Feedback & Reports

The river was very low again, but it was a cloudy afternoon, so there seemed to be a chance of picking up a barbel. Some chub bites and three fish to start with, but the swim switched off around 18.00 and there was nothing more. I moved to another swim but that was equally fruitless. Light rain began to fall in the evening and became steadily heavier and with no action I decided to pack up at around 20.30.

3 Chub

5 Trout

no fish caught , river very low but a wonderful place to spend the day.

Good day at Bideford Brook, despite the extremely low water. 19 trout between 6-12 inches; nymphing under an indicator.

First time at the Brook this season. The water was clear but extremely low; must be the lowest I had ever witnessed. Many productive pools of the previous seasons only had inches of water. However, this made the deep pools very predictable. The brook was also a bit more overgrown, compared to the previous season. I felt that a 7ft rod was now too long. A 6ft rod might be ideal.

Started off with S14 Klinkhammer but had no response. So switched to nymph. However, the lack of flow made it tricky to nymph. Even the lightest nymph (2mm tungsten bead) just went straight to the bottom and stayed there. A bit of adaptation, by putting an indicator to lift the nymph off the bottom, got some slow drifts going. It felt more like fishing a Stillwater than a river.

The method seemed to work, picking up fish here and there steadily. To my good surprise, many trout came from shallow flats, less than knee depth. However, it was necessary to move at a painfully slow pace in order not to spook them and to make the first cast count. A lot of them were bow-and-arrow casts. Even so, I probably spooked more than what I had caught.

On a positive note, all deep pools held good sized trout, up to 12 inches; a stunning size for this little brook. They also put a deep bend on the 3wt rod. A fish like this really made our day.

Finished the day with 19 trout; with the biggest being 12 inches (pictured). All fish were caught upstream of the bridge. The Brook badly needs more water and I really hope we get more rain soon.

19 Trout

No fish caught. River very low. Saw 3 fish. One was very big. Will return when we have had some rain.

Both anglers caught 3 fish each

6 Trout

1 Chub

4 Barbel, 2 Chub

Access is limited in a few areas. Managed to sight a few fish in the lower parts of the beat which looked best. Unfortunately no fish caught though.

2 rainbow trout, one on ledger and one on spinner. 2 others hooked but lost

2 Trout