Feedback & Reports

North Country Spiders worked well today on a lowish river.

3 Grayling

Fished downstream of bridge at low force to bridge at Newbiggin. Low water meant easy access to lots of interesting pools.

1 Trout, 7 Chub

Young Salmon

6 Chub, 2 Other

2 bites and 1 barbel of 6lb landed. Fished lucky stoned and first field after the woods with no joy, fished 2 other swims by the hut and had the bites. The first bite snagged up and unfortunately snapped the line. Great day out on a gorgeous and quiet beat.

1 Barbel

The river was pretty low/ clear and no fish were spotted or caught. The one large holding pool is where the fish must be shoaled up and is very difficult to fish with nymphs in low flows without spooking them.
Maybe this beat fishes best for the Grayling in the autumn when the Salmon are moving through.

blanked, difficult high river and weather

Fished downstream of footbridge at Newbiggin. Very difficult wading without a wading staff as lots of boulders

5 Chub, 1 Other

Always optimistic when I set out to fish, the weather forecast had given me even more cause to be so: the warmest day of the year so far, temperatures in mid-Wales expected to reach 15 or 16. Maybe they did somewhere in Wales, but not at Gromain. The sun did break through eventually, but it wasn’t very long before it started to sink behind the hills and left much of the valley in shadow. You can see where this is heading, and by the time I left at around 5:00 I had not seen or touched a fish all day. No sign of any fly life either. But who cares? It was a long time since I’d fished this beat and it was so lovely to be reminded of its subtle beauty. While I was searching the tail of the Heirag pool, a sudden chirrup alerted me to an otter on the other side of the pool. It seemed quite unafraid, looking at me inquisitively before diving down before popping up only a few feet away to get a better look. I saw another higher up the beat in the afternoon too. Frustrating, fishless days can be made truly memorable by moments like those. I must be sure to head back there in the spring.