Feedback & Reports

Frost night before put pay to any barbel, but chub and pike in the upper reaches.

2 Chub, 2 Pike

11 Kelts caught whilst spinning. All resonably well mended. Many more seen leaping about. Didn't see any fresh fish.

4 Trout, 11 Other

Water running at a nice height. Very cold morning but temperature picked up in afternoon with the sun. Spun the stretch from iron steps down in the morning. The only action was a decent sized (10lb approx) very well mended kelt. Tried the fly on Wyebank in the afternoon but nothing to report.

Glorious early spring day after frosty start. No sign of any hatches/rising fish. Unable to tempt anything to take the variety of nymphs offered.

A day that begins with a long hold-up on the M42 is probably not going to be the best: this wasn't. When I finally arrived the river was at a reasonable height but carrying a deal more colour than I was expecting. When I saw the state of some of the surrounding fields I realised why - there is still a good deal of surface water left to drain and this is bringing enough muck to make the water pretty cloudy. Despite the day warming a little in the early afternoon and the small hatch that resulted, I neither saw nor contacted any fish. The winter floods have taken their toll and the river seems to have shifted here and there since last season. There is also a large tree right across it a little way upstream of the bridge. But cold weather and uncooperative fish apart, it was great to be back out again and I look forward with hope of more productive trips soon. It's still a cracking place to be.

With summer levels and cold water temperature, too cold really, but just a hint of colour. The prospects didn't bode well. However, after a morning fishing the upper/ deeper stretch with lures to no effect, a switch to the fly rod as the sun topped the trees and fishing the quicker water below the islands resulted in a 30 inch well mended fish which pulled hard and steady but didn't posses the explosive runs of a springer. As luck would have it I was wading mid-stream and as it dropped back into the net the hook fell out. After a short spell to recover it swam away upstream without having been out of the water.
Several more takes followed throughout the afternoon, smaller silver fish of 2 to 4 lbs, but failed to result in fish landed, all on 3 inch "Cascade" tube fly. Next time I'll take a lighter single-hander to get some of these!

1 Other

No fish caught or seen..

No salmon caught or seen, water a touch too high for fly, salmon taken by someone else on the beat though so they were there!!

Hard fishing with water clear and relatively low.

2 Chub, 1 Pike

Nothing caught or seen. River running very fast and quite high. No sign of fly life as cold and windy in morning. When the sun broke through mid afternoon we thought things might improve but all hopes dashed as for some reason the water started running brown which really spoilt what might have been a nice afternoon.