Feedback & Reports

Fished the beat from 9.30am to about 5.00pm. Within those few hours we experienced mist, full bright sunshine, light drizzle and heavy rain. The first hour proved to be most productive with some of the best trout (about a pound) and grayling (maybe three quarters of a pound) coming to flies trundled through the faster broken water. By midday bright sunshine slowed things down before they picked up again in the mid-afternoon drizzle. The heavy rain coloured the water remarkably quickly in the final hour.
Very little in the way of surface activity beyond the acrobatic Salmon and small trout in Erwood Pool. All our fish fell to weighted nymphs and spiders. As many were missed or shook themselves free as came to hand. So it was a pleasant and satisfying way to bid farewell to the 2014 season.

15 Trout, 4 Grayling

What a day to finish the trout season. Water v low and clear at .37m so elected to fish for trout as did John Lewis. I fished dry for first hour from 12 midday as fish were rising with John on subsurface nymph. John had one and a few tugs on the nymph with no fish for me on a succession of dry flies.
I switched to a green/yellow deer hair sedge on the point and a green/black size 14 waterhen bloa on the dropper down the wood stream which yielded 14 fish, mainly large salmon par and one brown of 8oz. John has another 2 par on a single black and silver nymph. Temp dropped sharply at 4pm and no further success but good day's sport.
Looks like some rain Sun/Mon but unlikely to be enough for Salmon.

17 Trout

Struggled to tempt many trout, although I think most that rose to the dry spotted the line and sheared off at the last minute. Went very small to catch 2 at 8", but I hope the river gets a good clear out over winter!

2 Trout

1 Trout

Caught on goldheaded nymphs.

1 Trout, 2 Grayling

River very low. Caught on Daddy Longlegs.

1 Trout

Water level very low, as was expected. Very pleased to catch two fish, a perfect days fishing. Spooked some very large trout, shall look forward to returning in better conditions. Largest fish 12" other 9", both on olive sparkle dun.

2 Trout

Hard fishing in low gin clear water. Both anglers knew what to expect, having fished the beat before. Two 12", two small ones.

4 Trout

All fish caught on ledger with cage feeder and banded 8mm halibut pellets. Chub caught at 11.30am, barbel caught 4.30 - 6.00pm, 6lbs 4oz, 8lbs and 8lbs 8oz. Also like to mention Pilgrims hotel, excellent accomodation and food.

3 Barbel, 1 Chub

4 x grayling 10-14 inches, Grayling Steel Blue etc. Various small trout and parr. Quite a while since I fished here and there was not much going on during this rather warm morning. I spent several hours teasing a few grayling at the bottom of the beat or perhaps they were teasing me. Anyway, it was very slow going. Finally fell asleep on the bank after lunch. A client did much better a few miles downstream at Erwood the following day.
Incidentally, there are huge numbers of salmon parr pestering away at the dry fly this autumn in this part of the river while we are trying to catch grayling. Some of them are quite large, presumably the result of the excellent spawning run of 2012. I should think some might be 7 or even 8 inches by the time they go to sea next spring.

4 Grayling