn't disappointed; water warm as a bath and green as grass.
Lots, 100+, small Chub in under the overhanging trees and bushes feasting on the fly hatches with bigger fish in the faster water of the Bridge pool so looking really good for the start of the coarse season at Foy Bridge. The Creel section had numbers of Dace and big Chub taking flies off the top right in the margins. Time to dust off the centrepin!

3 Chub

Well some days are better than others and this was a good day!
The tally for the morning; 3 Shad, 2 Chub (largest weigh-netted at just shy of 7lb) and 1 WBT that came in at 3lb. All on a Black and Yellow Brass Tube-fly by local artisan Geoff Franks. I lost count of the ones I missed by mid-day, at one point it was a fish a cast but most of the Shad and smaller Trout couldn’t hang on to a #8 Double.
After lunch a Black/Gold Flying C accounted for 2 more Shad, a small Pike and, having hooked and lost 3 when they threw the single barbless, an 8lb Hen Salmon went downstream instead of airborne so I was able to net this one.
The Shad and Chub were taken in the Bridge Pool but all the Salmon were hooked in one short section at the top of the Creel.
I've attached one photo looking upstream to Bridge Pool from the left and another of the right bank area where the Salmon queue up in low water!

1 Salmon, 1 Trout, 2 Chub, 1 Pike, 5 Other

Lost a large salmon from the island (church) stream which had rejected the fly but taken a blue rapala.

2 Chub

River in good fettle. Used micro riffling hitch flies, sunray shadows and franc n snaelda in various colours. Did not see a fish (salmon). Did not catch a fish ... but a wonderful bit of river. Thought provoking !

River was in good nick. Able to access pools OK. Tried micro hitch, sunray shadow and franc n snaeldas. Did not see a salmon. Did not catch a salmon. No such thing as bad day on the river. Saw my 1st swift, swallow and house martins of the season. Lots of mayflies hatching off. Grand day