Feedback & Reports

Nil return, no fish seen. River clean at 7 foot on the gauge and rising.

2 grayling, one around 2lbs the other around 1lb - lost a few smaller fish under the rod tip. Half a dozen out of season brown trout with one an absolute whopper that would have pushed the 3lb mark in season for sure. Nothing rising all day, although very mild. A privilege to now trot this stream with maggots - there should be some very special fish caught on the right day. River was up around 40cm and had a tinge of colour - we would have prefered if about 10cm lower as it was just a bit 'boily' in places. All fish fell to red maggot as the 'target' grub amongst loosely fed whites.
Cracking day out in cracking company. Just what Wednesdays should be about! Thanks WUF.

Blank. A bad miscalculation this trip, as the Arrow rose and coloured during a wet night and now a gale was blowing. The forecast hadn't been so daunting, mentioning only "showers" and "strong winds." It was not unfishable and I struggled on with it till lunch-time, meeting a mink at the top end. Having touched nothing at all, I gave it up until the level drops a bit.

I then went home to repair a set of waders in the garage. The latest advice is that once you have breached the airtight seal on your tube of aquasure or other glue and used it once, keep the tube in the refrigerator to slow down the inevitable chemical reaction between glue and air. Heat the tube up before using it again in a pan of hot, not boiling, water. The wader discussion never quite seems to end. My pal RE of Swansea, who has been doing some research, suggested "Why don't you tell them about Diver Dave?" So I will.

Briefly, Diver Dave is a retired professional diver living in Scotland. His claim to fame is that he owns a 20 year neoprene dry suit, from which, after lots of hard wear and some judicious repairs, he could still emerge like James Bond wearing a dinner suit, possibly a bit rumpled, but definitely dry. Diving suits are made to a very high standard, but Dave decided anglers are very badly served by the wader manufacturers and opened his own repair centre - see www.wader-repair.co.uk. There is lots of information on the site, but Dave himself gave some more on the phone:

Bad design is a much bigger problem than punctures. He claimed to see a fundamental flaw in the construction of most waders - thick material combined with light stitching and light taping is a recipe for trouble.

He loves Simms G3 and G4, because he gets so much work to do on them. Same for Hardy EWS. Didn't have much good to say about Platinum and Scierra either.

He did have some cautious praise for some Vision and Snowbee models as standard.

Diver Dave tests for leaks with carefully calibrated air pressure, which does away with all that business of spraying on alcohol and looking for black spots. He replaces tapes with his own version and uses his own glue. Maximum cost for a full rework is 45 pounds, after which he guarantees the product leak-free for 12 months.

RE has sent off a set of Vision Flywaters and Hardy EWS to Aberdeen for Dave to give them the treatment. As he puts it: "45 pounds for a guaranteed dry wading year has to be a good deal."

We will see how it works out. It would be interesting to hear from anybody who has used Diver Dave's service.

Landed 1 small grayling on a Hares Ear nymph. Very nice B&B at the Majors Arms - Bishops Frome

3 x grayling 6-16 inches, 12 x out of season trout 6-12 inches, fishing short nymphs. A day of fog and rain, but temperature still in double figures. One good grayling here, but it was the unseasonable trout which were really to the fore, occupying the feeding lies at heads of pools. One salmon redd seen. Unlike the trout, it seems they know what they should be doing.

1 X 14" Grayling + a handful(!) of fingerlings and one o/s WBT. All fish returned safely. Nice venue.

3 grayling caught - all small. Fish caught on both nympths and dries. River high and coloured. Enjoyable day despite small size of fish.

Healthier water levels at last for the Arrow but still running coloured on Sunday. However it was a beautiful sunny warm day so I fished for a few hours in the afternoon with nymphs taking two out of season small WBT. I couldn't find a Grayling in the deeper water but eventually caught a tiddler experimenting with spiders in shallow fast water. Despite my failings the beat looks very promising and should be perfect when the water clears this week (I also note someone did much better than me yesterday upstream at the Court of Noke).

River at summer levels - three grayling - first and two on black and peacock spider. Last fish on Endrick spider.
Largest fish weight estimate one pound. Thank you for great fishing day.

2 x grayling 15 and 16.5 inches, 1 x out of season trout 8 inches. A nice brace, but I think I was quite lucky to get them. I haven't fished the Arrow (or Lugg) for months as the webcam has shown no sign of fresh water for a very long time. However, I had booked the Leen well in advance, remembering what a very productive beat this can be in October, as well as a charming place to spend the day. When I got there, however, I was taken aback by just how low the river is. Almost no flow through the pools, slime over the bottom, duckweed in the edges and pond-skaters the only insect life to be seen. A rise somewhere might have provoked a dry fly approach, but I didn't see one. The only method which seemed to work was hand-retrieving a couple of light nymphs very slowly along the bottom of a deep pool - because there was no flow to move them in the normal way. The grayling caught there looked healthy enough, but fought rather sluggishly in warm water. I left early afternoon, with the temperature in the high 20's, and concluded that the Arrow is best left alone till some proper rain actually falls on Radnorshire and N Herefordshire to cheer it up a bit, after which I am sure it will fish as well as ever.