Feedback & Reports

The (only) good news when clocks change is Charles P allows trotting here for grayling, Thank You Charles! Arrived at 09.00 to find frost on ground and line froze to rod rings until 10.30 but managed one good 17inch grayling from below The Church. Then moved slowly upstream consistantly catching 9 to 16inch fish on double maggot size 12 hook below over-shotted chubber type float from old 10ft full action light Garrick kevlar trotting rod and centre-pin.
Light feeding maggots between casts and whilst unhooking fish as these grayling quickly drop downstream when loose feed stops. They will take at 40yards and move up right under the rod tip with careful wading and feeding.
Stopped counting after 20 grayling caught, final total would have been in higher 30s. All quality stunningly coloured fish.
One and half pints of maggots will do for 6 hours angling. Recommend use double maggot on minimum 12 to avoid deep hooking when fish feeding fast and heavy, be fair to the fish!
This beat has stunning scenery and I would recommend a look in the white church. This water offers first class trotting with steady glides over gravel and relativly easy wading and I have in past used 16ft trotting rod from bankside as there are plenty of suitable places in the middle section, only proviso is to break rod down to carry through trees.
Thanks also to W&U Foundation, until waters such as these were opend up "coarse tactics" days such as this were only a dream!

The first real day where it's felt like the winter grayling season is in full flow. The air temperature was a crisp -2degC when we arrived at 8am, coupled with a covering of frost, made everything look spectacular. A great part of the world.

20 fish (a mix of 14 grayling and 6 trout) between the four rods and on a mixture of dries and bugs. They didn't give themselves up easily, no doubt due to the heavy rain the day or so prior. Those fishing today/early week will be in for a treat!

A great beat, and a great day's fishing.

The EA gauge showed just under 1 metre but this meant the river was too high and fast for worthwhile fishing. The forecast was good so decided to stick it out and hope that the level might fall. Managed to winkle out 2 small brownies before a torrential rainstorm sent me scurrying back to the car. Lesson learnt.

Arrived at 8.30am to find the river running fairly high and still with some colour. Despite the river dropping during the day and losing colour it was always going to be difficult fishing. 2 very small brownies and no sign of grayling.

River was high from overnight rain. Very coloured. Levels dropped a bit in the late afternoon but conditions were still far from ideal.

SM - 1 x out of season WBT approx 9"
PH - 1 x juvenile grayling

We had high hopes for this beat but the torrent of water from the rain caught us out on this occasion.

After a lot of guage watching, the river dropped and we were able to get out. The ladies did not disappoint 35+ between us on bugs, dries, klink and dink, 4 out of season brown trout too - lovely fishing.

The overnight rain caused the river level to rise but it was deemed fishable and three of the four booked rods caught a number of grayling and a few out-of-season trout. Grayling ranged in size from 30cm to one beautiful fish at c. 45cm.

Great autumnal days fishing, a tad windy perhaps making line control difficult and the leaves were a pain, but the grayling were eager to please.
A few olives and sedges were evident through most of the day and the grayling were happy to rise to these, both in the run and pools.
The grayling responded to most tactics dry fly, nymphs and bugs, with the deeper fished nymphs taking the better fish. Best fish around 40cm.

Just fished the top end in strong winds and in bright and intermittent sunshine for much of the day. Some olives showed either side of midday with some fish rising before, during and after these appeared. Given the strong upstream wind, line control was seriously dodgy for bugging, and trying to see small flies (which is what they seemed to be taking) in the creases and leaf litter was nigh impossible. Ended up with about a dozen trout and grayling (of mainly 12-13"), all on small emergers, GS Blue and Red Tag. Didn't have too much success Czech nymphing with various pink bugs, but picked up a few graylets on a tiny pink shrimp whilst fishing duo. A tough day but isn't it a lovely place!

Explored the upper part of this beat and had a good day with 10 grayling caught. I started by taking 3 around 10" in a gravelly run during the morning and then moved upstream to a large pool. I took 7 in quick succession here, all around the 1 pound mark. Successful fly was a brown Klinkhammer, nymphs were ignored. A ducking in the cold water curtailed my visit, otherwise I'm sure I would have caught more. All in all a memorable day.