Feedback & Reports

Did not fish, very little flow in stream and overgrown

Any river is fishable with sufficient guile and effort, I thought; I was wrong.
Starting at the middle bridge, Escley brook is encouraging, a rock bed with water tumbling over it. The canopy is thick & low and once into the stream it is very difficult to get out. Watergates are fairly frequent though these have been softened up by the winter floods and surprisingly deep pools lurk in hidden corners. It is all but impossible to cast, probably fortunate as there is no room to play a fish, though this is an entirely theoretical cavil as there appear to be none; any trout would need a white stick to find its way in the murk. I finally emerged onto a bank which was impassable and recrossed in a pool sufficiently deep to find a significant tear in my waders. .
Bloody, wet, mildly cross & fishless, with a snapped top section and sunglasses a sacrifice to the local river deity, I sqwelched back to the parking place.
There are compensations, it is lovely out-of-the way side valley and views from the top on a warm summer's evening are balm, not just to the bramble scratches and wire cuts but to one's whole being. It provides a necessary contrast to those days when the fish have read all the right books and appear in the right places and in just sufficient numbers to keep an excitement through the whole day, even condescending, no doubt from politeness, to take the proffered fly.
The Escley conceals its charms so well that I for one am unlikely to rush back to enjoy them, though the pub further up has a local reputation for the quality of its beer, so when the current nonsense is over I may just have to go back and check.

Warm, mixed skies, pretty still, with a good amount of insect life around. A few mayfly stragglers, but mainly on to the BWOs/other small upwings now. Dries, nymphs and small streamers all caught, mostly 8" ish, a couple up to 12", all feisty fish in great condition. Photo a typical example - bright colours and distinct remaining parr makrs. An enchanting mallard family company and regular flypasts from the kingfisher capped a wonderful afternoon and evening.

25 Trout

Weather perfect, upwings on water and nothing rising to them. in fact it was the worst day I've had on the Lugg but nice to be out after Lockdown. will wait for welsh rivers to open up for the English as I feel there's more bang for your buck on the Wye and Usk.

3 Trout, 4 Grayling

Stream rising and coloured after overnight rain. 3 x trout 6-10 inches, size 16 Rusty Klinkhammer. I must have missed twice as many due to nervous / mistimed striking. I need to get used to fishing a small fly again.

3 Trout

Fished 10am-2pm. After initial rain shower, the sun quickly dried things off. Quite a muggy day actually. No fish see rising, so on with the duo and winkled 5 lovely spotted brownies out of runs that were accessible. LOTS of trees across the river recently fallen by the looks. No option but to climb out of the river and back in the other side....not an easy job! WUF: Any possibility of hauling these out? They are willows, so growing vertically and will get harder to shift therefore.

5 Trout

Not a good day, very little happening. This beat needs some serious work, barely half of it is fishable, I won’t be gong back in a hurry.

First time on this stretch, covered the whole length with nymphs, most fish taken on flies with orange in them. 20 fish to 1lb all returned, had as many on and off but that's to be expected especially with barbless hooks.

There are lots of large fallen trees for me these add to the features and took several fish from around them however the stretch is difficult to navigate for the less able. Overcast with sunny spell, low clear river. A thoroughly enjoyable day, didn't see another person all day and the wild brownies were great fun on my zero weight rod.

20 Trout

Fairly noisy because of the footpath on the opposite bank. Young adults and dogs splashing around in the river. Probably best to avoid this stretch at weekends during the day

Touch of colour to the water which was still not much higher than my last visit three weeks ago. Bankside and overhead growth more in play which made for an excellent stalking "wild" day. Warm conditions, mainly overcast with some sunny spells very light breeze at times. First two fish on nymphs from the pool at the very bottom of the beat ( cracking grayling and 6" wbt). All other fish were wbt on dry fly from 6 to 10" (see photo for a jaffa) mainly winkled out from under overhangs. Still had variety of mayfly all day and a Grey Wulff was the most successful. Soaked up all the usual wildlife, evidence of otters with quite a few crayfish remains on the gravel shores. Had lunch watching very busy fly catchers. Mid afternoon, heading up to the top of the beat, was surprised to be overtaken by the greater striped American paddleboarder! She apologised for disturbing me and splashed her way up through all the water I was about to cover. I refrained from casting a heavy hook in her general direction in an attempt to puncture the inflatable vessel. It would only have caused more commotion. An hour and half later we met again as she made her way back downstream to the bridge. Maddening at the time, but was soon forgotten.

WUF Note: The Lugg is a publicly navigable waterway downstream of Presteigne, whatever the height.

9 Trout, 1 Grayling