Feedback & Reports

Ed Brown fishing the rocks at Bigsweir, 18lb on a purple shrimp pattern.

1 Salmon

I'm so sorry that you had to send a reminder, for I filled in a form that I thought was the correct one on Thursday evening. Blackpool Brook was a little difficult to find. A grid reference would have helped. It was a sunny morning when I fished, occasionally overcast. The trees provided shelter from any breeze there was, and there were plenty of flies of different kinds to be seen. The brook was very low, and there were signs that within the past two months it had been two or three inches higher, which would have made it twice as deep in some places. On the banks there were areas which obviously were marshy at some times in the year, but were dry and I could walk on top of them. There were also pools with enough water to hold small fish, but I saw no rises and caught no fish. I was using a size 18 grey duster. I suppose that there might be fish in the stream in Spring if we've had a wet winter, but I saw none - not a stickleback or minnow; nor even a tadpole! It was, of course, too late for tadpoles anyway, but I am surprised that this stream is included in the WUF handbook.

Slight drop in the level during the day with a lot less floating weed than the previous day. We caught fish throughout the day even during the afternoon when the sun was on the water. Best barbel was 8.04 and the largest chub was 4-4 although most of the chub were in the 1.5-2.5lb range. As usual all the fish were caught on pellet.

23 Barbel, 24 Chub

River a few inches higher and pushing through slightly quicker than my last visit. Floating weed still a problem but much better than the previous few days judging from other anglers reports. I had a few Chub early morning but had to wait until 09:00 until the first Barbel arrived but at 8lb 5ozs it was worth waiting for. Although I finished with 8 Barbel, there was no sustained feeding spell having to wait an hour or two between bites, my final two coming after 6pm including the best fish of the day at 9lb 2ozs. I knew I was in a productive swim so was not tempted to move around and patience did pay off today. All fish tempted on Elips pellets, best Chub 4lb 14ozs but most other Chub around the 3lb mark.

8 Barbel, 12 Chub

Fished both Weds and Thurs but only mornings until about 10 and afternoon and evenings from about 4.30. River up a little on Weds but dropping back on Thursday. Not ideal conditions but as always its worth persevering on this stretch as the fish are there and can be tempted. Pellet fished on a long hook link behind a feeder did the trick with 7 barbel to 9.05 and 6 chub to 5lb. Nice to meet Rudi who knows the stretch really well and is very open and helpful to visiting anglers. Courtfield is definitely one of my favourite venues and I will be back later in the season.

7 Barbel, 6 Chub

We caught 1 rainbow trout of 2lb, 3 small brown trout, the biggest of 1lb and 2 perch of 3/4lb each. All caught on spinners. All fish returned.

4 Trout, 2 Other

Wasn't able to fish upper /deeper part of beat (nice chap already ensconced). Fished the mid section, not a sausage. Couldnt stay too late which may have been the key to that stretch at that level of flow.

Warm, overcast day with sunny intervals. We had not fished this stretch before but the river looked in good shape. Most of the chub were caught on float fished 8mm pellets and bread flake and all were all quality fish in the 2lb to 4lb range with a couple pushing 5lb and every swim we fished on both banks produced fish. The barbel were caught on the left bank, 3 from the very last swim and 4 from a swim in the middle of the length. They were caught on 8mm Robin Red pellets and Source boilies and all were between 5lb and 7lb and all in excellent condition. An excellent day on a excellent stretch of river.

7 Barbel, 31 Chub

Fine 12oz brown taken just above Highwell pool, on a Greenwell spider (wet fly). Low water so barely any need for waders. Good hatch of mayfly (or similar, I'm not good at identification) but very few rises. A few bites at Vicarage pool but that was if for the day. Humid. This is s beautiful stretch; saw dippers and a pair of kingfishers.

1 Trout

I thought I was getting better after some good catches of late. Unfortunately not - I caught nothing on this day and even failed to get any interest at all in the many different flies I tried. I will be back though!