Feedback & Reports

Before booking this beat you really need to read comments in other returns, they are correct access to most of this beat is impossible!. I picked a bad time because the water level was really low ( 0.1 on the gauge) so apart from a small section near the bridge ( upper car park ) I had to walk one and a half miles to get into the river . Due to the lack of any flow I only had two fifty yard runs that I could fish! . OK I done pretty well there so I shouldn't complain but it's not alot to go at. The bit near the bridge is also very shallow I could have fished the whole beat with wellies.but I did lose a very big grayling there in only a foot of water. Euro fished one nymph all day and had grayling to 16" ( two) and usual size trout.

10 Trout, 7 Grayling

The lower section of this beat is a delightful stretch for small stream Euro nymphing. Most of the fish landed were in the 8-10 inch range with the two best grayling around the 1lb mark. I would happily recommend this beat to others subject to my comments below regarding access.

ACCESS ISSUES

The beat map is very misleading, it suggests that you can fish upstream from tThe Severn Arms for quite a long distance. You can’t. Firstly the map does not show the existence of the large weir which is only a hundred yards upstream of the A 44 road bridge. Secondly it does not warn you that a lot of the stated “Extent of fishing” is in fact in the gardens of private houses - for example most of the right bank above the A 44 bridge. Thirdly virtually all of the fields above that bridge are bounded by 4 foot high barbed wire fencing. I did not see a single style or crossing point on any of that fencing.

For anyone visiting this beat for the first time I would suggest you drive to the very upstream limit and explore it downstream from there rather than parking at the lowest point at The Severn Arms.

11 Grayling

The river was fairly high with plenty of colour, lots of leaves made bite detection tricky.
No grayling but one trout quickly returned. Trotted maggot

1 Trout

The water was muddy and a little higher than usual. Heavy rain all day, difficult to fish in these conditions, but still caught a few.

7 Trout, 3 Grayling

Unbelievable 5 hours on river Ithon today. All fish on euronymphing, I've seen plenty of grayling raising up, but had no any dry flies with me. Anyway, this is probably one of the best rivers I've ever been fishing. Managed to catch a grayling over 2lb, which was very impressive!!!
What a day, I will definitely come back and in the winter as well.

10 Trout, 14 Grayling

Did not fish as the river was too low.

Arrived at 2 and fished until 5.30. Cloudy with a light breeze and about 13°C. A light hatch of small olives with regular splashy rises. First fish was foul hooked in the side to a sedge artificial, successfully realised ( hopefully). All other fish fell to a parachute greenwells. Probably rose twice as many fish as I caught, all fish in the 6 to 8 inch range apart from one 10 inch brown trout.

4 Trout, 1 Grayling

One small 6oz trout was caught, seven of the grayling were around the 6-10oz (20cm long) size, and two were around 1lb 6oz (30-33cm long). All fish were caught trotting red and white maggots on the stretch approx 500m upstream from the A44 road bridge, which apart from a short very shallow, 50m stretch just below the white iron bridge at the top end of the beat, was the only accessible section on this beat. We were really disappointed to find our access blocked or restricted by bankside trees and brambles and/or three foot high fence topped with barbed wire along almost the whole stretch - even upstream of the iron bridge. After a 90 minute drive from Worcester, I was faced with a walk of over half a mile over very rough ground, poorly maintained rotten styles (one actually broke when I tried to lift my leg over it), to find a spot to fish. Yes we did catch a few, but it was tough going (I am 65), and my knees and back are demonstrating in no uncertain terms 24 hours later!

1 Trout, 9 Grayling

One LDR and a few takes, very muddy and flooded.

Grayling caught trotting maggots. Fish returned

1 Grayling