Feedback & Reports

River was quite high but fishable although a little too coloured after the weekends rainfall. First time on this beat so more of a reconnaissance mission than a serious fishing trip. Lovely stretch with lots of pools and undercuts and looks "fishy" so will definitely be back although would not recommend it to soon after heavy rain as the Red Herefordshire run off obviously takes a little time to clear.

Caught my first grayling(s) !!!! on pink tag nymph and shrimp pattern in deeper pools.

2 Trout, 4 Grayling

First visit to this beat. A couple of hours nymphing in the evening on the lower part without contact other than a minnow & that foul-hooked, but there are some good fish here - one went upstream past me in a riffle. Pools very slow and often surprisingly deep.

1 Other

Good level and lightly coloured. First time on this beat - nice wild stream even if a bit of a scrambling challenge in places - fallen trees blocking the river near the upstream limit. Good hatch of flies but no sign of anything rising. Upstream nymph was my choice and had one brown trout , about 9 inches, on a PTN. I will be back!

1 Trout

Caught on a link shrimp. Lovely stretch but very cold conditions

1 Grayling

4 x grayling 10-13 inches, 2 x out of season trout 10 and 15 inches, Pink Shrimp. Just slight colour and 0.401 on the EA gauge at Peterchurch, so it's viable now although I'm getting a bit old for clambering around in the jungle on this beat. The grayling all had that blue sheen special to Monnow fish, once seen not forgotten.

4 Grayling

Fly fishing Nymph. River conditions were good. Access was limited and a little overgrown but other than that an enjoyable morning

I fished the Abbey Dore beat after a couple of days heavy rain and although the stream was not in full flood, it was not gin clear because of run off. It was colder than normal as well.
As others have mentioned this is a challenging stream to fish and needs some attention to make it fishable. I managed to fish the stream by wading the complete length of the beat up stream and there are some deep pools along the way.
I spent 5 hours during the afternoon and there was a good Hatch of Yellow May Fly. I only fished dry fly using Parachute Adams, Klinkhamer Emerger and the nearest representation of the Yellow May Fly all size 14.
I caught 6 WBT in various pools and mid stream down the riffles, also had a few more takes. I did see a few rises, but on this stream it's very difficult to cast and distance because of the vegetation. There are many good pools and deep edges to target.
Although, it's a challenging stream, it is also very rewarding and doable, but you will need to be adventurous. Along the way I saw Kingfishers and many other birds and the beat is set close to the Abbey which is worth a walk around.

6 Trout

A lovely early evening on Abbey Dore yesterday, landed three beautiful WBT up to 10" and missed many more. Having fished the beat previously I went armed with a short rod, even then any kind of casting is pretty much impossible, so bow and arrow casting allowed me to cover the likely looking spots. Not many rises so stuck with a gold head nymph. I waded the whole beat except for a 10 feet section that was too deep. A very enjoyable few hours.

3 Trout

To hot and to far to drive to venue for evening rise :-(