Feedback & Reports

No fish. It was a mistake going on a bank holiday - canoes
made it practically unfishable until 4.00p.m.

A beautiful long beat with interesting and varied fishing, although pools 1 and 2 appeared to have no access to the water. No salmon caught and no takes on spinner or fly. I did however take a 12lb pike and a 3lb chub on a flying C.
A beat I'd return to.

No catch.

No fish caught.

Started at 6 to get a few hours in before the anticipated flood of canoes. Saw fish in Vanstone, Corner Tree, Island Stream and Dog Hole, but only action from from Shad. Water getting very warm and algal bloom reduced visibility to around 4ft. Decent hatch of mayfly brought the chub and trout to the top.
The canoe traffic turned out to be surprisingly light and it was the sweltering heat that drove us from the river around 11.30am.
Returned at 6pm to find family ensconced in Vanstone with kids and dogs swimming in the pool. Fished a couple of other pools for a few hours to no avail.

Fished with frends from London, did not see or catch anything, very disappointed to find no indicator post or access steps down to the upper Doghole pools etc.
We wandered around in very hot weather and eventually cut a very dangerous way down ourselves, unfortunatly my frend got a soaking for his troubles, getting out was worse.
If you are running a commercial fishery charging £45 a day, make sure the pools are acessable if you want rods to return.
WUF NOTE: The beat is due for clearance work early June.

We were recommended to fish this beat by the Foundation because we requested water suitable for fly fishing with good ease of access for somewhat elderly anglers. The stone walkway at the bottom of the left hand bank of the beat was perfect for us, and a delight to fish (provided your double spey casting is up to sctratch).We saw and caught nothing, but had a most enjyable day. The canoeists were very curteous and went down the far bank without disturbing the fishing at all.

Nil return.The river was quite murky and probably still a bit too high. I did provoke one salmon into jumping in the Maddox as dusk was falling but no luck. A few fish showed throughout the day.

River looked good and even saw a fish, so must put down failure to ineptitude on my part..... getting seriously fed up with failure now!!
On a brighter note, there was a good mayfly hatch (despite overcast conditions and cold wind), and I suspect some decent trout were on the move most of the afternoon, particularly on the wooded bank of Vanstone.

No Salmon caught but three clearly seen close to both banks (one being less than 20 feet away and 4 feet from bank) on The Maddox and Corner Tree and another on The Electric Lines. A dry day in the middle of many wet ones with bright conditions and a level river (rising slowly in evening). One Sea Trout caught & returned (end of Maddox).
Left bank access was V difficult but otherwise a wonderful 12 hours thrashing the river to a foam :-)
Thanks to all at WUF.

WUF note: This was when the river was running around 4ft above summer level. At anything below 2ft on the Fownhope gauge a stone walkway is visible that provides easy access to the left bank of all the lower pools.