Feedback & Reports

Walked dogs along Pinsley this morning and trout rising everywhere. Decided to pop down to Court of Noke afternoon and early evening. Should not have bothered. Despite a steady Mayfly hatch and other fly, not a rise or sight nor sound of anything. When I first picked up a fly rod four years ago it was Court of Noke I started on. For a couple of seasons had nice bags of trout on a regular basis. Last two years have caught a few parr and fingerling grayling - but have seen nothing decent. This stretch of the Arrow does seem to have deteriorated.

Day started well with two 10-12inch trout however from midday onwards, it was totally ruined by kayakers and canoeists. Despite there supposedly being no right of navigation Monmouth Canoes are happy to offer guided trips and Canoe Wales advertise the whole beat on their website so personally I won't be returning as I suspect there's little chance of changing this behaviour. The Bell as welcoming as ever.

2 Trout

The triumph of hope over experience is a remark attributed to Dr Johnson on the subject of second marriage, but it might just as well apply to my repeated visits to this beat. It is a really beautiful place on a river that fishes so well on its other beats, but many of my visits here have been blank. The only excuse I can offer this time is that the river was quite high and carrying a bit of colour. I saw very little fly life all day and no signs of rising fish. The breeze got up through the day and when the forecast rain arrived in the early evening I headed home. Ah well, there's always next time...

Fished with czech nymph downstream. Water was rather low. A couple of fish seen jumping but nothing caught.

Several to hand, took most on size 16 nymph until a half decent amount of Olives started to bring them to the surface. Took a fair few to an Olive dry.

2 Trout

Rough conditions, all 6 trout fell to a Cascade.

6 Trout

Fished the upper, Lyonshall wood, section of this beat. Plenty of overhanging trees to get caught in and wading needed more care - I managed to fall and get half soaked, perhaps in sympathy with G.S. of Leominster before me. Plenty of trout, all of which fell to nymphs. Three small parr, with the rest in the 6 to 11 inch bracket. A modest trickle of insects hatching, no fish rising. A wonderful day's fishing.

14 Trout

River was at normal seasonal level and running clear.
An early start saw no fish rising and despite attempting to encourage a rise using dry fly no fish were playing along. A change to wet fly for a hour produced results and 5 brown trout were caught and released, all nice fish of around 12".
Following lunch we reverted to dry fly and had some really cracking sport throughout the remainder of the day producing another 13 browns between us. Again all nice fish, some of around 15".
This is a truly beautiful part of the country and would have no hesitation in recommending to others and returning myself.
The land owner and the gillie made an appearance through the day and offered friendly and valuable tips, a big thank you to them as I doubt our numbers would have been so high without their assistance.

18 Trout

Conditions pretty good and very light canoe hatch for a bank holiday. No salmon seen or caught.