Feedback & Reports

Hot and sunny, very low water, stacks of mayfly coming off during the late afternoon and evening, nymphs and Gray Whulf’s the flies of the day.

We had the whole beat and three of us fished it but its coming up as one rod only here. We also got 12 trout but can’t enter double digits!

12 Trout, 2 Grayling

Very hot and sunny and the water was very low. Tough going generally, very little rising despite a large mayfly hatch. Fish taken on nymphs.

2 Trout

We approached this beat with some trepidation, having read the reports that suggested a combination of fishing and mountaineering skills would be required to succeed. The most difficult part was in fact the path down to the start of the beat, which is steep in places and has become very overgrown over the final 100 yards. A days work with saws and loppers could make access to the beat much easier. However, once we reached the stream a couple of 70 year olds were able to make progress upstream, and we were rewarded with a series of delightful pools, although casting a fly was always a challenge as virtually all then pools have trees overhanging at some point.

We worked our way to the mid point of the beat where two small side streams enter on the right bank. Not all the pools produced fish, but we did rise fish in a lot of the pools, and the final tally was five beautifully marked wild brown trout up to about 10 inches, although far more were missed. In the final pool, I rose and missed a much larger fish which looked to be at least a pound.

It had taken us about 3 hours to reach this point, so we decided to stop and find the road back to Erwood, which is possible by climbing out of the gorge at the point where the second side stream comes in.

This is a delightful beat, but is definitely challenging, particularly for us older anglers, but well worth the effort.

5 Trout

We arrived at this beat with high expectations, as we had fished it previously about 3 years ago and had very good results. However, we were very disappointed with this latest session. There was certainly no shortage of fly life, with a steady hatch of Mayfly coming off all afternoon, but although there was an occasional fish rising, there seemed to be far fewer than the previous time we had visited. In fact, some of the pools at the bottom of the beat which had previously produced seemed to be devoid of fish.

Things only got worse as we progressed upstream. The upper part of the beat is now very overgrown, and in some places where it was too deep to wade progress on the bank was extremely difficult due to thick vegetation, in particular brambles which tore at our waders.

We did manage to catch three trout between two anglers in what should have been perfect conditions, but unless some drastic coppicing is undertaken to improve the access in the top part of the beat we would not recommend this beat.

3 Trout

Fished early morning only , no fish showing not much hatching.

1 Trout

Slow fishing today but managed my 4 fish, running ledger traces and worm for bait.

4 Trout

Evening fishing ticket. 2 small brownies on sinking nymph.

2 Trout

2 Trout

6 Trout