Feedback & Reports

A little colour still in the water, and a cloudy humid day. A quiet afternoon, ringing the usual changes, and eventually getting one small trout on a weighted nymph. At about 7.30, well before dusk, I suddenly started to catch fish on a duo rig: the dry every time. And in several different access points. 30 mins later it all stopped. No discernable hatch, but I need glasses for everything these days.
As usual with the wild streams access now is problematic. The bank growth in the middle half mile requires that you to get in at the bottom and wade all the way up in chest waders. I walked round in my leaky thigh waders and enjoyed the countryside; putting a fly in the water is only part of the fun!

5 Trout

Beautiful sunny evening. No fish seen, none caught. Most of the lower beat below the ford inaccessible due to fencing and overgrowth. One heron. Mayfly still active.

Boy do you have to work hard to catch trout on this fast moving brook. I was pleased to get 3 little beauties to hand having 7 or 8 long releases throughout the day. No fish topping even though there was the occasional mayfly lifting off so every fish was taken on a ptn. The wagtails were filling their bellies on them and putting on a great show.
What I didn't expect to see was mink and not just one individual, as bold as brass slipping in and out of the water.
A lovely quite place to spend a day, many thanks to the Foundation.

3 Trout

Fished for about 5 hours on a reasonably mild and overcast day with the sun breaking through later in the session. 11 mostly small trout caught on a PT nymph fished underneath a Klinkhammer. There were a handful of mayflies hatching as the afternoon went on with a few fish rising for them. I also saw what looked like a mink entering the water opposite me in the second field upstream, shortly followed by two large splashes against the bank right next to me (presumably from the mink).
Access not too difficult although there are a couple of trees across the river on this beat.

11 Trout

A beautifully sunny day and the Hindwell looked to be in perfect condition with a good pace of clear water on it.
However no fish rising and only one small trout and one small grayling fell to size 16 Pearly PTN. It is interesting to see that there are grayling in the Hindwell.

1 Trout, 1 Grayling

Accompanying 2 participants to provide advice on a Wild Streams Day event, I found the Hindwell to be running clear and in good condition. Access to beat was fairly reasonable with the late spring and the sunny conditions saw a hatch of mayflies around lunchtime, although we saw no rises all day. We all caught fish - 6 to one event participant and 2 for the other with the largest around 9". I caught 1 fish with only a few casts made using a weighted nymph. This is a truly wild stream beat in beautiful surroundings.

1 Trout

Persevered with klinks for most of the day, without success. One decent fish and several more missed with a beaded hares ear in the deeper pools in the middle section.

1 Trout

I had planned to fish the Edw but arrived to find it high and coloured after overnight rain. Came back down and opted for the Hindwell which proved a good choice.
I was a bit over gunned with a 9ft 3 weight but with some improvised casting and commando style hands and knees fishing I fished French leader with 2 Tungsten bead nymphs. Caught a dozen lovely Trout from the faster water the biggest at 14 inches. Avoiding all the small Trout in the pool tails was difficult, once spooked they would race off and put the whole pool down. The only downside was a Cormorant fishing about halfway up the beat! In 4 hours fishing I only got as far as Knill farm.

12 Trout

Fished with the Tenkara style as part of the WUF Tenkara day. 2 fish taken on Sakasa Kebari (size 16) and 2 taken on my own goldbead GRHE with CDC collar (size 16). Weather was very bad throughout the day, managed only around 3 hours of actual fishing due to lightning storms and heavy rain. 3 of the 4 fish were taken after the main front passed through the area, the water had coloured up but cleared quickly, possibly as this stream is spring fed? Largest fish was around 6 inches, smallest 4 inches, the other two around 5 inches. Great day fishing between the storms, this is a quite a technical venue in places, it is however quite a long beat to explore and is wider and easier to access further up into the middle of the beat (one of the staff suggested fishing near the ford but it didn't get up that far) All the fish were taken at the bottom of runs / head of pools. I would fish this venue again as I enjoyed the variety of river features and the surroundings. Small rod (7- 8ft western style or 8-10ft Tenkara) recommended.

4 Trout

Water very low. Strong down stream at times making casting difficult. Only fish caught were those seen as rising fish 6"-9". No interest in nymph or wet fly. A lovely peaceful beat must return when more water.

3 Trout