Feedback & Reports

First point - DO NOT drive down the track to the river after any type of wet weather as you WILL get stuck and I got the impression the farmer is a bit tired of pulling people out - he was kind enough to pull me out though! River was pretty high and chocolate coloured so my plans for a bit of trotting were abandoned as I'd expected they would be. I set up on pellet with a big 80g feeder, tried first two swims for 30mins each without a tap then moved down to fish over a gravel bar I had previously sat on during very low flows. Started getting heavy whacks pretty quickly and after a succession of missed bites connected with a chub of about 4lb. More missed bites and stolen pellets saw me shorten the hair on my hair rig slightly and then I hooked 6 fish in a row, all over 4lb and a couple over 5lb! Finished the day around 4pm (started fishing at 10:30am after car disasters!) and with 9 chub, all over 4lb and a couple just over 5lb. Missed plenty of big bites and lost 3 or 4 fish to snags having struggled to turn them in the fast flow. No barbel but with a day of chub fishing like that who needs them?! Fantastic day and a fantastic beat if you know how to find the fish! Thanks to the owner and to WUF for a great end to my 2016/2017 season.

9 Chub

9 Barbel

No fish caught should of tried the top end of the fishery but ran out of time.

2nd time at Whitehouse and another cracking session. Fished the deeper area down the far end of the fishery. Caught 21 barbel between 2 of us. No massive fish, barbel between 4lb & 7lb. River up about a foot and it was a mild day! Good conditions. Lovely place.

21 Barbel

Conditions seemed ideal for barbel - the river was running slightly coloured and at a nice pace. Despite trying many swims along the whole beat, we only had a chub and barbel to show for our efforts. But we'll be back! The W&UF paid a flying visit and it was nice to see them out and about walking the river. We stayed at the excellent Cottage of Content where we enjoyed a warm welcome and excellent hospitality, food and drink.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

First time on this stretch. Booked as part of anniversary weekend for me and my wife Becci hoping she could finally catch her first barbel. Track down the field was a bit ropey in my estate car and better suited a 4x4 but we managed - a bit of wheel spin on the way back up so I'd think twice before heading down there in a non-4x4 in wet weather but I'm sure the farmer would let you park at the top and walk down if you asked nicely.
Read a few reports about lack of swims - I can assure people that there are plenty of swims, at least in the relatively low flow conditions we had. Some towards the upper end are a little bit difficult but there is more accessible water than a couple of anglers could fish in one session without question. If you want perfectly manicured swims I suggest you stick to commercial fisheries. Absolutely nothing wrong with this beat.
Now the fishing - first fish out was an 8lb 3oz barbel to my wife. Hearing her nervous giggling as the reel screamed was an absolute delight. After that it all went very quiet apart from the odd salmon jumping and a few pike hitting fish at the surface so we moved downstream a bit - wish we'd done that earlier! 5 mins after moving my wife had her 2nd barbel and shortly after that I had one at 7lb 1oz. We finished with 4 barbel each, lost a couple, had a 4lb chub and then a few dace and a wee troot on trotted maggots - if you could be tempted away from the barbel (all caught on pellet) you could have great fun trotting on this stretch. If we'd moved earlier / had longer before dark we would have certainly added another couple of barbel to our tally. Also watched a kingfisher feeding throughout the day. One of my best fishing days ever and over the moon that my wife managed to catch her first barbel and that it was such a good size fish. Barbel ranged from 4lb up to 8lb 3oz. Great day, thanks to beat owner and WUF.

1 Trout, 8 Barbel, 1 Chub, 6 Other

Beautiful part of the river, the fishing was slow as the river had fined down a lot during the previous day, the level was dropping steadily whilst we were there until it went clear. We started our session fishing with maggots for the chub and perch which proved to only catch a number of finger dace and chublets, nothing sizeable though. We switched to the ledger for the rest of the session and we managed to pull a couple of barbel on pellet and fish meal boilie near the end of the session. We stayed at the White Lion pub which was only a 10 to 15 minute drive away from the beat, very comfortable bed and breakfast, good ale and very nice food, they did us a packed lunch and filled the flasks up for us. We would highly recommend trying a stay here. Tight lines!!

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

The water was slightly coloured which helped the fishing as we got off to a great start with 3 barbel in half an hour very early in the morning. The action slowed down soon after and we went searching for fish. A chub and small barbel followed around midday with my friend catching the last barbel and chub with an hour to go. All barbel between 6 and 8lbs. With the chub 3 and 4 lbs. Lovely fishing all round.

5 Barbel, 2 Chub

River 2ft up but not too coloured. Very enjoyable days fishing as ever on this lovely stretch.

5 Barbel, 1 Chub, 1 Other

First visit to this beat, car access very good, able to park near the hut. Not surprisingly, a low and clear river combined with unseasonably bright, warm weather, made for a challenging day's fishing. Feeder/pellet and meat failed to produce the goods but float fished maggot provided some enjoyable sport, with several small chub and dace obliging.
BP led the way with more than twenty small dace and a perfectly-conditioned barbel of 6lb (his first on float!). However, RE was awarded ‘catch of the day’ for retrieving BP’s landing net, some 50m downstream from where it found it’s way into the river!

1 Barbel, 4 Chub, 20 Other