Feedback & Reports

Arrived at eleven to see 4 inches of snow around the hills at Pilleth, water temp with the snow melt was absolutely freezing cold. Beat looks fantastic now, floods before Christmas have cleaned a lot of debris away. Will not fish well for a while I feel. Will give it another go around May time when temps have risen. Still to me one of the better beats on the wild stream pass along with it's neighboring beat the Litton. Though a blank, a pleasant blank.

1 trout, water v.cold.

1 Trout

J and I fished the top beat for salmon. Gin clear and .7m. No takes and none seen. No trout rising either. Sparse dark Olive hatch at 2-3pm. Wind Easterly and temp 3C. Fished subsurface till 4.25. J landed one at 1lb from the Wood Stream on Partridge/Orange size 14. I had a blank.

2 Trout

Only fished for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Very cold and overcast. I've fished this beat a few times and it seems to get wilder each year. That could be me getting older, of course, but there were certainly more trees down than last year; one of them across what used to be just about the best pool on the beat. Good to be out there and actually relatively sheltered in the bottom of the gorge. But no sign of fish and nothing caught.

The water level was good, a little coloured, but it was the weather that was far too cold. Not surprising then that nothing was interested in lures or a fly.
I would like to point out that as this beat is, "Just under 2 miles of mostly double bank fishing", it's a shame that due to the amount of a) Fallen trees and b) flood damaged banks, the wading, "over mostly gravel river bed," is now inaccessible due to heavy silt deposits other than at the Marl Bed. The vehicle access is excellent however and an absolute necessity unless you like hiking. As, due to the above mentioned, the top 150 yds, 'Marl Bed', 'The Point' and half a dozen 'pegs' are the only water I was able to get at and most of that was only by spinning. That's just 30% of right bank and the left is a jungle. Therefore, if you are intending to fish this beat I would recommend checking it out first or calling the Booking Office to get an update on the situation. I for one will not be going back.

River in good condition with the guage at Fownhope at around 1'10". Water still carrying a slight green tinge but fairly clear. We fished the left bank concentrating on the lower half of the beat which has some fantastic fly pools. The first action came at around 11am when I had a good take in the Vanstone on a 3" Monkey, however a couple of headshakes the fish was off. It was fairly quiet after that until 4pm when I landed a well mended kelt of around 9lbs from the tail of Maddox on a snaelda tube fly. Shortly after this JB caught a fresh 10lb hen fish on a black flying c from the Corner Tree pool. Both fish safely returned. All in all a cold but great days fishing.

1 Salmon, 1 Other

1ft 8'' and better visibility but with the typical greenish tinge. Gave it a good go using Devons and Flying C's. Very cold day so no surprise that it's nothing to declare!

Nothing caught.

Water looked great height and colour, enjoyed fishing around the cribs by the hut with spinner and minnows in the morning. A long run below the bridge near the bottom of the beat looked good but perhaps too high and fast to fish properly? Returned to fishing the deep water around upper cribs which looked really fishy and flyfishing from the cribs was ok lengthening line and moving to the next and a trout took a 2" copper tube and that was it all day, no other fish seen. Do take a landing net, its very deep most of right bank and it would be difficult to land a fish in many places without one. Enjoyable day out fishing a good beat. Thank you.

1 Trout

10 fish between 3 of us, spinner.

10 Trout