Feedback & Reports

The river was low, but not unfishably so and the water was like gin. Great fishing conditions if you like that kind of thing. Weather wise, the morning was cloudy and then the sun came out about 1pm and shone for the rest of the day.

I fished the lower section in the morning and the upper section in the afternoon. They're like two two different rivers really. The lower section is quite tight in places and the wading, especially around the pocket water, can be tricky - those pockets are DEEP and the rocks slippery and I took an involuntary swim at one point - whereas the upper section is easily waded and open.

My fish all came in the afternoon off the upper section to a speculative dry #16 olive pattern drifted over likely spots on the end of a 14 ft leader and 7X tippet. None of the fish were rising prior to taking the fly. I should have caught in the lower section too - there were certainly takeable fish there - but I was undecided whether to fish nymph or dry and ended up by alternately fishing both badly. Spent a lot of time unhooking the backcast from trees too, which didn't help. With water as low and clear as that you only really get one chance and my drifts and set up were far too clumsy for the conditions. So it's my own fault that I didn't catch.

Will definitely try and go back though. It's glorious country up there and I want to try and make a better job of fishing the bottom section next time. I didn't do it justice.

5 Trout

1 Trout

Well, what a place, proper wild fishing. My fishing partner who fished well all day caught 10 fish all on dries anything with red in the pattern seemed to be order of the day. My three were on a Montana with a red head but I missed a lot more. It's a must for the views alone, great great day. I can see us being regulars there.

13 Trout

Hard going: low, warm water. Nice beat but tricky access in places and the road noise isn't the best.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub, 1 Other

Fished the river on one of the hottest days of the heatwave and not a lot stirring. Some of the local residents decided to swim in the river to cool down and ended any chance of landing a few. Beautiful river though and an evening or early morning session would have been fantastic. Only slight annoyance is the nearby road and hearing the cars and occasional truck makes it harder to forget you’re not truly out in the “wild”.

Very tough conditions with bright sunshine on a very low, clear river. Managed to find some barbel in the afternoon and landed 4 of the bites we had. All fell to flavoured 14mm pellet.

4 Barbel, 3 Chub

Went to the upper stretch and parked at Synchant farm to fish for wild brown trout. Very difficult access to river, overgrown with Japanese Knotweed and very difficult to find the one area where someone had previously trodden through. It wasnt possible for me to get out of the river further along and walk the banks due to the knotweed. As it was very calm, I had to wade up the river, some lovely pools, perfect for sea trout but often too deep to wade through and so restricted to a small number of pools. Lots of rising fish, some takes, none-netted though!

5 Trout

Water was low, sun was high, had a great adventure, but no fish, A single take all day!

I fished the Dore and the Escley in one day. It was lovely to be out with the fly rod but fishing conditions were, hot weather, low water, consequently no fish. A great pleasure to be out, all the same.