Feedback & Reports

6 x trout 6-8 inches, Rusty Klinkhammer. Not such a good plan, today's early morning trip. Rain before and after dawn produced dripping steamy humidity on the forest floor by the stream. So dark and warm was the morning, it felt like a Florida swamp at the bottom of the Cannop valley. No alligators or water mocassins, but plenty of mosquitoes were apparent. Late September is not supposed to be like this. My main problem was being unable to see the dry fly because my glasses were constantly misting up. Absolutely no chance of seeing the dry fly without my glasses. So I blundered about, getting steadily more hot and bothered. The ones I did catch were mostly hooked as I began the back cast, having totally missed the fact that the fly had gone under.

6 Trout

A dull day, water low but with a little colour, 1-2 rises, very little fly life. Caught 2 very small trout, lovely colours these small stream trout have. This is a very nice stream spoilt by lots of rubbish in the water, old tyres, wooden pallets plastic gates and other stuff. A shame.
In addition, on arriving at the top of the beat, there were 2 children with their dad fishing with float and maggots. The father stated he had no idea the fishing was private or required a permit. I was also informed by a walker that the river is regularly fished by children and adults with maggots, again a shame!

2 Trout

22 x trout 6-11 inches, mostly 7 and 8 inches, plus various parr, on a Rusty Klinkhammer. A very wet bank holiday morning, which I could have spent indoors watching the levels on the online gauges and worrying about whether there might be a chance of a salmon on a rising river somewhere, or whether there would be spinning or fly fishing later, and if so, when and where? When would night fishing for sea trout start again? That’s the trouble with chasing these here today and gone tomorrow, will they or will they not be in the mood, migratory fish – they don’t allow you to relax and it’s all very hard on the nerves. Instead I went trout fishing on the nearby Cannop Brook. The rain was relentless. The steam train chuffed up and down the valley making a nice fug. Nothing was rising, but every pool seemed to have a little trout prepared to rise, which is really just as good. I got to the top in three hours, just as the stream coloured up.
Incidentally, there has been some discussion at the WUF about just why these Forest streams have such prolific populations of small trout. One view is that we have the woody debris, of which there is much lodged in the channels, to thank for it. It’s certainly true that, between the loose timber and the tree roots, there is a lot of cover. Apart from kingfishers you rarely see fish eating birds around these streams and I can’t recall catching a fish showing predator damage. Another view is that, most unusually, there is virtually no agricultural land in these catchments, but only mixed forest with a large deciduous component. The only livestock in the area (apart from deer and wild boar) are lightly managed free range sheep, grazing over a wide area and at low density.
Quite possibly it is a combination of both factors which keep these little fish healthy.

22 Trout

Weather was overcast when I started. Fished for one hour, caught 1 trout 6 inches then the heavens opened and stopped further play. Small fly activity, small number rises, stream looks good, will fish it again.

1 Trout

Only managed to fish for about an hour (work really gets in the way doesn't it!). Dry fly only, had a couple of takes on a grey wolf but nothing caught. There were plenty of fish there though. Will definitely do this one again though.

Fair few to hand, mainly taken on nymph, a few to dry although fish were very reluctant to rise in this beautiful weather. Lovely hour or so then popped to Bideford Brook before footy!

7 Trout

Fished with grey wulf mayfly. Rose plenty of fish and missed all but one which then transferred the fly to some tree roots.

When I arrived the water was very coloured due to the overnight rain, however undeterred I made my way to the bottom of the beat at 10:00am. Found a very narrow but clear stretch and second cast was into my first fish on a dark nymph. Worked my way up the beat. About halfway and about 12:30 I found a calm stretch of water with fish rising to sedges and Mayfly. Put on a dry sedge and caught a further 5 fish. Moved to the top of the beat and continued with the dry fly and landed a further 4. All in all a challenging but enjoyable day, it was spoilt by two gentleman feeding the river with maggots at the top of the beat!! This was subsequently reported. The stretch could do with some clearance though as there is lots of debris in the river

10 Trout

With hot sunny weather and the brook running clear, any open, thin water was going to prove troublesome.
Fishing in the shadows, broken water and the 'hard to get at places' was order of the day. 14 trout between 4 and 9 inches.

14 Trout

26 x trout 6-11 inches on a small Rusty Klinkhammer and, after a few mayfly duns appeared about 1 o'clock, a size 12 Monnow Gosling. Not a very dramatic mayfly hatch (the winter floods disturbed a lot of the silt in the channel) but it certainly put the little trout in the mood for a big fly. Other things seen and heard: fresh green beech leaves and carpets of bluebells, chimes of Parkend church clock through the woods, two fallow deer caught drinking at midday, a kingfisher carrying what looked like a trout parr, and a female mallard who decided I had designs on her brood and performed the broken wing deception in order to draw me away. This wood and the area of the stream took a lot of damage during the winter storms and many trees are down, but the trout population seems quite happy.

26 Trout