Feedback & Reports

Should I? Shouldn’t I? Well, I did....an afternoon 3 hour session as the grass decided it can wait a bit longer to be cut at home. Walked the edge of the newly planted field of potatoes, with the furrows steering me to the very start of the beat. Hoping to find regularly rising fish, but they were less upwards looking initially, although plenty of mixed fly life about. First fish about 8 inches took the nymph and scrapped well, airborne most of the time. Thereafter, I alternated between dry 18 olive parachute which was greedily engulfed by the second of the day, and Klink and dink. Two others took nymph with remainder nailing the Klink. Long distance released 4 others. By the look of the shell (photo), the local otter has a job on its hands....looked more like lobster size!! A lovely way to spend a birthday afternoon.

8 Trout

Tough to fish in some spots with the water carrying a bit of colour, but managed to land one beautiful Salmon parr and one bigger brown trout (both safely returned). Lost 5 fish that I hooked up, they were all too fiery for my line haha!

1 Trout, 2 Chub, 1 Other

Home earlier than usual from work, so grabbed a couple of hours on the Arrow. Lovely clarity and not too overgrown....yet! Farmers working hard in the adjacent field with several tractors on the go, but the trout didn’t mind the rumblings. One wbt to nymph below the Klink. Thereafter, the remaining trout smashed the Klinkhammer....lovely! Grayling took the nymph in the pool below the bridge...a good size too. Plenty of fly life, terrestrials and hatching, with one or two mays dancing already! A worthwhile couple of hours tootling up the river....they always are though!

4 Trout, 1 Grayling

Grabbed a couple of hours this morning before rain arrived and started about halfway along the beat. All of the recent tree clearance has certainly opened up the access to the river! Managed 4 lively and well marked trout. No grayling today. 3 to nymph under Klinkhammer, the last one shot up and nailed the olive Klinkhammer. Lovely.

4 Trout

Last time I was here the fish I caught had been through the wars, and now I know why. Two lovely otters spotted near the top end of the beat. As beautiful (and rare) as they are, they've always given me awful luck in regards to fishing. I presume they've munched a good percentage of the fish at the top end of the beat, or certainly at the very least they've made the fish incredibly spooky.
Will try a different beat in the coming weeks, these otters don't fill me with much hope of landing a good fish in the near future!

Ventured out to try trotting the likeliest runs of the beat. No grayling, but my son caught a lovely out of season brownie, leaping clear of the water before being carefully played, landed and returned safely. Great experience for a 12 year old’s first attempt trotting a river. No other offers, but a huge (and I mean huge) amount of bank side clearance has exposed the river with many trees cut down. Plenty of opportunity for re-growth and making access to the water much clearer. I’m guessing from the bonfires that the work has been done very recently, with some branches likely to be in the river, so a good flooding would be useful to shift snags on. A very pleasant couple of hours fishing though. Looking forward to the trout season soon!

1 Trout

The weather was good but overnight rain had raised the water levels somewhat and soaked the surface ground. Being new to the beat we decided to work our way downstream on the left hand bank, nymphing and trotting as we went. The beat covers two fields, the first was fine but the second, being by far the largest was an 'experience'. Unfortunately, the land owner must have recently embarked on a clearance project which will eventually increase access to the river. But at the moment it is like a WW1 battlefield with thick claggy mud and numerous felled trees and stumps. This made the walking in waders very, very heavy. In the long term the improvements will be worth it but in the short term think twice and perhaps use the right hand bank for access. Very little evidence of fish - perhaps they had been disturbed by the clearance work. Not the best of days, only one oos brown trout, but worth another visit.

1 Trout

No catches today.

4 x grayling 6-14 inches (three good ones plus one baby), 3 x out of season trout 8-12 inches, trotting. Warmer than of late but I packed up when it came on to rain hard.

4 Grayling