Feedback & Reports

Caught one bar of silver.
Saw two more fresh fish move at glangwye just below the Rectory beat.
Lost a fresh 20lbr at the net in the Grange.

1 Salmon

10 Trout

3 Trout

0

Three trout caught, all around 5-7inches. All caught on dry flies (Klinkhammer, Parachute Adams). A few splashy rises missed but exciting! As well as lovely dry fly water, saw: Red kite; two deer; kingfisher (I think); woodpecker; dipper. Lovely few hours on a new beat. Good access from tree-lined fields at various points and easy wading most of the time.

3 Trout

water coloured- - light hatch c 2pm- broke rod so left early

8 x WBT and 5 x OOS grayling all caught on a home tied size 16 gold bead hear ear nymph. Some decent sized and healthy fish. KM

8 Trout, 5 Grayling

Arriving at the river, there were only a few spits of rain in the air. Waders on, assembled the rod, and set up. Nothing felt particularly remarkable at that point. Then, as I walked down to the river, something changed. The breeze disappeared completely and an extraordinary stillness settled over the river. The sort of silence that makes you stop and take notice. Almost immediately, spinners appeared from nowhere, dancing above the pool in the calm air. Then came the flash of a fish rising at the head of the pool where the fast water poured in.

The first cast was in the wrong place. The second wasn’t much better. The third landed where it needed to. I dropped the flies (Wry fly setup) into the fast water and allowed them to drift naturally down into the pool. Wallop! The fish took decisively and tore off head down! On the 7’6” rod, every head shake and run was magnified. Despite not being a huge fish, it fought far above its weight and kept me occupied for several minutes before finally sliding into the net. A beautifully marked wild brown trout, somewhere around the one-pound mark, full of life and impossible to photograph properly as it twisted and rolled in the net. After a brief pause in the net, kept entirely in the water, she recovered strongly and swam away into the current. As if on cue, the moment she disappeared, the heavens opened!

The rain arrived in earnest and the spell was broken. I continued upstream and managed, still bewitched, and missed a couple more fish in unlikely lies, but it didn’t matter. The evening had already given me everything I could have hoped for.

Fishing often feels like a search for moments rather than fish. Most trips are enjoyable, some are productive, but every now and then everything aligns perfectly: the weather, the river, the insects, the trout and your own timing.

This was one of those evenings. A narrow window between the storm clouds and the rain, a rising fish, a perfect drift, and a wild Arrow brownie returned to the river.

The sort of memory that stays with you long after the details have faded.

1 Trout

3 Trout

Catch return is for 3 anglers. The beat fished brilliantly with most fish coming from the upper half of the beat. The pool just through the gate was fish a cast. We fished spider patterns most of the day, black bodies with a red foil rib was the fly of the day. The river was coloured and 1.05 m at the Erwood guage.

32 Trout, 1 Grayling, 1 Chub