Feedback & Reports

Two of us fished this beat together from 3pm 'til dusk. The stream seemed unaffected by the recent rain and was running quite clear with a reasonable flow in all places. I starting with a small weighted P/T nymph and quickly caught fish as did my partner. The thick tree cover protected us from a cooling wind and shaded most of the pools, giving the feeling of fishing in a hidden corridor of greenery. Hook ups in branches are inevitable to begin with but once you're in the swing of things, the flick casts come more easily. I used a 6' rod which was ideal for the job. As the afternoon wore on we found more rising fish and switched to dry P/T flies and continued to catch, especially in the more difficult to reach places where the fish rose quite freely and were harder to put down. We caught 12 fish plus and lost another 6 as they skittered to hand, the largest being about 10 inches. The beat is about 1/2 mile long with enough interest to provide a day's fishing and is easily waded. The most delightful aspect was the number of twists and turns in the stream with a new pool and fishing challenge around every corner.

12 Trout

15 brown trout to 10". All taken off the top. Stream not too high considering the amount of rain we've had.

15 Trout

A short trip to the brook on Sunday midday for a couple of hours. Bright and a bit breezy. There was a small amount of movement but no real feeding activity on the surface despite some midge/insect activity. The river level was good and clear. Whilst no fish were caught it was a lovely afternoon enhanced by a kingfisher.

River low and clear. Few rises but persisted with dry fly to no avail. Changed to nymph at end of session. Immediately caught 6"wbt and hooked and lost a better fish.

1 Trout

12 x trout 6-12 inches, Rusty Klinkhammer and one on a Deer Hair Emerger. 12 inches is not a bad trout for the Bideford Brook - not quite unknown, but not bad. As I had to drive to the other end of Shropshire and back later in the day, I was on the water quite early, which was nevertheless not quite early enough to get ahead of walkers swimming dogs - I had to skip some of the middle pools. Still, a very pleasant session; Sunday morning trout stream therapy. This stream was flooded bank high after Wednesday morning's downpour, but back to normal now.

12 Trout

Plenty of water and still a little coloured following Wednesdays heavy rain.7 trout largest 9-10"all on GRHE. Hooked and lost as many. Great fun!

7 Trout

A beautiful spring day, fished the morning. Four wbt taken on gold head hares ear nymph approx 6 inch in size. Changed to dry and had a 9" brown and lost a few more on green klinkhammer. Water clear and fish in good condition. A good days fishing on this lovely peaceful stream.

5 Trout

First time on this brook this morning. Access is straight forward but wading is essential and casting is tricky. It's small but there is a good mix of fast runs and deeper pools. Not much rain lately and from the look of the banks the level can get quite a bit higher. Fished for a couple of hours working upstream taking it very slow. A lot of midges on the water but saw just two rises. Fished the duo with a Klink and gold head pheasant tail size 18, took 4 lovely little brownies to hand all about 7 inches and hooked and lost 2 more. All took the nymph and were returned safely. A stealthy approach is essential for this brook.
There are two places where barbed wire stretches across the water so watch your waders!

4 Trout

Lovely warm and dry day. River low and clear. Lots of very nervous trout spotted. 3 fish taken on weighted nymphs biggest 8 inches. Not much surface activity but a few (missed) splashy rises to klinks.

3 Trout

11 x trout 6-10 inches, prospecting with Rusty Klinkhammer and Deer Hair Emerger. A couple of hours relaxation after a long drive back from Swansea. Well, here too, they do seem to be looking up now, or at least some of them are, although I saw few natural rises. 15 degrees air temperature by the time I finished. The nymph patterns remained on the fly patch.

11 Trout