Feedback & Reports

No rush to the river today, 26 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We did a bit of peregrine falcon spotting at Yat Rock and were fortunate to time it just right to see three of them in the air at the same time for quite a while. Pub lunch followed at the Saracens at Symonds Yat East to fuel us for the fishing.

We arrived at the river and started at 4pm til 10pm. Using 10mm pellets straight to a bomb with loose fed pellets. The odd ball of groundbait thrown in if we felt it needed it. No feeders.

Fishing close in so all bites were rod wrenchers as we got them feeding well. 22 nice barbel in the 6lb to 8.5lb range with just one chub to spoil the party.

Birds down the river today, little egret, swallows, swifts, sand martins, house martins, tawny owl to name a few.

Heaven!

22 Barbel, 1 Chub

I tend not to fish Lyepole until later in the year but, with low rivers and indifferent fishing all around, I was fast running out of ideas. Arrived de bonne heure, to be greeted by painfully low river with little flow and, unless you count algae, no colour. Not that the fish appeared to mind; while I cannot quite claim the 51 that our friend from June 29th landed (can I even count up to 51?), I was not far short. Let's call it 40 shall we.

Upstream to a deafening silence, punctuated only by birdsong and the murmuring of the river, in the morning; with fish in just about every run that I covered. Surprised to find the Grayling shoaled up so early in the season but, two of the glides (and anyone who knows their Lyepole will surely work out which two) each produced double figures ; for the most part, peas in pod - so much so that I could have been forgiven for thinking I was catching the same fish over and over again. Less productive downstream in the afternoon. Mind you, it was very hot by then (28C). A few straggler Mayfly hatching; but very little surface activity, with all of my fish coming on weighted nymphs.

Most of the Grayling were in the 7 to 8 inch bracket, with half a dozen or so bigger fish - including two at around 14 inches (that's nearly 2lb in old money). Trout from 6 inches to 10 inches.

A summers day at Lyepole, and all's well with the world ...

10 Trout, 30 Grayling

River was low and the day hot; not ideal conditions for fishing. Started off with a roving approach from first light picking up a couple of decent chub. Spent much of the time later in the day in the swim just upstream from the fishing hut. A few decent fish were holding up there in the faster, deeper water and things looked promising; however they proved difficult to tempt using a variety of approaches (swim feeding pellet, legered meat, float etc). Managed a couple of barbel up to 5lb and a few small chub, however the bigger fish proved illusive. Really enjoyed the day despite the slow fishing. Its a lovely stretch of river with lots of decent fish and interesting swims. We will definitely return another day when conditions are more favourable.

2 Barbel, 8 Chub, 1 Other

Rod 1 - 3 Rainbow Trout
Rod 2 -6 Rainbow Trout
Rod 3 - 2 Rainbow Trout

11 Trout

Many fish rising but blank day

1 fish caught all day. Plenty of people fishing and 1 was caught. Fish didn't seem to be in there today.

1 Trout

Very tough sunny day. One trout all day.

1 Trout

1 Trout

low water, nothing seen or caught

It was a tough 3 days. The river was slow, low and clear. It got lower by the day surely not helped by it being drained to irrigate the surrounding fields?

We caught 24 fish over the 3 days (3 anglers) using mainly Halibut, Robin Red pellets and Peperami. The biggest was a 9lb 5oz barbel.

The pegs need some maintenance as they are overgrown with nettles. The access to them is also precarious and 'steps' need to be carved out. Still a very pleasant stretch to fish though.

7 Barbel