Feedback & Reports

17 x grayling 6-19 inches, 10 x out of season trout 8-14 inches, taken by bugging and in fact nearly all of them chose a Pink Shrimp from the cast.

A dull day around 5 degrees, with rain at times and only occasional glimpses of the sun. Nevertheless, Lyepole was as beautiful as ever although not quite so quiet as usual - I could hear a hunt going on in the next valley. Highish water (1 foot 1 at Byton gauge) but colour was fining down during the day. Just above the bridge, I met an otter fishing by day, as they often do in high water. I like to think they don't do too much harm to the fishing, unlike those "black death" cormorants, and in fact fish were taking just minutes after she passed by me on her way downstream.

However, of a very mixed bag of grayling, some small, some middling, a couple of fish at 15 and 16 inches, and a real specimen at 19 inches...well the big one, a nice looking fish in every other way with heavy shoulders and a massive dorsal, unfortunately had a nasty and quite fresh wound on its back. I'm afraid this looked more like an otter bite to me than a cormorant slash. I'm sure it will recover.

The trout were as active as they have been elsewhere this autumn, excellent condition wild Lugg fish, full of fight and pep...and no sign at all of spawning.

Altogether a delightful day and I was so engaged that that I totally neglected to eat my lunch.

Very dissapointing day's fishing, two small grayling caught and returned. This was once a wonderful beat in the past, it has now declined with the quality of the fishing and fish stock.
These are my comments that I hope will be taken into consideration. Too much barbed wire fenching along the river bank with poor access. Young heffers were in and out of the river. Cormorant's spotted in the river valley. I shall not return until I hear of the river's improvements from the W.U.F

WUF NOTE: please see OB catch return from 4/12/11

What a stunning late autumn day in this lovely valley. Mist early, then sunny, no wind, dippers dipping and owls hooting, a crepuscular otter....oh, and some fish! A few olives in the early afternoon but nothing of note rising to them. Before and after that I fished duo and Czech nymphed as needed. Confidence boosted by taking two fish in the first six casts, one on the duo emerger and the other on the duo skinny pink nymph and both in relatively shallow water (so at least one fish was still looking up). Meant that water which at this time of year I might have given a miss, needed covering - as it turned out, largely to no avail. Finished the day with six grayling of 10-14" and four trout, the best about 14". Most on nymphs and bugs, but a few on the HE emerger. Also quite a few "graylets". Only fished about half of the beat so, as this was only my second visit, still much to learn about this venue.

Caught 4 grayling and 3 trout. One of the trout was a feisty half pounder but the rest were all tiddlers. All caught on weighted Czech nymphs. No sign of any decent fish and no rises all day. Hard work but a beautiful stretch of river.

With heavy rain on Friday the Lugg rose from less than 4 on gauge on Friday to nearly 6 on Saturday morning. River very coloured and full of debris. Clearing flow low needed - just not today! Excuses over - we had 1 wbt on nymph and that was it. Did watch an otter moving kits from waterlogged holt to another. Lovely beat - will be back in better conditions.

Could only manage a couple of hours in mid afternoon - just one small out of season brown on sunken nymph. A beautiful beat and will return!

Two small Brown Trout and one handsome Grayling of about 12". All came to a small Phesant Tail Nymph. A beautiful early Autumn day but hard going on the river. Nothing showing on the surface.

A scant dozen Grayling - mostly small fish but with a few better samples - from a very low and very clear river. The trick was to find the fish - and, with such clear water, they were easy to spot - and then find a fly that would get down to them.

River low and clear. We both caught several, what looked like very small grayling, on small dry flies and small gold headed nymphs. We both managed a 12" Brown Trout caught on gold headed nymphs fished deep in the larger pools.The blustery wind made casting a little difficult and the river could have done with a bit of colour. We both had an enjoyable day and would like to fish here again when the river has got a bit more water. Just as a note we noticed that there were small areas of Japanese Knotweed appearing.
Thanks

Arrived just before 8.00 to find the river low and clear. There was heavy cloud and it was very still with few signs of fish moving. The morning produced only 5 fish between us. The temperature seemed to drop around lunchtime and this livened things up in the afternoon, giving us a much better day than we feared. In total, we took 27 fish between us, mostly trout with about half a dozen grayling, the best of which was around 12oz. One more substantial trout of well over a pound was hooked and lost. The early evening rain which we thought might end fishing for the day just seemed to freshen things up even more. Most fish were taken on small, weighted nymphs.
This is a really good beat for two anglers and we have fished it a number of times before. There is plenty of room and plenty of variety.