Feedback & Reports

The river looked in great nick but no fish to report. Rose a fish in Bridge Pool which swirled at the fly without taking it and had a couple of good pulls which did not stick. Many thanks to WT for his help with my casting it really helped.

Was ask to go back again so thought it cannot be worse than last time. It was not, I had 8 fish. 2 of us fishing, fish were still on the small size so we put back 5 of them. I am still concerned about the size of the fish being stocked.

My third visit in what looked like promising conditions; river 1ft up and clearing. Fished hard from dawn, rain at 7am was a bit worrying but did'nt ruin it, bright sunshine in the afternoon for a snooze in great scenery, pleasant evening but nothing moved all day.
Really hammered the place with spinners, rapalas, floating/ intermidate lines with cone heads, size 8 + 10 cascades, shrimps etc. Fished through the whole beat twice during the day and the top end pool three times. Did not see anything except a few trout 6-10 inches, and the regular poacher frantically spinning and getting snagged up. At least he moved off when I was in sight!
Thank you WUF for arranging access and in general for all your excellent hard work but please can something be done to sort out some underlying problems in what looks an really interesting beat?
Its all a bit over grown but notably the Himalayan which has gone mad above the Cafn pool and upstream so access is now bad/ dodgey past the river to the top end pool. Its seems a shame at this top end (which I feel is the best of the beat) that you have to get into the pool tail and wade upstream to then fish it back down, even after flicking a spinner over it. The bushes have now fallen in on the opposite side (on the true left bank) of this top end pool making it impossible to land a fly tight to the far bank near the metal fencing (which seems a good spot).
I still can't decide if the huge pretty fly run which is the lower part of the beat is not a migratory motorway upstream or not? Its a shame it always seems to have a poacher on it but least it suggests fish are sometimes there.
Despite three blanks on this beat in good water and still not seeing a thing, its looks a great spot and I would go back. However to do the fishery justice and for a £35 day ticket, it would be great and hugely improved if things could be tweeked a little.

A lovely day out on a beautiful length of river. Middle section very overgrown but more than enough swims to choose from. Banks are very slippery so take care, managed quite a few fish to around 8lbs. Great day out.

Brown water yielding a 5lb barbel hooked in the dorsal (neatly and harmlessly) on a Mepps after a strange and powerful struggle. Otherwise, my co-fisher (actually after barbel) had a few takes but several lost rigs in the rocks. Many thanks to Don for advice over the ether from N Wales!And to Seth and Allyson.

Arrived just before sunrise and decided to fish the meadow. The river looked spot on with a nice bit of colour and after a cup of tea and a bacon roll on the stove we settled into our pegs, several biteless hours later we were beginning to wonder what we were doing wrong as nothing we tried seemed to work. We decided to move and opted for the steps pegs where we were met with the same biteless responce. After being relieved of a few feeders and hook lenths we decided to go back to the meadow and take our chances into the evening. The sun was high in the sky at this point and our hopes of catching were diving but after a bit of casting around a fish was finally on the bank of around 6lb another two hours past before the next bite and a barbel of around 3lb started a run of fish which included a fish of 10 lb 1oz as well as two 9s. All in all 8 fish landed and two lost. 12mm pellets acounting for all.
On a final note although all the fish seemed fit and healthy some were showing signs of mouth damage, one in particular which was still carrying a complete braided hooklength was a bit of a mess which was a bit sad to see. Not a fan of low diameter braided hooklengths myself, its as good as cheese wire. Looking forward to a trip later in the year.

Fished from early morning, caught barbel throughout the day. 2x 3lb 1x 4lb, 1x 5lb, 1x 7lb and the best was a 9lb 140z and a 9lb 9oz. All on open end feeder with hair rigged pellet.

Coloured water and while level ok, inexperience of the bottom led to rig losses. Nil return but suspect were not exploring enough as fish were there! Fellow salmon rod had only barbel via unorthodox route....

Good stretch of river to fish with easy access to water (you can drive to and park at your swim when it's not too wet).
River was coloured with a fare pace and lots of boiling water very hot and bright. 2 rods, one fished close in to bank under over hanging tree, the other fished in main flow.
Most fish taken through the day with a couple at last light, not what was expected. Bank rod took 7 fish with 3 lost and lots of knocks to keep us both on the edge. Halibut pellet socked in crab oil.
Main flow rod took 6 fish with a few lost and lots of knocks. Bait used, Hinders Barbel Blitz Elips Pellets
All fish between 7 and 8lbs.
Take a long landing net handle as water can be hard to reach with a 6ft handle. We will be going back.

The river wasn't particularly high by this Summer's standards but still much higher than the previous times we had fished this beat over the last couple of years. Consequently it wasn't really possible to fish the swims at the bottom end on which we'd concentrated in the past, so we weren't too confident initially.
However we needn't have worried.We eventually settled on a couple of likely looking glides around halfway down the beat. The fish came fairly steadily throughout the day and we finished with 17 Barbel to just under 8lb and 3 Chub between us. Always a pleasure to catch fish in such beautiful surroundings.
SC reckons that as he caught 9 Barbel and 1 Chub to my 8 Barbel and 2 Chub he was the winner on the day. Obviously he is wrong - 10 fish each is a draw in anyone's book. I would therefore like to ask the WUF to adjudicate on this serious matter.

WUF note - Comparing the total weight of fish to each angler may settle this friendly competition....!