Feedback & Reports

A day with Oliver Burch guiding. Highly enjoyable and educational. Having not used a double handed rod for 4 years we dusted off the cobwebs before getting going. No salmon seen and thus none caught. MB fished for trout in the morning and hooked and lost 3. We switched rods in the afternoon. MB managed to catch a 6" trout on a 2" fly on the salmon rod!! I had 2 trout and 2 grayling, one of each were decent size 14" fish. Great fun had by all and a beautiful beat. Despite the great instruction from Oliver Burch, the best lesson learned is this: don't leave your spare rod on the bank when there are curious lambs in the field...they chewed straight through my fly line!!

3 Trout, 2 Grayling

River very coloured no fish moving no hatch

River looked good with a slight rise in levels throughout the day - bottom of the beat struggled all day took most on the upper stretch to weighted nymphs and a few on the dry late afternoon. Biggest fish went about a pound.

8 Trout, 1 Chub

High wind (which changed direction frequently !) and driving rain was a little tricky at first, but when everything settled down we really started a terrific day. A couple of dense hatches brought fish to the surface, and we managed to tempt them with small upwinged dries, catching in both fast and slower water at the top of the beat below the Edw.
Small weighted nymphs proved more successful further downstream, and our total included 2 very good sized Grayling.
A wonderful beat, with varied water and good access, though the path leading upstream needs very careful negotiation, and once in the water a wading staff is a must.

13 Trout, 2 Grayling

4 Trout

The river was quite low, so I was fishing with casting practice in mind, so a blank day was well spent. My casting was much improved by the end. Catching will have to wait till next time

The trout rod fishing with me (was trying to catch a salmon) had great fun catching small brownies in the fast water with a dry fly. Think the rise was BWO's which hatched every time the sun came out.

2 Trout

All fish caught on Czech nymphing in very cold conditions.

3 Trout

Got to the beat at 12.30 to find a steady rise of dark olives coming off the water in Lady Alexander's Catch with fish rising freely. Though dry fly would have probably been successful I started with a team of three wets unweighted to stay high. Plenty of tugs and taps and four fish to hand fairly quickly (plus a couple lost near the net). Although I had on a GRHE and an olive spider all four trout were caught on C V Hancock's 'Pet' wet fly as described by Courteny Williams. As this was something I had tied the same morning I felt more than pleased. I then heard my first cuckoo of spring to add to the pleasure.
The rise subsided at about 1.30 and fishing slowed a little so I moved upstream to the Abernant Pool but found it unusually quiet with only one fish caught (again to the Pet). Back in the faster water downstream the odd fish was still rising and I caught steadily until packing up about 6.30. 12 trout in total with 8 to the Pet and the others (plus 4 salmon parr) to the GRHE and olive spider equally. Tip of the hat to C V Hancock.

12 Trout, 4 Other

2 fish 1lb nymphing.

2 Trout