Feedback & Reports

Not a sniff all day!

River still very low and clear. Early morning mist failed to clear and remained all day. Started just below island with no bites on a variety of baits. Early afternoon, moved back upstream to swim to right of access path and connected with decent chub first cast. 6 Chub taken in total, best at 5lb 4oz. Only 1 barbel of 5lb caught shortly after dusk. All fish to usual tactics of feeder and pellet/boilies. With the fog, the low light level and the old church as a backdrop, quite a spooky place to be on Halloween!

1 Barbel, 6 Chub

River low and clear, cloudy/foggy conditions.
Large open end feeders with groundbait and pellet and pellet on hair with 2 foot hooklength.

5 Barbel, 5 Chub

Very little flow on a low and clear river. The weather was overcast and very mild. All fish were taken from the bottom of the beat with legered pellet.

5 Barbel

Lovely day once the fog cleared, hazy sunshine. River very low and clear. A few small upwings around much of the afternoon. Mostly fished duo, switched to nymphs later on. Best grayling (and the OOS trout) took the dry, others took a nymph.

1 Trout, 7 Grayling

A tough day, river very low and clear, fished towards the bottom end with not a touch. One of those days where you think are they just not feeding yet or am I in the wrong place. Moved eventually and probably too late, but had a 5lb barbel first cast in new swim and had a few other knocks after that. Misty all day. Enjoyable and very relaxing day.

1 Barbel

Two small grayling and one fish about 10" all taken on dry fly

3 Grayling

First time on this stretch. Booked as part of anniversary weekend for me and my wife Becci hoping she could finally catch her first barbel. Track down the field was a bit ropey in my estate car and better suited a 4x4 but we managed - a bit of wheel spin on the way back up so I'd think twice before heading down there in a non-4x4 in wet weather but I'm sure the farmer would let you park at the top and walk down if you asked nicely.
Read a few reports about lack of swims - I can assure people that there are plenty of swims, at least in the relatively low flow conditions we had. Some towards the upper end are a little bit difficult but there is more accessible water than a couple of anglers could fish in one session without question. If you want perfectly manicured swims I suggest you stick to commercial fisheries. Absolutely nothing wrong with this beat.
Now the fishing - first fish out was an 8lb 3oz barbel to my wife. Hearing her nervous giggling as the reel screamed was an absolute delight. After that it all went very quiet apart from the odd salmon jumping and a few pike hitting fish at the surface so we moved downstream a bit - wish we'd done that earlier! 5 mins after moving my wife had her 2nd barbel and shortly after that I had one at 7lb 1oz. We finished with 4 barbel each, lost a couple, had a 4lb chub and then a few dace and a wee troot on trotted maggots - if you could be tempted away from the barbel (all caught on pellet) you could have great fun trotting on this stretch. If we'd moved earlier / had longer before dark we would have certainly added another couple of barbel to our tally. Also watched a kingfisher feeding throughout the day. One of my best fishing days ever and over the moon that my wife managed to catch her first barbel and that it was such a good size fish. Barbel ranged from 4lb up to 8lb 3oz. Great day, thanks to beat owner and WUF.

1 Trout, 8 Barbel, 1 Chub, 6 Other

Most of the stretch is shallow and full of streamer weed, unsuitable for lure fishing for pike at this time of the year.

Enjoyed the day, started fishing around 11am. Weather was overcast. Never caught a thing, but about 3.30 in the afternoon rod wrenched round, and I was into a large barbel. Unfortunately for me the hook pulled. Bait was Halibut pellet 14mm.