Feedback & Reports

I fished the Ashford House beat with a friend today. Not too cold but quite windy at times. LDOs started showing at about 11am but the hatch never really got going and nothing came up for them. I tried spiders and nymphs to no avail. But then a lot of March Browns started to come off with a flurry of them about every 10 minutes. The trout nailed them but only in one pool it seemed. My friend tried other parts of the river where he could see the MBs but nothing rose. I rose 5 fish, catching one of about a pound. Long distance casts were needed to reach the rising fish, hence my poor hooking stats I think. A lovely day and great to get off the mark for the new season.

1 Trout

Caught 2 trout, one of 16" on dry CDC olive. Fly presentation was difficult against a blustery wind.
This is a lovely beat with bank access improvements recently undertaken. The fish were rising all day in much of the deeper water. Thank you for a great day.

2 Trout

Overcast and warm morning, heavy rain shower at lunchtime leaving A cooler afternoon. The only fish rising were in the lower reaches of the beat, and on mirror water, so very hard to get to them. The one successful take was using a size 12 Klink.

1 Trout

River low and clear making fishing quite challenging. Fish rising throughout the day enabled a full day of dry fly sport. 13 hard fighting trout caught, very much in peak condition with a good average size. Successful flies were CDC emergers, X-Caddis and CDC & Elkhair. Some sporadic hatches of small upwings were encountered. Quite a few sedge on the move also.

13 Trout

1 Trout

A few small fish rising, but they were too clever for me and my companion!

A few small fish rising but they were too clever for me and my companion!

Low water, spooky fish, a vicious downstream wind and a pair of otters chasing each other up and down the river all sound like excuses for not catching much today – but they probably all played a part!
Word to the wise: the island and concrete croy shown in the picture of the beat are at the bottom end of the beat, right at the tail of a very long, deep, impassable pool. Bushwhacking through thick willows and Himalayan balsam may be necessary!

3 Trout

River looked fine, I did struggle gaining access to the river, in the end I returned to the very start of the beat where climbing through the vegetation was possible and relatively flat. Didn't fish for long, so no fish.

Gave up all hope of a salmon as the river was so low. Switched to trout fishing and caught 5 to half a pound ish. Size 14 gold heed orange tag nymph and black pennel fished down and across.

5 Trout