Feedback & Reports

Nil return

Surprisingly the water level was quite low with just a tinge of colour. Started off wet and windy but gradually improved as the day progressed. Hard fishing but had a short successfull spell (approx midday) when landed 3 decent grayling between 1 and 1.75lb. All cheque nymphing just downstream from the brick barbecue.

1 Trout approx 8oz. 1 x Grayling approx 1½lbs.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the secret behind catching Grayling in the winter is to find where they are. That is exactly what I failed to do today so the scorers were not to be troubled. Not sure why; the river looked just about spot on and, in spite of the nasty, strong wind, the air temperature - if not the water temperature - was around 10 degrees higher that it had been last week. Cormorants - which I suspect had been rather more successful that I - at both ends of the beat.

Only one small out-of-season wild trout caught (on a Czech nymph). I covered most of the beat, fishing with a variety of nymps at different depths, but couldn't locate any shoals of grayling. A few large dark olives started to come off around mid-day but it didn't spark any fish interest. On the plus side, there was plenty of wildlife and the snowdrops in front of the holiday cottage were looking impressive (they will be even better by this coming weekend).

We arrived at 8.30am to find the river high enough to cover a lot of the concrete path by the parking area. We went up river some 500 yds and set up and stayed in one place as the weather was very windy and not the sort of day to be moving swims. One rod had a barbel of about 4lb within half an hour of starting which was very pleasing, shortly after the other rod had a chub of about the same weight. By the end of the day the other rod had caught just the one barbel and I managed a barbel and 3 chub. Barbel came out on pellet and the chub came to sweetcorn. Nice and mild but less wind would have been so much nicer.

A very enjoyable day pike fishing. 4 pike, 3 between 5 and 7lbs and one 21lbs all caught in a large eddy behind a concrete croy. One large silver salmon seen following plug; not sure whether it was an early springer or a kelt. Looking forward to next visit.

21 grayling to trotted maggot. Four fish over 2 lb, including two at 2 lb 8 oz.

3 x grayling 15-16 inches, bugging. A really beautiful winter's day, still and sunny, with the temeperature hovering just above zero - although there was no visible frost, the air being so dry. River still a little high but looked in nice condition. Nevertheless, fishing was very hard work and by mid-afternoon I had made no contact. At 4.30, with the sun going down and the rod rings beginning to ice again, I found a pod of nice grayling in a very deep run. It was one of those places where a man of my height finds it necessary to wade to the armpits and bounce around on tip-toe, while envying those tall young fellows from the Foundation who no doubt take these deep holes in their not inconsiderable stride. If you have visited the WUF, you will know the ones: always first to be aware when it starts raining. Lost one good grayling and netted three, which made a very satisfactory end to a lovely day. I'm sorry to see that we lose this beat at the end of January; whether the fish are co-operating or not, it's always a nice place be. Can the WUF get it for next year perhaps?

First time on this beat and water clearly still a bit up and slightly coloured so that the bottom could not be seen in about thigh depth water. Overcast day with some brighter intervals and about 7 degrees centigrade.
Never had time to do the whole beat but what I did looked very fishy indeed. Used short line/czech nymph with several changes of fly. Took two grayling one big male approximately 2lbs and one little female.
I could have easily used a 10 foot nymph rod for better reach but only took an eight footer so struggled a bit. However pleasant day out.