Feedback & Reports

One fish seen in Maddox but none connected with. A pleasant day - particularly Vanstone where a fly fished
well despite the low flow (6 in at Fownhope) and the
SWly wind flattered my casting.

Strong cold wind all day made casting difficult. Despite this & some rain, there were a few hatches with fish rising at times - some big splashy rises, including a few within a rod length of where I was wading. Caught one trout, about 2lb, on a march brown, and lost another slightly smaller after it jumped a few times. The fish lower down the beat seemed completely disinterested in my march brown (& everything other fly I tried), whilst further up they took it without hesitation - possibly as the water was a bit faster there, so less time to examine it. Lovely beat, with lots of swallows swooping over the water.

1 Trout

Nil catch, but I did play a salmon for around 10 minutes in the cockpit pool but did not have my net ready and lost it at the last minute when it turned over and hook pulled loose. So near yet so far!

Various lures and spinners used, but no fish all day!

Very tough days lure fishing, one brown trout taken on a small shallow diving crankbait. Another two fish briefly on, one on the same lure and one on a surface popper. Long wet day, but still fun. Think the fish were feeding on an insect hatch in the centre of the reservoir, as that was where the swifts were feeding low all day.

1 Trout

All day fishing with lures, moving round the margin twice, but no fish.

All trout were caught on nymphs. No hatch because of the cold weather and rain. The river is slightly colored but still low water levels.

4 Trout

Windy but river OK with a touch of colour - only fished a couple of hours, 1 trout 1lb on nymph.

1 Trout

An overnight campervan stopover and a days fishing booked a week ago could not have foreseen the lashing rain and near gale force winds that graced the day. One trout fell to a sawyers PTN fished New Zealand style, and a couple of slashing rises to the royal wulf sighter. Gave up just after midday, I need a new wading Jacket!

1 Trout

Much debate given the weather forecast before we left this morning but the die was cast - no good waiting for all the ducks to line up, we risked the weather. The forecast was correct. Rain - not too bad if it had arrived on its own but it brought a freezing cold howling wind with it. A few hardy trout were rising and 7 succumbed to our decidedly damp dry flies - nice fish 7 - 13 inches, the one best of which was kept. Most of the fish were out of reach on the windward side of the river including a couple of persistent risers just above crocodile rock. One of our number on failing with numerous attempts to cover them from a safe wading depth had to go that bit further out - just about stayed dry but 2 long distance catch and releases were all he got for his bravery! We had to give up at 3 when all our fingers were too cold to tie on another fly.

7 Trout