Feedback & Reports

Dificult day. Bright sunshine, horrible upstream wind. I have to blame something for an abject performance.
Only fished bottom of beat, started off on the dry. Only saw 1 fish rise all day, and spent 30 minutes trying to catch it. Through every fly in the box at it but no joy.
After coffee and a pie switched to French leader on the 11' 3wt. Still no joy, but did briefly hook up with 2 fish, both felt like decent ones. Unfortunately they both bumped off.
Lovely beat, and will be back. Thank goodness for felt soles. Rocks on bottom of the beat would be treacherous without.

Second attempt on the lower beat, found grayling taking small dries and missed lots which I don't mind as this is the challenge! Finally hooked one but only 8 inches. Had larger one on heavy nymph in channel and a trout of 10 inches on a dry fly. Difficult wading but worth it.

1 Trout, 2 Grayling

A pleasant day on a low, clear river. Not much rising; but steady progress, fishing the stream, and working up river. None of the flurries of fish that you associate with this beat at this time of year; but enough happening to keep me occupied. Used the same Klinkhammer all day, Size 16, tan with a fluorescent pink sight bob, expertly tied by my good friend Andy Miller. I don't think the fluorescent pink makes any difference to the efficacy of the fly, but it certainly makes it easier to see. The Grayling were mostly in the 9-10 inch year class, with a couple of better fish. The trout was a clonker - 15 inches long, and as fat as a pig

Close encounter with an Otter half way up the Gutter

1 Trout, 10 Grayling

Tried the lower beat, a great way to spend the morning but couldn't find any fish in the channels.

Strangely this was a different Doldowlod beat to the one I fished several years back. The beat is quite heavily lined with trees which doesn't make for the easiest of fishing. The day was overcast and about 18 degrees so on paper ideal conditions. We fished all morning and didn't see a thing which was in marked contrast to the day before on the Abernant beat. Around 15.00 a few grayling started to show picking off flies as they hatched up through the water. Missed several takes and then had to head back to East Anglia around 16.30. It was a lovely day on the river if a bit challenging in terms of number of fish caught.

2 Trout, 2 Grayling

Lovely location, easy to access at the Green. Map good.
River low and clear. As described, wading is difficult due to rocky bottom, particularly at gullies. If the river level was higher great care would be needed.
No fish seen, not a rise, a tug or a flash. Where do they go in these conditions? I mostly fished small nymphs as no rises seen. But I would try it again if I travel to this area in the future.
2 kingfishers seen and a squirrel swam across the river. Never seen that before.

Fished for grayling instead, river on its bones

Just fished the channels. Trout to a lb and grayling over 2lb. Dries and small nymphs

6 Trout, 12 Grayling

Ok so today was a good example of how the fishing experience could be improved. I think more up to date detailed info on the beat is a good starter and for different water levels. So the water was really low which really ruled out most of the top half of the beat which can only really be accessed from going over the bridge and round the house. The lower half looked great and is a big long channel. I clink and dinked it and rose one big trout but that was it. I found one bit of fast deeper water and lost a trout with the euro rod.

I clink and dinked much of the upper section with no interest. Returning to the euro set up I found two bubble lines on the other side to the house with some deeper water and managed one fantastic grayling and a lovely brown. I lost two more. Wading is definitely tricky even with the water low and I used my wading staff as the persistent rain meant I couldn’t see the big rocks. The wading on the lower beat is also tricky - ridged undulating very slippery bedrock. Also the lower beat suits left handers better from a casting perspective.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling