Feedback & Reports

Trotting maggot. Grayling to two pounds, plus a decent chub.

12 Grayling, 2 Chub

River very low and clear. Still managed to catch 8 graying with 6 decent ones. Packed in at 3ish, leak in the waders made up my mind to finish early.

8 Grayling

I was stitched up by the weather forecasters today. When I booked this trip the forecast was for cloud spreading down from the north and temperatures above freezing. When I arrived the car temp gauge was reading -6 without a cloud in the sky. I arrived about 9:30 and as I had never fished here before, I decided to walk the beat first in the hope that temperatures would rise during the day. I probably made it about halfway up the beat before returning to the car for sustenance. I made the trotting rod up anyway and headed back to the river, more in hope than anticipation. Starting about 11:30 just up from the church the line was still freezing in the rings and the river looked lifeless and the float failed to submerge. I carried on upstream looking for some pacier water which I found about 100 yards or so above the wier. After a few trots down, I managed to find a good line which took the float down through the turbulent water into the steadier water towards the far bank. The float went under and a strike was met with resistance which then started to thump back. Thinking this was going to be my only chance of the day I played the fish very, very carefully until a lovely looking Grayling came into view. Apologies to the game fishermen but I measure my fish by weight rather than length and this one tipped the scales at 1lb 10ozs. I carried on fishing this pool and caught 3 more Graying of a similar size and one tiddler about 8ozs. The trout then showed up and 3 were caught and released in the water before it then went quiet. With the sun dropping behind the hills I called it a day feeling rather chuffed that a very unpromising day yielded some satisfying large Grayling.

5 Grayling

Fine day on the river, levels were a bit lower than we would of liked. Long trotting accounted for 15 Grayling and 20 trout, ranging for 5" to 17".

20 Trout, 15 Grayling

Great day to be out, 8 grayling, 7 around the half pound mark and one decent fish. An otter working its upstream towards me totally oblivious to me until 10 feet away was a highlight, kingfishers, red kites, woodpecker...great day.

8 Grayling

Persevered with nymphs despite the temptation to get the trotting gear out of the car! Still refining my technique but managed two 9 inch fish. Gauge was at 0.58m. Family of otters living in the Grandstand Pool. Salmon swimming under my feet.

2 Grayling

12 x grayling 9-17 inches, 11 x out of season trout 6-18 inches, long trotting. Level 0.70 on the Cilmery gauge, slowly dropping and only slight colour. Out of season trout are still being a nuisance. Since the high water, the presence of numbers of salmon is very evident.

12 Grayling

8 Grayling

Similar conditions to yesterday, grayling still in same area. Leaves a bit of a problem later on in the day. However, two excellent days fishing.

3 Trout, 12 Grayling

River reasonable height fished mid/lower section only for very short period no fish caught, plenty of debris floating down river after a number of rain shower. One section of the river I was surrounded by salmon either jumping or breaching at least 6 one occasion 3 jumped at same time and another 4 further down stream. Need to improve on my attempts to catch Grayling.