Feedback & Reports

Caught 1 nice trout of about 1lb on a Mallard & Claret. Strong winds and high water levels meant not too many places to fish. Lost one.

1 Trout

Fished from 2pm until 8pm. Fairly windy conditions to start the day, but dropped over the day. Not much fly life about, and danica mayfly definitely more or less finished. 5 trout in total. 4 at the top of the beat in the woods; 3 on sz16 hares fur emerger dry fly, 1 on sz22 orange collar PTN. Final fish on sz16 hares fur emerger upstream from the footbridge where the tree has now kindly been removed to give access back to the pool there.

5 Trout

Another beautiful, ‘way out of the way’ Wild Stream beat, but that was hard. Clear, with a good strong flow, but relatively shallow depth. Very difficult to find anything to fish in the first section, I was losing enthusiasm, but eventually around the mid point on the beat, near where the farm is, there were some relatively good looking spots.

Missed three or four tales, managed to get two. Probably the most challenging Wild Stream beat I have fished. Very happy to come away having caught a few. Great experience.

2 Trout

5 Trout

Blank. 1 salmon seen, 1 trout lost. Fished 2 hours up to 9pm.

This is one of the passport beats closest to my family cottage in the area so particularly convenient for an evening session.
Parking is in the village, adjacent to the excellent village shop.
Easy access via riverside path and in general easy wading but be careful if river is high.
The top section of the beat beyond the salmon pool is worth the effort but does involve more intrepid yomp through riverside undergrowth and boulders - note area to avoid marked red on the map.
We fished the evening session from 1730 onwards, river was relatively high so started with wets and streamers but to no success, later moved downstream and had a magical hour on the last section casting to rising fish just off the opposite bank - this took some wading to mid river (waist high so wading stick useful) and not for faint hearted if water high but usually quite do-able. My fishing companion took a beautiful 2lb WBT on a parachute Adams which he was very pleased with and was a pleasure to witness. I missed two other takes in the same place on the flats in the lower section of the beat.

1 Trout

4 Trout

1 Trout

Trout on salmon gear. Only fished evening. The trout rising above the bridge at 8.30pm were mesmerizing and big. Constant rises in the same places through out the pool

5 Trout

Morning conditions difficult with light rain clearing towards midday. The river was coloured and a little higher than usual due to recent rain. One brown trout (~1.25 lb) taken on the retrieve to a small olive nymph just below the first weir upstream of the town. A second brown (~1.5 lb) taken at the top of the stretch, late afternoon on a dry grannom variant.
Other notable sightings, two foxes drinking at the rivers edge on the opposite bank, unfortunately they were swiftly followed by a large mink to the same spot!
A lovely days fishing, although the banks are very overgrown, compared to when I used to fish this stretch some years ago, making the river inaccessible in a lot of sections at the upper end of the town water.

2 Trout