Feedback & Reports

Very low water. No fish seen or caught

Back on the beautiful Abernant beat.
Love this location.
Fished hard for a salmon on fly and spinning,but no takers.
Vicious gusty wind blowing straight down the river. When this eased and the sun came out lots of LDO and March Browns coming off, but fish reluctant to rise.
Put the salmon kit away and got out the #4. Fished a klinkhammer for an hour and managed 5 grayling, largest about 10 inches.
Called it a day when the showers started to get heavy.

5 Grayling

Hard frost to begin the day. River very low and clear. Weather dry and mostly bright. No action all day until a hatch at around midday. This lasted for a couple of hours with spells of numerous fish rising mostly around Lady Alexanders catch. Had two bump off on dry fly and missed a couple of other rises. Access very good to entire length of stretch. An attractive section of river with much variation. Group of people briefly appearing on the opposite bank mid-morning to lob stones in the river was unwelcome.

Sporadic hatch noon time caddis, couple of March Browns all fish shaken off (barbless hooks) without netting. Chub was circa 3lb part of a group cruising around the stone catch, trout were too small to count on Klinkhamers in the run through Lady Alexander Catch. Fabulous weather, pleasurable fishing, miserable catching ...

3 Trout, 1 Chub

2 x nice fish about 3/4lb.

2 Trout

First time out this season and Abernant is a great place to be. I was optimistically targeting salmon, not with any great hope this early on, so I was surprised to get a strong take that stripped a yard or two off the reel before letting go. I wished I’d taken the trout rod with me as there a brief hatch around mid-day which resulted in some surface action from trout. Very reassuring to see that the owner is investing in bank-side maintenance and counter-erosion measures. River was running clear and at 1m on the Erwood gauge.

First time out with the salmon fly rod for a couple of years, forgot how physical it is. My aching back.
Fished through from Abernant down to the start of the Stone Catch.
A nice trout of about 18 inches was the only return. A repeat later on produced nothing.
About midday, the sun triggered an intermittent hatch of LDO, so got the trout rod out and managed 4 oos grayling, lost a couple of airborne trout, all up in the faster water of the stream.
There were a couple of guys spinning from the croys on the beat below the Stone Catch. Dont know if they were successful, but did see a salmon show between the croys after they had gone.
Water was crystal clear and at a lovely height the fly.

1 Trout, 4 Grayling

Float fished red maggots on very light centre pin tactics. Weather was unseasonably warm at about 11degrees with some light rain and very blustery conditions.

Very enjoyable day, booking was very easy via website and Alison, my guide for the day Oliver Burch was outstanding and very good company, I will be back!

30 Grayling

I’ve been wanting to stand in the river trotting a stick float ever since I started fly fishing and brought myself a pair of waders but have never got round to it until today.
The river was far from ideal being low, clear and icy cold but bites came from the off and we were soon catching Grayling on a regular basis trotting a stick float through the swim using a centre pin and maggots as bait. I had hoped to build the swim steadily through the day but it got too cold after 30-40 minutes wading, so it was out onto the bank for a cup of tea and a warm up before getting back at it. The Grayling seemed to ease off but a few OOS trout made an appearance before the cold got the better of us.

A very enjoyable and productive way to fish in the depths of winter…but roll on spring now!

5 Trout, 21 Grayling

Spent a lovely afternoon on this beat with nymphs and was able to find a few willing fish despite chilly temperatures. All fish were caught with tungsten beaded pheasant tail nymphs (orange hot spot is the ticket!) Beautiful stretch of the upper Wye and would love to return during warmer weather. Highly recommend!

2 Trout, 4 Grayling