Feedback & Reports

A bright day on a lovely stretch of river with many features further upstream. Levels fairly low and few fish rising. Fished dries and nymphs with no success. A nice walk through the woods.

2 Trout

River very low and few fish showing. Two fish taken on size 18 black midge.

2 Trout

3 Trout

5 Trout, 20 Grayling

Conditions perfect and plenty of fly life, but a lack of fish. All fish taken on small caddis pupa imitation. Fish between 10 and 14".

5 Trout

Beautiful part of the river. Feeder and float used. I caught 40 chub and two barbel the first day, 35 chub and 5 barbel the next. My friend caught the rest. The hill is a killer.

14 Barbel, 103 Chub

First time on the Dee and loved it. Fished Bishops Run and had 4 x Browns on flashback nymph up to 2lbs. Overcast and a bit windy.

4 Trout

Came back to the Church Stream Pool for the second day. Caught a few chub to 4 lb from the start at 9 am, then the wind got up bringing a very large branch crashing down into the water. This made stately passage through the swim and killed action for a while. Like the previous day, the barbel took a while to appear, finally arriving at 12.30. Then caught 5 on pretty much consecutive casts (only interrupted by a chub between barbel nos 3 and 4. The biggest was a nice fish of 8 1/2 lb. Moved upstream to the Church field for the final couple of hours, where had a bite a chuck fishing across towards the far bank - every one a chub. Lost a few in the weed, but ended up with a dozen from this spot. All fish took 11 or 12 mm pellets, even an 8 oz tiddler. This beat certainly produces fish, but beware of the steep banks if you are not that agile.

5 Barbel, 20 Chub

River at 0.25m on EA Ross gauge with remains of 2” freshet and water at 68°F / 18°C, with a dirty orange brown colour (algae bloom or potato field wash off?) making visibility less than 12” – with thin layer of silt on all the gravel. Needs a good flood to wash it clean.
Four experienced anglers fly fished from early until late with all types and sizes of flies and methods, but no success. Saw many (30+) fish of all sizes in all the main pools throughout the day, both residents and travellers, but could not tempt them.