Feedback & Reports

No fish caught. River still slightly in flood. Due to the excess water in recent weeks the banks are treacherous so extra care is needed. Lots of evidence of otter presence in the freshly deposited mud and silt on the banks aswell as a flock of cormorants numbering in excess of 20 in a tree on the far bank.

Knew river was high but thought I'd still give it a try. River was far to high and had flooded in a few places so give up after a couple of hours. I will be back though.

River was in flood with considerable debris collecting on line soon after bait had settled. No fish to either angler I'm afraid. Still, a superb day out in a wonderful location. A few days without rain and I'm sure it will fish well.

Nil caught - we had set our heart on pike but met a rising river. Had a heart stopping moment when a large dog otter burst out of the water at my feet as I lifted out a 4 inch brass spoon. Thank goodness I didn't hook it.

9 Chub on bread pellet and cheese paste. River rose 18" during the afternoon so I called it a day at 3.30pm. Way to many leaves in the river even a rod length out.

9 Chub

4 Chub

The river was low and clear, some fast runs but the fish were very shy. We both fished with pellet, corn, meat from 8am to 4.30pm only 2 takes all day.
I have fish this stretch before and have done much better fishing the fast runs.

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

River very clear, struggled all day. No sign of barbel but my first grayling saved the day. Fantastic stretch of river.

The river was low and extremely clear, which made things a little difficult. M had a chub early on in the session but that's all we got in the morning. A change of swim produced a barbel for M. We then went back to the orchard swim and M managed to wrestle out a 13lb crocodile on a float fished dead-bait. A few more chub were banked just before dark, I managed a lovely 4lber on my last cast. Good angling by M, I definitely could have caught a few barbel but I was just happy making bacon sandwiches and cups of tea. I thought I better let him win this time, he was still a little upset about the hammering I gave him on the last visit.

1 Barbel, 5 Chub, 1 Pike

Fished from first light for about three hours. Spent the first two hours exploring, trotting various of the less accessible rocky parts of the upper and lower ends of the beat, without so much as a bite. I was considering an early retreat but decided to have a go in an ordinary looking gravel run in the middle field - this proved to be stuffed with fish and in the last hour I caught about a dozen Grayling to about 1 1/2 pounds, lost about the same amount (always happens with Grayling) as well as two Trout. I would have stayed longer but for a slow leak in my chest waders - not recommended in December!
I wouldn't attempt to fish this beat without waders, and the second lesson learned was to keep moving until you find the fish - once I located them it was pretty straightforward.

2 Trout, 12 Grayling