Feedback & Reports

Nil fish caught. Target was trout and as we were from South Africa, we could well have been using wrong fly patterns! Lovely water and Lake. We shall be back sometime next year.
We used fly rods, and tried spinning as well.

Good day, shared the beat with another senior angler....we were both disturbed by a couple of fishing youths who clearly had taken an opportune moment to try a spot of spinning without authority. My counterpart's challenge was enough to see them move on. Nonetheless, fishing was not unduly affected. 6 grayling and an out of season trout was my bag, all taken on red tag/zulu and returned safely. Water in excellent condition.

6 Grayling

I arrived on a misty morning and witnessed a stunning sunrise. I then had a trout first cast on leggered worm and thought that I would be in for a good day. But that was the last of the action until I packed up at 11am. I collected yet another bag of litter from around where I was fishing and passed this to the bailiffs for disposal. I noticed about 6 dead perch either floating in the water or stamped on the bank. I guess the so called "anglers" were disappointed not to catch a trout and killed the perch in anger.

1 Trout

Bead head and traditional spiders accounted for all fish. Plenty of surface activity too but had no dries with me to take advantage.

2 Trout, 7 Grayling

When we arrived we found that the owner was guiding a party of salmon anglers, so we spent most of the day on the lower part of the beat. Fish were rising in short bursts of about 5 minutes, followed by a lull of up to 30 minutes. Most of our fish were caught on small dries, size 20 midge or griffith Gnats, but also caught on gold bead nymphs between hatches. The fish were a good average size of about 12-13 inches but no lunkers caught, although we did manage to break our leaders on 2 good fish, either due to incompetence or faulty leaders.
We met up with the owner later in the day who apologised for the fact that we had to share the fishing with his party. He then showed us all the best lies for grayling and even gave us a couple of his favorite patters to try. This was very much appreciated and I hope that we will be back to fish this fabulous beat many times in the future.

15 Grayling

This was our first time on this beat, upper section very inaccessible and limited swims on lower end. However MF did find fish on lower section, had 3 good barbel on maggot feeder.
TR struggled in the next swim, tried both maggot and pellet feeder and several baits trotting all to no avail. However a very pleasant day in wonderful surroundings.

3 Barbel

It was a real pleasure to fish this beat. RB fished the top meadow all day and caught 1 barbel in the evening. RW fished from the rocks in the woods to begin with, but it proved to be a tackle graveyard. The one barbel hooked here resulted in a cut off on a snag, so a move was called for to the lower meadows. 4 barbel to 8lb 3 oz were caught before the light started to fade.
Highlights of the day were several sightings of a large dog otter, and also a couple of young otters playing and squabbling noisily below the woods.

5 Barbel

Beautiful stretch of water, well kept, access good. We walked the whole beat but could not find the bigger grayling but was good fun trying. Plenty of smaller fish rising which took the dry fly. This beat was so quiet and out of the way with owls hooting, woodpeckers tapping away and kingfishers, there was something to see all the time. A very well set out beat, enjoyed it and will be back soon. Sorry for the late report but was extremely ill for a couple of days. Thanks to owner for phoning me back when I got a little lost.

6 Trout, 4 Grayling, 5 Other

Fished lower end of the fishery, 5 Barbel, best fish 10lb 8oz, 2 Chub 4lb.

5 Barbel, 2 Chub

Very shallow and weedy stretch, and was hard going. Three chub and a single barbel on pellet.

1 Barbel, 3 Chub