Feedback & Reports

After two days of rain we found the river to be up around a further 2ft overnight. It was carrying quite a bit of colour and lots of debris. After some discussion we settled on pegs at the very far downstream end of the beat and occupied pegs either side of the tree with the rope swing. The river dropped a lot throughout the day but remained quite pacey.
The fishing proved to be much better than expected given the conditions. We landed a total of 19 Barbel with all of the fish being in the 6lb - 7.5lb range. The sport was steady but with a couple of purple patches when there were a lot of feeding fish around. Unusually, pellet wasn't the best bait and most fell to sweetcorn. Fewer Chub were showing today but, in my experience, they tend not to feed so well when there's lots of colour in the water.

19 Barbel, 13 Chub, 4 Other

The reservoir is fishing very well - 26 trout caught and released over 3 short visits recently. I've found average size to be excellent at 14 to 15 inches (1lb+) with a couple at 18'' and 19'' both over 2lb.
However you will be wasting your time fishing in the middle of the day at this time of year. Either go very early morning (7am till 10.30am) or late evening (7.30pm to dark) it is then that the fish feed and can be found in the shallow marginal areas.
If you must go in the day time, choose a windy wet day for it.

28 Trout

2 Trout

Overcast, 3 small trout caught on Greenwell Glory and released Highlight of the day a young otter surfaced about 2 metres from me, rolled and swam off ( obviously socially distancing ) Magical.

3 Trout

We seemed to be very lucky and reached our bag limit by 2pm fishing the little cove with small worm baits. Every angler we spoke to had blanked all day. When I got home I cleaned my catch to find 2 trout had almost white flesh and both were full of sweetcorn ? Highly unusual to me.

6 Trout

River at 0.285 on the Eardisland gauge. Weather bright and sunny.
First time on this beat. Parked up in the super parking spot at 0700, tackled up and proceeded to follow the instructions to get to bottom of beat, about 150yrds down the right bank was confronted by an electric fence keeping a herd of cattle in place. On seeing me, every one of them lined up at the fence "daring" me to enter their area. This fence seems to be all over the top of the beat on both banks. Turned around and made my way down the left bank. Not the easiest path, 2nd field is chest high thistles and nettles.
The third field is easy going, with a nice border separating crop from river. Nice one from the landowner. Didnt go to the weir at bottom of beat and dropped in after about 1/2 mile.
From there it all went downhill. Opted for the duo. Did not see any fish rising, indeed only fish I saw were small grayling flashing at the nymph.
Didnt have a touch untl I got back to the two runs immediately below the bridge, when I hooked and lost 2 trout.
Overall an interesting few hours on a new beat. Access could be easier, had to jump in and out a few times, and bash a bit of balsam, but it is a wild stream, and thats just my old bones complaining.
Next time.

All caught on worm

3 Trout

Nice WBT of 20 inches or so on an olive CDC emerger and another of about 10 inches on an olive nymph. Had a couple of other fish on and lost so more productive than expected given the water conditions - the river was quite high and coloured. Nice day, though.

2 Trout

All four caught on a silver and blue Toby.

4 Trout, 4 Barbel