Feedback & Reports

River was low and gin clear. Had 3 small trout on Adams dry fly in the afternoon.

3 Trout

very low water. no fish seen.

Levels looked perfect. Saw no rushing fish tried various methods but no luck. Fished late afternoon and evening. A beautiful stretch of water but no fish.

Since I live locally and had contributed to a clearing party back in February, I thought it would be good to inspect our handiwork and spend a couple of hours on the beat. The day was perfect and the beat is truly a beautiful stretch of stream but, apart from some fingerling trout or parr, not fish was to be seen. However, the stream is eminently fishable, the water is pristine, so I am sure that as the weather continues to warm the Crai will come to life.

After helping to cut back the Crai stream earlier this spring I was keen to see how it fished, and casting access was much improved. The Crai valley was ignoring the warm temperatures around the UK and gave me a cold blast in my face as I pushed upstream. However, there were fish showing to a steady hatch and I did manage to rise a few to my winged olive pattern but I kept nothing on. Looking forward to a big weekend trip later in May when I hope things will warm up both literally and on the fishing front too :-)

First time fishing the beat. 1 trout on a Parra Adams. Had a quick session at 7am but there wasn't much activity so returned at 6pm. There was plenty of insect activity on the surface but not a lot of action. 5 trout raised but only managed to hook 1.

1 Trout

Bright sunshine. Very clear water. Stiff breeze in my face. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking with them.

Quite a bit of fly life about but very few rises seen. Very calm and warm for the time of year. I plodded upstream for a few hours with an elk hair caddis but had no takers.

A lesson today in reading the insect life. Fished 6 hours on Lower Crai and although I rose a couple it was hard going and I was zero fish after 4.5 hours. I thought it was the weather, pressure, temperature, clumsiness, etc. I had tried variants of Para Adams in size and colour but without success. There were fish rising but I couldn't tempt them. There was a steady hatch and in what I can only claim was in desperation, I decided to try something different and switched to a Blue Dun. Instant success with two fish caught in quick succession and a further 7 to follow (all returned). I don't normally pay attention to what is on the end. I have a favourite and usually very successful Parachute Adams "habit". I particularly like them because I can see them! Perhaps todays lesson was one of breaking habits.
PS: A word about my ninth fish. Coming off the top of the beat I had caught 8, but 6 hours previous, a large fish at the beat start had frustrated me. One final cast with the Blue Dun on the tail of the pool and I had my fish of the day in a plump 12" Crai trout which bent my rod double. Fantastic!

9 Trout

See report for Upper Crai. Same result.