Feedback & Reports

River low with little flow on the hottest day of the year. Two trout to 9 inches on a size 18 klinkhammer. Very tough going. My body feels like I've just played a game of rugby not fished for 4 hours having climbed/pushed/crawled around the obstacles. Seeing the Dippers and Kingfisher was a bonus.

2 Trout

River low and clear but well worth the 2 hours in the late afternoon on the top of this beat. Usual high average size of fish for this tiny stream, probably due to them snacking on the abundant Native Crayfish - please remember to check, clean and dry your kit when coming in from different beats. Fish of 12", 13", 10" and 8" and others quite possibly bigger lost. Many fish visible and loads spooked from a distance that reminds you that wild trout, in low water really do have eyes in the back of their head.
Had a walk up the bottom of Upper Escley - there are some good fish in there too - need to get it back on! Can highly recommend the Bridge Inn, at the top of the Beat for camping, food and beer.

4 Trout

Overcast with rain but fish very spooky. Small varied hatch late afternoon, trout up to 6'' taken in deep pools on nymph.

3 Trout

Two nice fish caught in quick succession at about 9:30pm. Plenty of fish activity. The river was quite low so many of the pools had little flow in them.

2 Trout

A large number of fish connected to line but only 4 stayed on! My experience of the Escley is that providing you cast into the right areas you can bring fish up well. Fishing with a partner who faired less well and found the going tough. I started mid-way up and still didn't make the top. Yomp back to the car took a couple of pound off!

4 Trout

Very challening beat, I aged 10 years in the first 200 yards. No flies hatching or Trout rising. Navigation was difficult, I think next time I will take a device to get over the barbed wire fences.

Drove down the Golden Valley intending to fish the Dulas Brook for an hour or two in the afternoon in the hope of finding some mayfly, only to find that OB had beaten me to it - the car was instantly recognisable and one that I only usually see during the winter's Wild Stream Team's clearance sessions! The early bird catches the trout - well done Oliver! So I headed off to Lower Longtown where a brief sprint through the beat delivered one trout on a mayfly pattern. Then decided to go and fish part of the Middle Escley in the hope of finding more mayfly. Came to the conclusion that the main peak of the hatch must now be over, as very few were seen (much as on the Olchon last week). Undeterred, I kept the mayfly on, located a couple of rising fish and had a further three on the mayfly, and one on a FBPTN whilst fishing duo in one of the dubs. A pleasant couple of hours, which beat the hell out Plan B: weeding the veg bed! All fish about 8-10".

5 Trout

Great session - 15+ fish, 8-12 inches, most fish on sawyers nymph and a handful on dry dogsbody.

15 Trout

Probably my favourite bit of small stream fishing. The river was high and quite coloured but plenty of fly. Fish rose consistently to barbless Mayfly all day, most of which I missed! Barbless hooks are a must if the quality of fishing here is to be preserved. The six caught averaged well over a pound the largest being a deep fish of over 15 inches. This is not easy fishing. Expect a hard walk, barbed wire and lost flies. It is worth remembering to cross to the right bank on the footbridge 100m below the house and ignore the pool below the weir so as to avoid any confrontation which has, in the past, spoilt my day. This is a long beat and missing out this short section is no hardship. The Kingfishers are amazing!

6 Trout

AT's description of this beat has it off to a T - but having been here before we knew what to expect! The river was slightly coloured when we arrived but clearing so we thought no problem with mayfly fishing. Of course then it rained - and rained - we got soaked and the river got more coloured but that didn't stop us and we fished till about 6pm. Whenever the rain stopped the mayfly hatched and the fish went bonkers. We hooked 12 on para mayflies but the long shank hooks don't hold well and only 4 came to hand. Dropping the fly in to the fishes window of visibility was likely to produce a violent reaction with fish coming at times from nowhere - fantastic and very exciting fishing with the coloured water giving us a bit more cover than usual. Thanks WUF for one of the fishing highlights of the year.

4 Trout