Feedback & Reports

Steady slow hatch starting early afternoon. Worked through the beat using emerger or dry as suited. 11 trout between 4 and 6 inches.

11 Trout

River healthy flowing and clear. 2lb brown off the surface on a black gnat, only fished for 2 hours at midday. But still a few rises whilst being sunny and warm. Fish Returned.

1 Trout

15 Trout

Three fish caught on worm with popup.

3 Trout

One smallish trout caught and returned. Despite great expectations based on the glowing reports of good catches recently, the 12 hours of fishing was a waste of time as there were no fish to catch. Plenty of fry but the concensus with other anglers was that the river had been emtied of fish. Nobody was catching anything. So instead of dining on trout I had had to settle for cod in batter.
Not an encouraging outcome for a visitor with expectations.

1 Trout

Fished this beat on 2nd day of 4 day trip. I won't mention the other beats as my fishing partner is doing the returns but my daily score was 0-15-0-0 (he did better) so lesson learned for me is fishing the right rivers at the right time of year. Escley is a great wild stream but challenging in parts due to cover. To get to the top you need to keep moving and have lunch on the go. Bottom to top took me 7.5 hours. All fish taken on a 3WT to an Adams. Largest fish 16", most around 10".

15 Trout

This is a wonderful beat, full of fish and with a healthy fly population. Aided by the hottest day so far this year (21C) it was easy to target rising fish. I put 15 on the return but honestly I lost count and also lost as many as I caught. I used a size 14 CDC olive and would have gone smaller but I didn't have any (note to self). I saw some Mayflies but they were sporadic and I didn't see a fish take one. The middle section is difficult to fish and I am still to fish the top section which looks quite overgrown. There are 2 fallen trees in the bottom section which I don't remember from last year but manoeuvring around these was a small price to pay.

15 Trout

Hot bright day. No sign of Salmon but plenty of trout rising on the lower slower reaches of both the upper and lower beats. Good sport with five trout taken by two anglers on the lower beat - Little Stream Pool. Biggest fish 10oz. Flies caught on were Snipe & Purple, and Black & Peacock.
We will be returning.

5 Trout

No fish and very few trout showing in spite of prolific fly hatch throughout the day. Perfect weather conditions. As this was my first visit to the beat I was well looked after by Lynn Thomas, a beat regular of nearly 40 years. Thank you Lynn - I will return to put my newly found knowledge to good use.

Nothing of notable size but did loose one decent fish, all caught on nymph, no real sign of surface activity.

7 Trout