Feedback & Reports

I fished from 1400-1830, strong winds occasional rain and sunny spells.
I've not been on this beat for a number of years so memories are faded, but it felt like fairly low water. There was something of a milky hue to the water, which I remember from other Lugg beats but hadn't previously associated with this one.
There was some fly life about so I fished all of the streamy water with various CDC mayfly imitations and suspended PTN patterns. No rises to naturals but dozens of splashes from tiny things (2-3”) in the shallow, fast moving water and one small grayling (5"). Aside from that, nothing on the dry. I had another equally small grayling and a tiny trout (4") on the PTN - but only when I fished it across the current and retrieved, there was no interest in anything dead drifted. Given the stream is so small and foliage is intense, there is very little scope to fish across.
Eventually, I realised that the fast, steamy water that I remembered as being full of trout years ago wasn't going to produce anything so I started again and went through the few deep pools in the lower half of the beat with a long leader and heavy nymphs -tricky with a 6' 3wt rod... I don't particularly like that style of fishing but it brought 3 grayling quite quickly, the largest at 14".

Access is good, especially below the bridge. Above the bridge a couple of fallen trees and plenty of vegetation growth make a section of around 50m unfishable, but it's a slow moving flat stretch so didn't feel like a great loss.

1 Trout, 4 Grayling

Tough going today. River low and cloudy. First time fishing here in summer, a lovely private beat but feel it fishes much better in early spring/ autumn.

Lots of fly life but saw only one rising fish all day which I managed to tempt on an Adams dry. All other fish to nymphs.

5 Grayling

The overnight rain - which denied England a well deserved victory in the Old Trafford Test - had put a hit of colour in the river. Not that it appeared to help the fishing; I was half way up to the weir, and wondering what I was doing wrong, before I caught my first Grayling. Curiously, having caught the first fish, I had another 7 from the same run (6 on the way up river, 2 on the way back down). 2 Trout and another Grayling from just below the weir, but slim pickings downstream in the afternoon (this beat requires a rethink; if the cottage is occupied, as it invariably is, there is very little to go at downstream, especially at summer levels)

My other was a Minnow; a 3 inch leviathan, that took a Size 14 Endrick Spider in mid water, and was only landed after an epic battle

3 Trout, 10 Grayling, 1 Other

One brown trout on a Ginger Quill dry fly
9” in length
River summer hight but a little “cloudy “ in
colour

1 Trout

4 Trout, 13 Grayling

2 grayling caught below the bridge. Both on brown PA.

2 Grayling

Wonderful setting for this beat and good water to go with it.

6 Trout, 10 Grayling

30 x grayling 6-15 inches, 6 x trout 6-13 inches, heavy nymphs on long leader.

6 Trout, 30 Grayling

6 x grayling 6-15 inches, Tungsten Hare's Ear and Pink Shrimp

6 Grayling

The beat was booked for two anglers.
Angler 1 (Richard) caught one small Grayling (about 7 oz) before midday in a pool down-stream from the road bridge, on a dark bodied nymph with a olive throat hackle (not sure of the actual pattern). There were several other active fish in the pool (assumed also to be Grayling) but no more takes were forthcoming.
Angler 2 (David) caught two small trout in the deep pool (with the high banks occupied by sand martin birds), in the field above the road bridge. These were taken on gold head hares ear nymphs. Again these were very small fish of 5oz and 8 oz approx but in good condition.
Generally, there were only a few small fish rising on the river .
Fly-wise, a sparse hatch of Mayflies were seen during the day.
The river was quite low, which was not a surprise following the long dry spell that we have just experienced.
Enjoyment-wise, we both had a very enjoyable day in beautiful, peaceful surroundings, away from mobile phone contact.
It was a delight to meet the current tenants of the fishing lodge by the river: but a little sad to hear about the decline of the fishing and the general neglect of the stiles and bank-side bushes and trees over the years.

2 Trout, 1 Grayling