Feedback & Reports

A reasonably pleasant day weatherwise, with a nasty downstream wind which came and went, and even a bit of sun as well. Fish rising when olives and needlefly about. Had over 50 grayling and one or two trout between us. Most fish on olive and hare's ear emergers, P and O spider and dry Grayling Steel Blue. Others on Orange Otter and a few on nymphs. Most fish 9-12 inches with a few at 14". Water getting much colder since last week (time for the Long Johns again or am I just getting older?) and many fewer fish rising.

2nd visit, River running low and clear. 15 Barbel to 6lb 11oz and 5 chub. The bigger ones didn't show but still a great days fishing. Thanks again WUF.

Grateful thanks to Dave Collins of Moccas for two tips: firstly that the Leen is fishing very well, and secondly not to expect much surface activity. So I spent some time tinkering with a leader to get a double weighted nymph set-up suitable for the current and the depths of the holes to be searched. Eventually the grayling started to come regularly, although I can't tell you how many nymphs I lost on snags. Never mind, my first time on the Leen, which has enough interesting fishing to occupy all of an autumn day. 20 x grayling 8-16 inches. The best five fish, four of them from the same run, were one at 14 inches, two at 15 inches and two at 16 inches. Plus 8 x out of season trout 10 - 14 inches, three of them wild Arrow fish and five stockies.

2 anglers sharing 1 rod (teaching a beginner) 9am to 2pm. River was at 1ft 3 on the Byton gauge, running quite coloured. 12 grayling (best a stunning fish over 2lb) and a couple of out of season brown trout. All were caught on nymphs fished deep. Superb beat with easy access & wading. Great day.

Nine grayling caught, mostly over 12" and the largest 15" (approx 1 1/4lb). Fish were rising freely from 11-4, although there were very few flies hatching (needle flies, olives and small sedge). Caught on klinkhamers, Czech nymph, PTN and partridge & orange spiders. This beat seems to be mainly salmon pools but the glide I mainly fished contained a large amount of grayling. Beautiful, secluded location.

Nil caught.

Lovely day - some stretches of the beat looking very appealing for fly.

But the bank really could benefit from a little bit of management for creating access down to the river.
On the lower part of the beat the white pegs are very visible for the coarse fishermen. But above the Vanstone Pool it is very difficult to find access down to the river. This could easily be marked with a coloured plastic strip tied to a tree and a small path through the growth cleared.
Not knowing the correct access points down to the river, I got stuck in some very deep mud by the bank and only managed to free myself with great difficulty.

Thanks for all the work you are doing.

WUF Note: We will look into the access issues described above before the start of the 2011 salmon season.

Fishing was hard going, five dace and at the end of the day one decent chub of 4lbs. No barbel but this was prob due to river conditions.

12lb hen salmon taken on allys shrimp pattern, fresh fish safely returned

A lovely day weatherwise and with a few nice fish the disapointments of two previous wash-offs were forgotten. 5 good size grayling, with the largest a memorable fish nudging 2lb made for a fantastic day. The others were around the 8-10oz bracket. The fish were taken on a variety of GH nymphs. Also half a dozen very small fish, I guess weighing about an ounce were encouraging for the future. 1 single brown trout was also landed. If there's a more inviting place to fish on the Lugg, i've not yet found it. Lypole in the evening sun was stunning.