Feedback & Reports

We arrived at this beat with high expectations, as we had fished it previously about 3 years ago and had very good results. However, we were very disappointed with this latest session. There was certainly no shortage of fly life, with a steady hatch of Mayfly coming off all afternoon, but although there was an occasional fish rising, there seemed to be far fewer than the previous time we had visited. In fact, some of the pools at the bottom of the beat which had previously produced seemed to be devoid of fish.

Things only got worse as we progressed upstream. The upper part of the beat is now very overgrown, and in some places where it was too deep to wade progress on the bank was extremely difficult due to thick vegetation, in particular brambles which tore at our waders.

We did manage to catch three trout between two anglers in what should have been perfect conditions, but unless some drastic coppicing is undertaken to improve the access in the top part of the beat we would not recommend this beat.

3 Trout

few hours stalking risers , all fell for cdc olive and between 8-13 inches.

8 Trout

Having other commitments in the afternoon, I was only able to fish 0800-1030, so had to push through quite quickly. This is a very tricky beat requiring some tight casting, my 6'6" rod still felt too long in places. I left a lot of pools unfished, particularly the upper half which is particularly enclosed by vegetation, but think I could have covered more with more time available.
Those that I did fish were full of trout, with almost every section where I could lay a fly resulting in a splashy rise or pull on the nymph. 6 stuck long enough to come to hand, biggest about 7" and the rest about 4"-5"

6 Trout

Had 2 hours before the river started to cloud up from the rain while I was fishing

5 Trout

Perhaps a little ambitious to try and cover both beats in one go, only managed a few hundred yards of the middle beat missing and losing several on barbless before the climb back to the car.
1wbt.

1 Trout

5 Trout

Caught one lost a better one. Very little sign of life from the trout but quite a bit hatching in the afternoon. Nice beat quite tough to fish.

1 Trout

Nice sunny day on the river. Trout up to 9" but nothing rising. Hooked and lost some bigger trout in the deep pools.

4 Trout

Only fished 1/3 of the beat. River is also quite low, but nice trout in the deep pools. Trout up to 12 inch.

4 Trout

After visiting the Crai, moved over to this beat for a couple of hours. Water was almost stagnant, lowest I have ever seen it. Scum and slime over the rocks showed that the rain of recent weeks had somehow by-passed this valley. Despite the tough conditions, Myself and RM had 4 trout, a grayling of 10 inches, a large minnow and a salmon parr - a wild stream grand slam! Fish fell mainly to dries or trailing nymph.

4 Trout, 1 Grayling, 2 Other