Feedback & Reports

My friend and Barbel/coarse fisherman MW from London decided he would like to try wild stream trouting after hearing me go on about it. First time fly fishing for him! I said the river could be dour at this time of year, and indeed the recent rain had passed through leaving a low slow river still with slime etc. He got the hang of it quite quickly, but could only tempt 1 7" brownie on dry. Eventually I found an answer - a tiny tung head GRHE shuffled along the bottom of the deepest pools produced 2 more trout to 12" and 4 Grayling to 13". He went home happy and me relieved - he is talking of getting a small fly rod now....

3 Trout, 4 Grayling

Lovely river with, perhaps, a bit of extra water and colour after some rain but don't know the river so only guessing. Probably a spate river? Good access and even wooden walkways over boggy ground - so well used. Perhaps more of a migratory river? Only fished an hour or so as had grandson with me who wanted to get back to the beach - uggh! He was wearing a multi-coloured T-shirt so blamed that for lack of action.

Covered a lot of water this morning, no signs of fish apart from a wild brown following my spinner. Unable to find anywhere with enough space to cast a fly as the water table appears to be unusually high for the time of the year so resorted to fishing vibrax and mepps type spinners. I only fished a short morning session and would have been interested to see if there was much of an evening rise. Regulars at the venue appear to favour fishing with popped up powerbait. An angler I met advised me that the venue gets fished hard by locals as soon as its stocked and often appears fish-less not long after. I notice there are a lot of signal crayfish present, I hope these don't end up in neighbouring water courses.
I'd be very reluctant to return with the above points and a little uneasy about leaving my car unattended for any length of time here.

Caught and safely returned a slightly coloured 8lbs hen Salmon today. Fish took #12 Ccascade double and fought really well. Lost another fresh fish earlier. One or two fish aabout after recent rise and big tides. Tight Lines! Peter Dent

1 Salmon

Arrived at 8 a.m. 0.65 m on gauge. Nice tint. Few fish seen. A blustery day with horizontal drizzle. Delighted to hook a lively fish at the pub decking, which cartwheeled upstream to show it's displeasure. Feeler cascade held firm and a bright 12lber was landed 10 mins later. River dropped to 0.59m on the day but colour held.

1 Salmon

Lower, clear water made this a much more challenging day than my last visit in June. Fish were easily spooked which meant fishing at a bit more distance and with a stiff breeze I needed my 4wt rather than 3wt. Arrived late morning and couldn't find any fish in the faster water with a pair of nymphs or duo. Managed 6 grayling with a dry tenkara style soft hackle from the slower glides, largest was about a pound. All returned safely. Missed as many again and lost what was clearly the best fish when my knot failed. Didn't see a wbt all day and even with a reasonable hatch about 6pm there was little surface activity. I think the trout are on vacation. Great beat though.

6 Grayling

Blank all day - not a sign of the "finny tribe". There was too much water and the flow was too fast. They had all resorted to their favourite resting places. I couldn't find these. The small pools were also moving (too) fast.
Not possible to fish upstream from the bottom pool as there are a series of impassible sheep/goat wood fences (immovable as they have been jammed - intentionally (branches locked at the top) ??).

3 trout on spinners

3 Trout

16 degrees, overcast evening. Fairly low river level. Small hatch of olives. One trout on a dry adams, few more missed. Another larger (around 20cm) on a pink shrimp from a deep hole. Lovely little stream.

2 Trout

2 Trout