Feedback & Reports

After another enjoyable visit to the Bateman Arms in Shobdon, we arrived at Lyepole about 9.30. The rain overnight had increased the speed of the river somewhat and made life very difficult for our inexperience. No bites but a glorious beat with pairs of dippers a and a mother otter and 2 cubs spotted on the island at the upstream limit. Will try again next autumn.

Lyepole has always been a favourite venue of mine for a good days winter fishing. However on this day it was not to be, I caught just three fish, two tiddlers and one good grayling of around 2lb. This fish had half of its tail bitten off and scars caused by a beak on its back. Hard to believe the fishing was this bad on a perfect river, with mild sunny conditions. It has been a poor winter for grayling fishing, roll on the trout season and some warm weather.

Only one small out-of-season wild trout caught (on a Czech nymph). I covered most of the beat, fishing with a variety of nymps at different depths, but couldn't locate any shoals of grayling. A few large dark olives started to come off around mid-day but it didn't spark any fish interest. On the plus side, there was plenty of wildlife and the snowdrops in front of the holiday cottage were looking impressive (they will be even better by this coming weekend).

Double blank, I'm afraid - no contact with grayling. The water, although clearing, was still very high, or at least too high for a couple of senior citizens like us. Still, it was good to be out and about on the bank again after all these weeks. First snowdrops just starting to show.

7 x grayling 12 - 17 inches. Beautiful as the valley at Lyepole is, it's a bit of a frost trap and doesn't see the sun for long at this time of the year. Thus everything remained frozen and rather dour until late afternoon. And as I happened to know that two very good competition anglers had fished the beat thoroughly the day before, I expected to have to work hard for shy fish. In the event I was lucky enough to locate grayling in just a couple of spots after lunch and picked up a few good ones, including a fish of 17 inches.

In response to a question asked in an earlier feedback from a grayling angler who has been scratching in difficult winter conditions, I could suggest the following ideas:
Even on the coldest winter day, grayling usually feed for a short period at least (the afternoon is generally better than the morning; the last hour before dark often best of all.) However, they are likely to be fixed on the bottom and won't move far out of line, so that the nymph has to be presented almost literally in front of their nose to be taken at all. This implies searching the bottom of all known and likely hotspots very slowly and carefully indeed, almost inch by inch. It will be slow progress and on a short winter day you won't get through anything like a mile of the Lugg or Arrow. Don't worry too much about patterns but concentrate on presentation and getting the weight correct so that the nymphs just trip along over the bottom (if you are doing it right, expect to lose a lot of flies on snags). Strike downstream at any stop or hesitation of the leader. Look out for an afternoon Large Dark Olive hatch which might liven the fish up a bit.

Good days fishing, river slightly up and tinged with melt water. The air temp had soared overnight to a barmy 5 degrees though the fields next to the river were still frozen solid. Had a grayling first cast with the nymphs just dangling downstream Excellent start.

We had plenty of action but seemed to slow up a bit in the afternoon. Dozen fish each best 42cm. Great to be out after the freeze! A few olives did struggle off and we did see a bat at dusk.

Highly recomend the Riverside Inn for a stay over and excellent food.

The weather was surprisingly warm and the whole beat was fishable. Had two grayling one very small and one very nice one at 17 inches, both on heavy nymphs.

It had been about 18 months since I last fished Lyepole and fortunately nothing had changed. A wonderful beat with relatively easy wading and a good head of Grayling. Fishing heavy bugs/nymphs, I caught over 20 fish, mostly Grayling, best fish 14" and a few out of season Trout. A good days fishing in the quiet Lugg valley at its Autumnal best.

Early frosty start, fish were active from first thing.
Good numbers of grayling up to 40cm on various nymphs, sizes 14 and 16 mainly, nice buggy looking hares ears, and pheasant tails etc. A few olives hatched during the day but nothing rose to them. Great little beat with tight accurate casting in places to target every little hole that holds a fish. The day before the fishing had been spoilt on the Lugg being quite coloured from the rain on Friday night. By the Sunday however the worst of the colour had subsided and fishing was once again much better

A couple of things to be wary of:

1) For a fly only stretch there’s a lot of spinners (mepps) in the trees

2) Be very careful of the cattle! I was chased by them twice during the day, the second time down the river channel which wasn’t that amusing. Finding what I thought was sanctuary on the opposite side of the barbed wire fence in the field, I was more than a little alarmed as they displayed show jumping style skills and quite happily hopped over in my pursuit.

A lovely day weatherwise and with a few nice fish the disapointments of two previous wash-offs were forgotten. 5 good size grayling, with the largest a memorable fish nudging 2lb made for a fantastic day. The others were around the 8-10oz bracket. The fish were taken on a variety of GH nymphs. Also half a dozen very small fish, I guess weighing about an ounce were encouraging for the future. 1 single brown trout was also landed. If there's a more inviting place to fish on the Lugg, i've not yet found it. Lypole in the evening sun was stunning.