Feedback & Reports

Tough day, wet, very windy and cold - 3 layer day. River as low as I have ever see it.
Concentrated on few sections where fast water and a bit of depth met.
Wasted a few hours downstream of bridge. Nothing and no signs of any fish.
Moved upstream, chopped and changed dry flies and eventually had 3 wet up to 10" and 1 grayling of about 12".
Were a few flies hatching but only the occasional rise.
Packed up early - cold and wet through.
Have fished Lyepole many times over the years ( was JSM from Kingsland) and I have to say it does fail to meet expectations everytime I fish here.
Not good value compared to Wye and Usj beats.
But I will say all WUF water much better value and more productive than Arundel Arms beats!
Back to the hordes in Devon now and back to targeting bass - lures not flies I am afraid.

3 Trout, 1 Grayling

2 Trout, 2 Grayling

I fished this beat with my brother-in law (Richard). This was our first time on the river so we didn't quite know what to expect with respect to river levels or good access points.
On arrival, it was overcast but dry and very little wind. During the afternoon it commenced to drizzle and this developed into a heavy downpour for about 1 1/2 hours. Eventually the rain cleared and the day ended with glimpses of the sun in between cloudy spells.
The river level appeared quite low. During the morning, there were the odd fish taking large mayflies. I initially fished the beat starting at the bridge and fished with a goldhead hare's ear nymph and other small nymphs that were in a box of flies that I had been given. I had no takes on any of these.
I then moved upstream to a sharp bend in the river with very high banks on the left-hand side of the river. I crossed the river in the shallows above and fished in the deep pool under the high bank, with a small, brown Klinkhamer. I had a number of rises from smallish fish but didn't connect.
Richard fished the downstream beat. He had a few takes on his goldhead hare's ear and pheasant tail nymphs but didn't connect with any fish.
In the afternoon, we swapped beats. At the end of the afternoon, Richard had landed one trout of about 8 inches in length. Other than a few snatches at my nymphs, I drew a blank.

Finally, we both walked up to the upstream limit and fished below the weir. We had a few more pulls but no fish were hooked.
Although we only landed one fish between us, we loved this beat on the river and its picturesque setting and will definitely return again as soon as possible.
David Woof

1 Trout

Started at about 1300 above the bridge in bright conditions which remained all day. Fished French style nymph experimenting with types but had all the success on green/olive variants of hare’s ear. Had a good sized grayling quickly from the run clear of trees, and after that caught a combination of grayling and brownies as we worked up the beat. Found one nice run about 200m before the weir which was easily open enough to cast and provided a couple of brownies. Nothing else above this point, but not much time spent there either because there was nothing obvious. At 1630 we started to work our way up from the downstream limit. A nice grayling from the pool right on the downstream limit, then nothing for the remainder of the beat up to the bridge.

Had some dinner, and the got back on the water above the bridge again at 2000 and waited to see the fish moving. It took a while to get going but there was a reasonable amount of fly on the water and from 2100 we had a lot of fun stalking and casting to rising fish in among the trees. Very tricky trying to cast below the trees and not landing the line directly above the fish, but any presentation that was half decent generally gave a rise. A lot of strikes that didn’t hook up, probably because of the size of the fish, but three brown trout and one grayling were brought to the net on the dry fly before it was too dark to see. The flys were cdc spinners, size 18, and the colour made no difference, probably because it was just a silhouette by that time. This was not far off small stream fishing with a 6’ 3 weight.

A couple of swimmers, but no trouble. Its a very pretty spot and a nice day out. Think small stream when you go.

5 Trout, 5 Grayling

Another great day spent on the beat. 4 trout and 2 grayling all good size caught upstream of the bridge on size 12-14 pheasant tail nymphs. Lots of hatches occurring but few fish were rising. Some lobster sized signal crayfish and lots of Himalayan basalm so remember to check, clean and dry gear after fishing.

4 Trout, 2 Grayling

Hard days fishing. One fish fell to grey duster other to a orange bead nymph . Waters just coloured but thinning down
Not sure if the cost matches the venue ?

2 Trout

Started at the very bottom of the beat, much of which is only inches deep, worked my way up until I came to a bend which was too deep to wade, got out, and couldn't get back in anywhere missing a good 200yd stretch.
Faired better above the bridge and managed 1 grayling in one of the pools. No rises seen all day despite a sporadic hatch of yellow mays.
Not sure this beat justifies its price tag and should be added in my opinion to the Wild Stream portfolio

1 Grayling

River conditions were good with plenty of fish rising from about 13:00. Tried a number of different dry patterns/sizes without getting any interest at all. After about 3 hours and near the point of giving up, I tried a deer hair emerger and immediately got plenty of interest with two nice WBT around 10" caught in the space of 15 minutes. Sadly, having discovered what it takes to catch fish, two canoeists appeared after which everything went dead again. Gave up and went home. What a disappointment after spending £59.

2 Trout

Myself and my Father had a fantastic days fishing with outstanding guidance from Oliver Burch. Although very wet for almost the entire day the fish were taking and the river didn’t rise much but did become increasingly coloured. Success on the lower half of the beat was using the nymph with Grayling being most active in the morning.
In the afternoon we moved to the parachute fly coaxing a number of trout to take.
Our largest trout was around 12 inches and grayling around 14 inches.

14 Trout, 7 Grayling