Feedback & Reports

With the Trallong guage at only 0.23m, the river is right down to its bones, running languidly through the drops into a descending series of very shallow, slow-moving glides. Fish are VERY spooky, sitting and feeding in shallow margins, and with tail-gunners and non-rising fish off upstream if inadvertently disturbed. The morning was cool and cloudy with a pesky cold upstream wind impairing presentation and little fly until about 11 a.m. but with just a few fish sipping, mainly in the margins, probably on midge. Then mainly OUs, LBDs, midge and gnats appeared, not in huge numbers, but enough to get more fish moving. There is also a lot of green aphid on the sycamores, as well as some monster stonefly on the water – the Little and (very) Large Show! In the afternoon, as if it wasn't tough enough already, it was wall to wall sunshine with fish even spookier, but some still nebbing, seemingly on black gnat, especially where there was some shade. The trout were all plump well-fed Penpont fish, with fish ranging from 10, 12, 14 and 16 inches, the latter fat at a surprising two pounds. Fish were taken on Baby Sunfly, an OU Duck’s Dun variant, a small HE emerger, and a black F fly for the gnats. I had to leave at 5 p.m. but there were lots of spinners in the air so I shall stay later on my next trip (after / if we get some more water – lots of rain please, and soon!). An exceedingly hard but rewarding day.

11 Trout

A day of two halves - cold, overcast and quite windy in the morning, clear blue skies and a baking sun in the afternoon. Fish don't like either really, very few showing, and those that did, were grayling. Combined with the low water level, it made for a hard day. Never mind, there's always tomorrow!

2 Trout, 1 Grayling

River quite low and dropping. Morning overcast with occasional rise. After several misses caught a strong WBT around 9''. Afternoon sunny with masses of fly activity but no sign of fish. Plenty of other wildlife seen including a small deer.
Parking down track no problem - a great location.

1 Trout

With the lack of rain over the last few weeks I wasn’t really sure what to expect… but I was desperate to fish and this was the only day I had free. It was pretty fresh first thing, with light cloud. The sun did eventually break through mid morning and it turned into a stunner of a day.

I have fished here once before quite a few years ago and things did look slightly different. Of course the Honddu was low for most of this beat, but with a bit of searching there were some deeper and faster flowing sections, but much of it was either very shallow or barely moving. I struggled to start with on this small stream to get the technique right, and the trees and vegetation all around were ‘interesting’! After a few snags and tangles I got into a bit of a rhythm, more on a flick than an actual cast.

I wasn’t really expecting much but the fish came in the morning session up until about 2pm. I caught four (in varying sizes) and missed a few. I stopped then for lunch, and after that there was no action at all. A massive hatch started mid afternoon, with all sorts and sizes taking to the air (someone with greater knowledge than me would have to tell me what they all were). In some sections of the river the air was thick with flying insects, zipping around in giant balls, clouds of life... but there seemed to be no rising fish at all! Nothing. I sat and watched on many occasions, but nothing. So I stuck with my trusty Klinkhammer indicator with a copper Hare’s Ear dropper, and I was just about to call it a day when a massive WBT tugged on my line (at about 7pm approx). This was a big fish for such a small stream and put on a hell of a fight. Having lost a few earlier in the day I was worried that I may lose this one too, but thankfully I netted it. A beautiful fish, and a great end to the day.

This was wild stream fishing at is best, in such a beautiful part of the world. The only things that would improve it for me would be a sign or marker to show where the non-fishing section of the stream starts and finishes around the old fish farm, and some plastic pipe on the barbed wire fences that you have to cross would be useful. All fish returned.

5 Trout

Almost Silly Season evening, but not quite. Weather sunny and warm with light breeze. Started at 16.30 on team of sedge and caddis nymph down woodstream. Had immediate take on sedge but only a 4oz par. Continued down to pick up two more on the sedge at 12oz and 1lb. J had one fish of 12 oz.
J fished subsurface for the rest of evening at the top run, landing 2 nice fish of 1lb each and several other offers.
I fished dry and landed 4 more which fell to size 14 sedge, and later white wulff. Lost another of 2lb plus at the head of the rock on the wulff late on. Temperature dropped to 9 deg by 9 and it all went quiet. Plenty of assorted fly life but only the occasional mayfly, but plenty of yellow may dun. Very enjoyable.

10 Trout

Lovely spring day but the water a bit low. My friend had a strong pull in the Vanstone and I had to settle for a good chub to a Willie Gun at the bottom of the Maddox pool.

1 Chub

No signs of active fish. Cold wind prevailed in the early morning until just before midday, when the modest cloud cover disappeared to yield a very bright day. Fishing conditions far from ideal.

Difficult day with bright sun and blustery downstream wind. Lovely place. 4 trout, 4 O/O/S Grayling

4 Trout, 4 Grayling

4 x trout 10-18 inches. Another cold start and again the cold downstream wind. Will it ever stop? Actually a difficult day with few fish rising, although olive uprights and various other insects were about. What made it all worth while was a super hen trout of 18 inches which took a size 16 Deer Hair Sedge. It was a lovely looking thing, the best I can remember from this beat, and made some very determined attempts to get me into the alder roots before I netted it. This fish would have made a lovely photograph. However, measured it in the net, got the hook out, lifted it slightly while I brought the camera up to take the shot, upon which it suddenly jack-knifed on my hand and was gone. I can see some friends of mine are going to rib me about this. No really chaps, you should have seen it.... Nice chat with another rod from Oxford who was surprised to catch a large chub.

4 Trout