Feedback & Reports

Cloudy and breezy, drizzle. Fished 4 hours 11am - 3pm, two fish from the same pool on nymphs. Saw a few small olives but no big hatch. Struggled a bit with access given the wooden slatted fences hanging across the stream which mean getting in and out of the stream and going round (impossible in a few cases).

2 Trout

Sad to say I didn't catch one fish although I did rise one on an olive Klinkhammer. I had fished the lower river earlier and much preferred the middle beat. Again the water was slightly coloured. I saw a few (very few) dark olives coming off the water but no natural rises at all. It was a difficult early season day. Similarly to the lower beat, I found it hard to get round some trees. Also I was unsure where to park - "after the stone bridge, turn right and park on the grass" but actually you have to go through a gate to do so - unless I parked in the wrong place!
However don't get me wrong I shall come back and fish this beat again it is a beautiful wild stream and I believe it a privilege to be able to do so, so thank you.

The perfect Wild Stream location. Water condition and level absolutely excellent in wonderfully scenic and secluded countryside. Access from banks a little tricky in one or two places, where deeper pools across the width of the Stream made wading impossible/unwise and I imagine overhead and bankside vegetation could make things a little tricky once it fills out as the year progresses. I left several flies embedded in the scenery! Unfortunately, there was little sign of fish; I only actually saw one rise and that resisted all my efforts with dry, wet and nymph - I suspect I had spooked it and was casting to an empty pool! I think that my blank scorecard may say more about me than the Beat, so I would return. Only other comment is that directions to Parking don’t mention going through a gate and the grass parking area was quite slippery/muddy.

Too cold, no fish seen let alone caught.

Thank goodness for this little gem of a brook! A favourite pool yielded 4 fish in half a dozen casts - all to tungsten - including a beautiful 12" fish, quite a size for up here. Wish I'd had more time to fish further on!

4 Trout

Fished 8.30am till bout 1 pm. About twelve to hand, few lost, all taking size 16 bead heads mainly from where I could find any deeper water. After passing over the Wye to reach this beat I was slightly shocked to see that the heavy rain on Thurs/Friday had caused the stream to rise at all and no colour in the very shallow water, never the less, crept up on a fair few and had half days sport taking mainly fish in the 9-13 inch bracket. Amazing to see how many fry were in the Escley every pool. Had several hence using size 16 instead of size 18 - 22 which would be my normal approach in such water conditions.

12 Trout

Slightly frustrating day - plenty of fish seen but so difficult to approach without them scattering. Spent plenty of time crawling on my knees or sitting down to cast but they always seemed to know I was there. Not sure if this stream is always so low and clear. Managed two small ones(5-6 inches)and finished with a very fat 12 inch wbt at the end of the day. Flies that caught were a gold bead PTN, baetis nymph and a grey Wulff.

3 Trout

Having read the recent catch returns for this beat I felt mixed emotions prior to fishing it....sheer excitement at the potential quality of the fishing I was about to experience and a slight hint of anxiety about bumping into the "ogre".
As expected the setting was perfect with stunning scenery and very peaceful. The banks are getting seriously overgrown now which not only added to the experience of fishing a wild stream but also helped provide some cover for me. At times it felt like I was engaged in some form of commando exercise as I made my way upstream as stealthily as possible without being detected. At one point I could hear the sound of a quad bike getting closer and closer and this truly got the adrenaline going.
Fortunately I managed to avoid being spotted by the farmer but sadly despite my best efforts I couldn't avoid spooking the fish. The water was very low and very clear so it was difficult to get into a decent position. I got the impression that the fish were very wary and as I occasionally placed a foot in someone else's print it made me wonder how many of these fish have recently felt a hook point or two. Saying that there were a fair few fish rising and I managed land three between 10 and 12 inches and lost/pricked a great deal more. All on a grey wulff. These fish are in stunning condition, fit and seriously well fed which is of no surprise considering the amount of insect life that was present including a few mayflies. Sadly I was only able to fish for four hours so didn't even manage to cover half the beat.
I seriously enjoyed my first time on this impressive little stream, it has a huge amount of variety to it and a seriously impressive head of decent sized, hard fighting trout.

3 Trout

We had a lovely afternoon and evening fishing some of this beat. We are relatively new to stream fishing. A bit windy and very wet, there were occasional yellow mayfly hatching on and off during the day, and a lot of small black flies about, but no big hatches and did not spot any rising fish. Tried different surface and nymph patterns but only one bite. Will return, plan to book a guide for next session!
We found the booking much easier than the passport system, all of the streams look very enticing, thanks to the Foundation.

Very slow day, water carrying a brown tinge from heavy rain friday. Levels up at a decent level. 20 or so to hand, biggest 15 inch smallest 6 inch, all the rest around 12-14 inch. flies used mayfly and size 18 F-fly. It was a case of waiting for rises to cover today which sapped up a lot of time and was still unable to cover whole beat.

20 Trout