Feedback & Reports

We were having a day being guided by Oliver Burch who was (trying) to teach us all he knows about nymphing! A great mentor and a day which we both really enjoyed. Despite Oliver's best efforts many of his 'banker' runs didn't yield any fish. We were concentrating on the nymphs all day despite a small rise later in the afternoon. The best fish was a Grayling of about 13"(this time JT getting the better of SC), the smallest 3"! Not to be outdone a 3" Minnow took a weighted nymph being retrieved by JT. A bright and mild day on a fantastic beat - we will be back!

1 Trout, 8 Grayling

Oh dear, I ummed, I arred, shall I shan't I? Should of stayed at home. River crawling at a snails pace as can be expected with only a few small fish showing. Nymphing produced a few and the dry size 20 pale watery rose the rest. Size wise all small 6-10 inches with none of the larger grayling making an appearance. Rain and more rain needed, still a lovely beat.

4 Trout, 6 Grayling

14 x grayling 9-15 inches, 4 x trout 6-7 inches, nymphs and dry fly, mostly the former. Water now quite low and clear.

4 Trout, 14 Grayling

Tough day. This time I fished upstream from bridge and all fishing activity on was on first two bends.
Rest of beat up to weir a jungle - spent more time getting to water and unhooking from overhead branches than fishing.
I know everyone seems to succeed on this beat with nymphs - but stuck to dry fly. All fish taken on GSB. Would probably had more if I had flies smaller than 16 as missed a lot of slashy takes.
All fish 8" to 10" - I assume the larger fish are lurking in the deeper holes.

6 Grayling

Most fish caught on nymph - Bead head GRHE (point) or Bead head PTN (dropper), 2 fish to dry fly (Brown Parachute Adam's). Conditions warm & sunny, river fairly clear despite previous overnight rain. 1 grayling measured at 17"! A delightful day on a delightful beat.

4 Trout, 12 Grayling

Groundhog Day - with an all but identical river and return as when I fished Lyepole a month ago. The low river (3 on the Byton Gauge) was in spite of heavy rain on Friday evening and Saturday morning.
As with my last trip, surprisingly, just a solitary trout; the more surprising as it was the first fish I caught. Steady, but not spectacular, progress in the Grayling department afterwards. Let's call in 30 shall we? No monsters; mostly fish in the 8-10" bracket, with a handful at 12" plus. All on a tungsten nymph.
I agree with the previous correspondent ref this beat needing a trim. Please note, this observation comes from a man who knows a thing or two about trimming - I have my hair cut twice a year; whether it needs cutting or not.

1 Trout, 30 Grayling

Very slow start from 12 - 3pm only picking up a few grayling one of which 17 inches then from 3pm - 4.30 the grayling woke up to pale waterys, autumn duns and ldo's and landed a further 13 or so mainly on size 20 pale watery dun patterns. All trout took nymphs at the heads of pools. Could do with a few more inches on the Lugg gauge to get some pace back into the water but all in all not a bad half days fishing.

8 Trout, 16 Grayling

First time back here for several years and was delighted to see the improvements to the beat with the new styles since I was last here. Great stuff! 10-11" on the Byton gauge and only a tad murky after the recent heavy rain. Booked a bit late so only fished the afternoon, so only got as far as the bridge from the bottom of the beat. No fly and hardly a rise but some of the grayling did come up to a HE emerger, fished duo with a FBPTN which took the majority of the fish. A heavier version also worked bugging with heavier nymphs in some of the deeper pots. The grayling were all 9-10 inchers though so the bigger ladies weren't in the mood today. The trout were 9-12". Just a thought: there is a lovely long deep pool in the section between the first major RH bend and the house which is totally occluded to river level by tree branches (so you can't cast under them any more). This used to be great spot. It would take little effort to clear it - maybe the river owner can get some pole-saws out and open this up again? Similarly the lovely pool above the bridge used to be a banker but is almost totally overgrown from the far bank wall on the far side. Give it a year and the river here will soon disappear as further down. A few minutes with a pole-saw could work wonders and open this up for the punters too! I look forward to coming back and exploring above the bridge again. Maybe there will be some bigger girls about next time?!!

4 Trout, 15 Grayling

Arrived at 1pm, weather overcast and 17C but at least it was dry after yesterday's heavy rain. I stood on the bridge and saw another angler fishing the pool infront of the house downstream and a cormorant fishing upstream, luckily it saw me too and took flight.
I usually walk to the bottom of the beat and fish my way back to the car but today decided to concentrate on the river up stream of the bridge. I much prefer to fish a dry fly so this is how I started, it always surprises me that at first glance there appears to be no surface activity but once you start fishing you can usually spot a fish or two and this was the case today. I soon took my first and biggest grayling of the day at around 12 inches on a small dry but then struggled, covering showing fish which refused my fly despite it looking very much like the insects coming off in small numbers. A change of fly to a red tag variant I'd tied myself with a bright pink tag changed my fortunes and I was getting lots of takes and enjoyed watching fish shoot up from the depths and grab my fly! I took 10 grayling and a small trout on drys before having a little go at nymphing later in the afternoon resulting in a trout of 11 inches which had puncture wounds either side of its spine, thankfully well healed, all other fish were lovely, fighting fit and in mint condition.
A lovely afternoons fishing on a very nice beat thank you WUF.

2 Trout, 10 Grayling

a couple of hours from bottom to just above bridge. all fish 6-10 inches, no big boys showing themselves. All on size 16 CDC olive, no nymphs swum today, hence not many Grayling.

7 Trout, 3 Grayling