Feedback & Reports

Plenty of fly life though the fish were not quite switched on to them. All 6 fish came from the bottom part of the beat including a couple of decent trout. The other was my hat which after I had gone for an unplanned swim floated off down river but it’s escape was cut short by dad managing to tempt it to take a fly and dragging it back to safety.

4 Trout, 2 Grayling, 1 Other

Evening: a fair number of olive spinners around, but only dimpling rises (to what?), until nearly 10pm when the fish appeared to lose their caution and I got 5 in quick succession on Jingler and Elk-hair Caddis, including three good fish of 16 inches (1.75 lbs) each

5 Trout

1 Trout

Beautiful bit of river. Fishing rather tricky as it was at summer low, sunny, clear and with a difficult downstream breeze at times, but managed to catch two - 16 and 10". Although a warm sunny day there were some black gnats and hatches of small mayflies which produced some takes. In fact I had at least a dozen bites but one of those days where they were very hard to hit and keep on, the fish had a knack of rolling off the hook - including three other nice fish of 13-15" near the net. The sand martins were more enthusiastic - many hawking and zooming back and forth into the river banks! Lots of other birds too on the banks including oystercatcher, greenshank, goosander and asmall flock of greylag geese. Ironically the bigger fish was accidentally lassoed around his shoulders after he took a dry and jumped, he wasn't too keen on that and charged off upriver - in one long run he took me into the backing with my drag still paying out! Incredible power, if I hadn't seen him jump initially would have thought he was much bigger! He was absolutely fine once I'd untangled him though, in beautiful condition (probably been munching green drakes for the last month, but those seem to have passed now!), and swam off strongly.

One slightly alarming note - every thirty minutes or so a few huge lumps of foam the size of footballs came drifting down. I know some foam can be natural, but when the river is so low, not fierce or especially windy that was a bit concerning - possibly some pollution with detergents/agricultural pollution from fertiliser run-off? Also there was a fisherman on the far bank when I arrived, he then went upstream when I went to the lower limit so no problem as there is plenty of river here, would assume he had the rights to the far bank. Still plenty of fish and a lovely stretch of river - thanks for letting me fish it!

Fishing Passport Note : There will always be the potential for someone fishing opposite on single bank fisheries.

2 Trout

Varied weather conditions - cold and overcast in the morning and clearing becoming warm as the day progressed - with low water levels, suggested we might have been in for a challenging day. We both used nymphing rigs and found the fish in the faster water. All hooked on the point fly which in both cases was a hare's ear pattern. The 3 'other' were salmon parr.

4 Trout, 12 Grayling, 3 Other

4 Trout

Common Carp approx 6lbs

1 Other

Hot and sunny, and river very low. Lovely beat - plenty of water to explore. Sorry to the grayling for disturbing their off-season

2 Trout, 5 Grayling

A stunning and wonderfully accessible beat. Easy wading throughout...even if you can't see the bottom.

10 trout and 3 grayling on various nymphs, with most coming from the faster water. The best fish of the day (12-13 inches) was sat in the middle of a fast riffle 1.5ft deep.

7 more trout on the dry as darkness fell. A prolific hatch in the evening of a broad variety of upwings - remarkable by its variety. Small Grey Wulff and Jingler most effective. Fish feeding hard from 9-1030pm, It was only my inability to see the fly that stopped play.

An otter hunted through a pool as I stood waist-deep in the middle of it. It's progress downstream marked by jumping fish. May explain the old injury on this fish? Or predatory birds?

17 Trout, 3 Grayling