Feedback & Reports

A lovely beat, this one. One of the best three I imagine. A poor day though. It rained solidly and the water was very high and coloured. Not safe to venture in, in most parts! No sign of salmon, but trout started rising mid afternoon. Some mayfly in still in evidence.

Wet and windy conditions. Water cold. Little insect activity on the surface but a good population of heptagenid's, hydropysches and baetis nymphs in the river. One 8 inch WBT caught by 6pm. 8 more caught on Yellow May emerger pattern following a small hatch of Yellow May's around 7pm. Largest 10 inch ranging down to 6 inches.

Fished every swim for only one lost fish. Anyway its a lovely place.

We had a lovely afternoon and evening fishing some of this beat. We are relatively new to stream fishing. A bit windy and very wet, there were occasional yellow mayfly hatching on and off during the day, and a lot of small black flies about, but no big hatches and did not spot any rising fish. Tried different surface and nymph patterns but only one bite. Will return, plan to book a guide for next session!
We found the booking much easier than the passport system, all of the streams look very enticing, thanks to the Foundation.

Lovely beat. Started fishing about midday, no signs of any fish showing on top switched to a small gold head lure and managed to catch two small brown trout. Fish until 6.30pm.

2 Trout

Fishing at the top of the stretch under the power lines we had four Barbel between 7 and 8 1/2 pounds and three Chub all about 4 pounds. All taken on feeder tactics and were in pristine condition. The river was in what I would presume to be 'normal' condition for this time of year and wasn't rising or falling. A very enjoyable opening day.

4 Barbel, 3 Chub

Caught nothing.

Water temperature 13 degrees C, water low and clear. Water flow - fast. Only 1 Chub :( No Barbel. Long walk from car park. Be careful when you leave the car park, impossible to see.

1 Chub

One barbel at around 9am, one chub at around 10am. No more fish for 2 days. Everyone else on the entire river struggling (speaking to tackle shops, famous anglers, people doing magazine features etc) except for Lydbrook fisheries. 18 barbel off one of their stretches, 8 off the other including a 6lb chub! That was more than caught on the entire rest of the river on opening day!

1 Barbel, 1 Chub

Other commitments meant we weren't on the river until 14:00 in overcast and very humid conditions. Initial rain cleared and precipitated a hatch of absolutely allsorts - mostly various duns but a few large mayflies.
Sadly no fish landed but three lost - two took PTN and one a March Brown dry. Sadly the rising fish were spooked by a couple of helpful kayakers who seemed to enjoy scattering a family of juvenile ducks.
Nonetheless - this is a lovely stretch. It'll be the full 12-hour shift next time.