Feedback & Reports

A very difficult day indeed. Water level was very low and clear and the flow was such that glides between faster pockets were almost stationary. I considered not bothering but gave it a bash. Much of the beat is barbed wire fenced on both banks and getting in and out tricky. I wanted to walk to the bottom of the beat and work upstream but there's no path to the end so you have to get in and walk downstream first. The water gates are also difficult as there is often no way to get out and around so the only option is to prise them open and squeeze through.
I have to say that the single bank section is particularly difficult. How do you fish a left bank pool when there's no left bank access without standing on the right of the stream? It's only 15 feet wide.
There are plenty of fish in the stream. I managed three beautiful small wbt from the faster ripples at the heads but I couldn't get close enough in theses conditions to go for the bigger ones but they are in there. The day ended when I felt a take and found a minnow try to swallow my ptn even though it was a third his size! This beat will fish well in the right conditions, but is still a slog.

3 Trout, 1 Other

River low and fish spooky. v hot.

Lovely day on this beat of the Escley. Not much flow in the river but still plenty of very good water to fish. Very little fly activity about and consequentially very few rising fish. Still, the 'can't fail fly' worked again bringing 9 trout to the net, one a real corker of 12" or more, the rest around 10" or so, and all in superb condition.

9 Trout

No trout today river low and fish in slow pools so very spooky.

My first visit to this lovely stream this year. Escley 4 seems to be the top part of last year's Lower Escley and the bottom bit of the Middle Escley, but it's still a good hunk of the river and will give you a very good day's fishing. Plenty of fly life about including a few mayflies (I wasn't sure if the mayflies were just starting or finishing) but strangely very few rising fish. Still I was able to tempt 6 good sized trout to the net, all 10 - 12 inches and all took a small DHE, my can't fail fly.

There are ALOT of water gates across this river especially when you get into the middle Escley section, so be prepared for plenty of scrabbling up an down banks and climbing barbed wire fences.

6 Trout

Interested to see how one of my favourite beats has been reconfigured. Beat 4 now comprises half of the old lower beat and half of the old middle beat. Parked in the pull in next to the old mill which is situated in the middle of the beat. Then walked down to the lower limit and fished up, past my car and on to the upper limit. It actually makes a good beat with plenty of decent pools and a full day's fishing. Not as prolific as previous visits, just 3 chubby wbt of around 10". My fishing didn't do the new layout justice. We all have "those" days I guess!!

3 Trout

fished from foot bridge to mill. This stretch has few good holding pools and much of the water is quite thin. I did see two fish but no rises

Seven WBT were hard won today and I caught nothing in the 3 hours fished before 1pm. As temperatures rose the fish became more cooperative. There is a new map for this beat which indicates a relatively short section that cannot be fished from either bank. Even with the help of a detailed OS map I was unable to be certain of the start and finish of this section. It wouldn't surprise me if I fished this section and missed out a part that I was allowed to fish! Not sure what the answer is, the beat is so winding and twisting that you quickly lose where you are. If the beat was marked with the STOP and GO signs, then I didn't see them.

7 Trout

The river was very low, and flow was slow in the pools. Weather conditions were hot, bright and sunny. No fish were observed moving, despite mayfly hatching.
There was also a considerable amount of silt on the rocks and stones on the riverbed, indicating run-off upstream has been carrying a significant amount of soil into the river.

2 Trout