Feedback & Reports

Another new beat for me today. Parked by the foot bridge and started walked up on that side of the river. I just couldn't find anywhere to access the water though. Tried on the other side of the bridge and eventually found some limited access but it was very difficult. This compounded with wind and lots leaves in the water made fishing quite challenging. No sign of Grayling and only a few Salmon Parr to show for my strenuous efforts. I think a more detailed map might have been useful and a few signs dotted around to give some confidence to someone new to the beat.

2 Other

7 barbel shared between the two of us, 5 of which came in a hectic last half an hour at dusk. Fish in the 4 - 7 pounds range, all in perfect condition, taken on standard feeder and pellet / luncheon meat tactics from swims at the bottom end of the stretch. Leaping salmon seen throughout the day.

7 Barbel

1st time fishing Courtfield, so spent most the day roving and checking out swims, the autumnal colours were stunning and the river looked good with a bit of rain to bring the level up. Caught 1 barbel of 8lbs just after dark which put up a excellent scrap. Looking forward to a return visit next year...

1 Barbel

River normal level, weather over cast. Hard day with lots of weed coming downstream. One barbel came late in the day 8 1/2 lbs. Still a good day out.

1 Barbel

Tough day with large amounts of leaves in the river. A struggle in otherwise ideal conditions, still had a great time though.

5 Barbel, 2 Chub

First time on this beat and following recent heavy overnight rain we were optimistic of finding a few fish. Started at 10:30am on the lower stretch but conditions were difficult with heavy leaf debris making presentation nigh on impossible. We moved to the upper section in the slower flowing areas and SB managed a few small roach and a chublet float fishing maggot, with a switch to pellet late afternoon failing to increase the bite ratio.
RB fished caster to far bank taking a few perch, 1 chub of 5 lb and 2 barbel at 7lb.
Will definitely return later in year when water levels are higher.
A stunning stretch, well done to WUF for enabling access to another exceptional looking beat.

2 Barbel, 2 Chub, 3 Other

River was in good condition slightly up after previous days rain. Overcast conditions seemed ideal but it fished very hard, couldnt get a bite on any pellets or boilies so tried maggots and had a barbel straight away. Had 2 Chub after this on maggots then nothing till light started to go then had 2 more barbel and lost 2 barbel so not a bad day at the end. Beautiful place to fish, the scenery at this time of year is stunning, love this river.

3 Barbel, 2 Chub

Heavy rain and gusty winds in the early morning had brought down many leaves from the bank side trees resulting in huge rafts of leaves in parts of the beat which made them unfishable as the flies could not penetrate into the water.
Two good sized trout were seen on arrival and a salmon jumped at the top end late in the afternoon but we did not succeed in catching any grayling. No fish rising during our visit, but we all had a very enjoyable day.

The mild weather gave us high hopes but the fish were somewhat finnicky. The grayling didn't seem to be shoaled up and the trout didn't recognise that their season had finished. Sporadic rises didn't give much confidence to dry fly tactics and we mainly stuck to the duo. That said the klink did get the odd inspection and accounted for a fish. All the fish were taken from typical grayling water but we never felt we were going to connect with any reasonable sized specimens. The best grayling was probably just over the pound and the trout were mainly about 3/4lb with the odd smaller fish thrown in.

11 Trout, 6 Grayling

2 fish 2.1/4 lbs 2 fish 2.3/4 lbs

4 Trout