Feedback & Reports

Two hours on a lovely warm Friday afternoon was better spent on this little brook in the Forest than at work - very glad I bunked off. I've never fished these streams so early in the season but was encouraged by the warmth and reports of others. It was still a bit early for dries and almost everything came to a small PTN, but I was treated to a small trout leaping bodily out of the water to take a small olive dry about half-way down the beat.
Most of the runs in the narrower parts were full of fish and I must have had thirty or more pulls and brief struggles; while the wider (all relative, of course) sections seemed to be empty. Six trout made it into my hand, from 5-7" - I did see a couple of much nicer looking fish in the flat above the weir, but they were pretty quickly spooked.

6 Trout

Quick hour or two produced 4 fish to 6". Two from the weird pool. Gold headed nymphs did the trick.

4 Trout

11 x trout 6-9 inches, Goldbead Hare's Ear. A very nice morning with, like yesterday, the trout in surprisingly good condition and already forward in feeding positions in the runs. However, The trip was rather spoiled art the end by finding a couple of travelling folk engaged in bait fishing from the new footpath. They didn't want to leave and their language was colourful to put it mildly, but they did finally decamp when I made the calls to the EA and police. EA will keep an eye on the area.

11 Trout

Having fished Bideford in a couple of hours, I thought I could have a go at Cannop and still be home by lunchtime and I was right - with the water at this level, much of the beat isn't really likely to produce fish, at least not without angling ability beyond mine. That said, Cannop is a little more open than Bideford generally and there were sections where a cast was possible and some deeper channels, and fish resulted. I was more fortunate than previous rods in that I met only one family with a dog and they both kept the dog away from the water and instructed their small child not to throw things into it (although a stretch above them was obviously coloured up, I assume because the dog had indeed had a dip). Even more remarkably I managed two trout in one cast - fishing duo, lifted when I saw the dry being taken and found one attached to the nymph as well. A first for me. The weir had barely a trickle of water coming over it and the pool beneath only produced a healthy looking roach.

7 Trout, 1 Other

15 x trout 6-9 inches, Rusty Klinkhammer. An early start in an attempt to get ahead of the heat and the humidity and at the beginning with the beat fishing quite well, still with reasonable flow through the pools. However, I was not so successful in my attempt to get ahead of the dog walkers/swimmers who (as a previous correspondent noted) seem quite oblivious to the effect their splashing dog is having on some-one trying to fish. The top half of the beat was almost entirely spooked. Never mind, try to smile!

15 Trout

First time fishing the beat. Although a fairly straight creek, there are plenty of features to allow stealthy approach without spooking the fish. Certain parts are clear enough for a good long overhead cast, resulting in some bonus fish. Easy wading overall.
18 WBT, not very big ones but good fun to catch. All took a Hare’s ear Klinkhammer in size 14, despite no rises. Most takes were explosive, making me jump and heart pounding. I could have caught plenty more if it was not the issue with dog walkers.
Sadly, this beat clearly has an issue with dog walkers. Basically, they don’t care about an angler. Even when seeing someone fishing, they still allowed their dogs to jump in the water. The worse owners threw sticks in the pool you were fishing. I appreciate it is not a private river and will be happy to share its use with other activities. However common-sense and courtesy should come up to the owners' mind to keep their dog out of the water when someone is fishing. I have fished a free stretch in Bristol many times, where it is common to see 30 dog walkers in an evening. Most will keep their dogs under control. When seeing someone fishing, they simply move to other stretches of the river. Those that jump in are because the dogs are well-ahead of the owners but then then the owners would apologise, get their dog out and move somewhere else. Unfortunately, the attitudes of all I came across yesterday were not like that. Some saw me, spoke with me but still allowed the dog to jump in and laughed. All I could do was to laughed back. Their logics simply escape me!

So thumps-up for fishing but thumps-down for the public atmospheres.

18 Trout

10 x trout 6-10 inches, Rusty Klinkhammer. The water very low now and a lot of walkers on the path this afternoon, which didn't make life easy. A few natural mayflies still about, but trout more interested in a smaller pattern.

10 Trout

Did not fish as brook was in flood following heavy rain.

4 small trout during evening rise, all on small klinkhammer

4 Trout