Feedback & Reports

Blank. First time for me on this beat which has re-opened for the last few days of the Severn season after being closed due to low water during the summer. I had been meaning to get up here for years. Obviously I had been briefed to expect low water, but the section of the Teme I came down to was the ghost of a stream. Many yards of flat gravel shallows are only a few inches deep, and the occasional deep hole has water so clear you could see every stone on the bottom. The valley is quite delightful, particularly the cricket bat willow plantation. Lots of birdlife, I started a hare across the stubble and, without wishing to seem misanthropic, I didn't see another soul. We don't have another stream like this, except perhaps some sections of the Ithon. It's all quite open, except for the very top end where an 8 or even 7 foot rod would have been handier than the 9 footer I had brought. This is not a winterbourne where the upper waters of a brook only flow during winter months, but a mid stream section where low summer flows just disappear below porous ground. This is not unique either: part of our own Blackpool Brook has a habit of disappearing into old mine workings during a dry summer, the Surrey Mole famously gets a bit lost between Caterham and Dorking in a dry year and Yugoslavia is full of limestone streams which disappear down sinkholes and pop up again miles away and a thousand feet lower.
Anyway, during a delightful walk, enjoying myself taking photographs, the only thing missing from the equation was a trout, although I know trout of 2 or 3 pounds are occasionally taken. I tried walking down to the bottom of the beat and working up, looking for a rising fish and searching with a dry fly in the runs and deep holes. Some of these holes do look good. But despite a warm day with willow flies and pale wateries hatching, I didn't see a natural rise. I did raise a small fish from a deep hole to a Grey Duster and failed to hook it, and another turned out to be a tiny chub. I came to the conclusion that the best thing to do would be to let the winter floods repopulate the stretch and come back to try it in the spring. At the same time, there are very few absolutes in angling, so if somebody comes along and gets a dozen from it tomorrow, I'm standing by ready to eat my hat!

The weather was much the same as during the last week, with a nasty upstream wind for most of the day and bright sunshine. A few olives appeared at times throughout the day but rises were few and far between. We either nymphed, or fished dries and emergers, and fish caught were probably equally shared between both methods, and both rising and non-rising fish were taken with the surface patterns. The sixteen grayling ranged from 10 - 14" and the trout from 8 - 12". Flies taking fish at the surface included a HE emerger, Grayling Steel Blue and a dark olive Ducks Dun. As has been the case fishing elsewhere on the Wye in the last week, there was no shortage of active grayling here, unlike yesterday on the Irfon.

20 Trout, 16 Grayling

Amazing weather and beautiful surroundings, a couple of small fish caught and quite a few missed. I lost my tweed flat cap, if anyone finds it please get in touch its been on many fishing trips and will be sorely missed.

1 Trout, 2 Grayling

A beautiful day to be on the river and also to be on a beat we'd never been too before. As such there's always a bit of uncertainty as to which the most productive swims might be. As it turned out, none of the 6 we tried were. Although the river looked in perfect condition (other than some floating leaves, we didn't get a single bite all day. Previously successful methods (pellet with swim feeder) produced nothing and experimentation with other baits and methods proved no better. Was it too bright, too warm? No idea, but other than the weather and gorgeous surroundings, a very disappointing day.

10-12lbs cock salmon home made fly, silver and yellow size 12 hook at 1.30 pm Fish returned safely.

1 Salmon

Nice location, unfortunately the barbel and chub were playing hide and seek and we lost. did manage a perch to about 1.5 lbs and a minnow lol. Big thanks to the farmer for the taxi service as the walk to the bank would be quite daunting with out him.

2 Other

Low, clear and bright.Predictably no bites. Nil

lovely day out enjoyed my time and the advice from Mick.The amount of weed in the river made conditions difficult, seen some salmon but sorry to report no fish caught.

This was definitely a game of two halves. we fished all day through to 4 pm with just two chub to around 4lb to show for our efforts . then between 4 pm and 7 pm we caught 14 barbel all of the 5-8 lb stamp plus a chub to 6lb. all on pellet/feeder tactics. Conditions were not ideal, water low, clear and blazing sunshine with swans practicing their take off and landing technique but on the plus side, no canoes! ....but if we hadn't caught the barbel it would still have been a great day out. Will be back.

14 Barbel, 3 Chub

Fishing very poor with one of the 3 anglers getting no bites at all in 2 days! Water colour was good but level a little low with very little weed coming down the river. All anglers were bottom fishing with various different baits tried. Plain ledgers and swim feeders were tried, with ground bait and loose feed used.

2 Chub