Feedback & Reports

Beat in good condition but water heavily colored and high. No fish showing. Fished Maddox through to the tail of the Vanstone. Still plenty of Canoeists for this time of year.

Water very high and coloured. No fish seen.

No fish caught, river too high "wash off".

Blank for salmon. A surprise from a chub of a good 5 pounds which saw fit to take a small Bann Shrimp. Resident fish were showing in Dog Hole and Upper Lines, as you might expect. An interesting chat to Mick Sutton, who gillies here and who has done some useful access work, which is much appreciated. At this water level, today was a very long shot. However, I had a wash-off from the first week of the season so I thought I would use it rather than lose it. And it's always interesting to fish through pools at low levels. Easy to ford the river on tail of Windmill on this occasion.

No fish caught on this day.

River low, but a couple of Salmon seen moving. Ended up for the day with 4 Chub, none of them greater than 2lbs!
A suggestion, on the upper half of the beat the banks are high and ropes to help pull yourself out with would be a very useful addition.

Good to be on the river even though its looking a bit sorry for itself. Saw a single resident in the Vanstone, nothing else.
Surprised to see so many canoes during the week, some behaved like idiots with little respect for others. Lots of rain would be a good idea right now, we are running out of time.

Some residents splashing in the Vanstone pool. Almost tempted one out of the Vanstone stream section, but not quite.

Nil fish. Top pools are heavily overgrown. Much of the beat could do with some maintenance work generally.

I had a great early morning session on this highly esteemed beat with resident fish showing often in the Stones, Doghole and Gabbions beats.
That is until 10am when the canoes arrive and the standard demise of the fishing they often bring. I don't want to use this as a forum or channel for complaint but something really needs to be done regarding their expected etiquette from a paying anglers perspective.
In my first run down the Stones, I had a resident hen around 12-14lbs leaping in my swing only to be hit by a lively 2lb Trout which made the heart momentarily skip. Moving down through the pool I then hit a Pike around 10lb but no sign of any of the three coloured residents I saw rolling.
Moving down through the beat I fished the Windmill with surprisingly no sign of any life, and down through to the Vanstone where I had a healthy Chub around 3.5lb.
Then as I say came the canoes. If you want to fish this beat get here for first light and start casting at those residents. Hopefully they won't torment you as much as they did me throughout the course of the day. Typically making a leap as you are leaving a pool...

1 Trout, 1 Chub, 1 Pike