Feedback & Reports

First time on this beautiful beat. No fish moved or seen at all the whole day, except a 40 meter long, slow moving flat section about the middle of the beat, where grayling fed from the surface almost continuously in the afternoon. 5 caught on Adams 10-12 inch, but takes on spider as well. Several lost.
Regarding access to the water - had no problem at all. Only disappointment is the amount of rubbish.

5 Grayling

Fished from 11:30 to 2:30 in a rather cold easterly wind. 4 Trout caught on size 16 PTN in the faster runs. Water seemed quite low but still managed to slip and take an early bath which spoiled my afternoon on a very nice beat.
A few Olives hatched around 1pm when the sun broke through and saw a couple of rises but not enough to change tactics. Dippers busy under the bridge and a Goshawk sitting on young halfway up the beat.

4 Trout

I really struggled with this beat. Despite following the directions and locating the points it describes for access it was mainly way to deep to wade. I'm 6' and wearing chest waders I could not wade in all but a couple of places. Because the banks are so steep it is difficult to cast without getting into the water. It seems that the right bank is much better suited alas this is not part of the beat. The river was only 12" on the Fownhope gauge and wading at Goodrich Court 5 days earlier with no rain since was no problem at all. I managed to cast from some submerged cribs and [deep] gravel runs but could not cast into the most promising looking sections.
No fish seen or hooked.

Icy cold wind blowing up river made for a short fishing trip. No fish showing, one grayling caught and returned and a pull from another on two down stream wet flies fished across and down, A beautiful location but needs more sun than today had to offer.

1 Grayling

Cold NE wind. No sun. Bleak. Little fly hatching. Very few rises. Nymphs failed to work,but got 3 trout on Bastard Adams, dry. 10"and 11". Stayed at Three Wells Hotel, Bach Howey. Very isolated and quiet.

3 Trout

3 x rainbows plus 1 very pretty little brown trout (returned) all on float fished worm.

4 Trout

River at a good height so concentrated on fly fishing, however the only sight of a salmon came when one rose twice in the Vanstone Pool to a flying c. The first time I felt the slightest of bumps, the second time nothing, but with the water clarity good I could clearly see a bright silver salmon in the 10-12lb range. Had I not seen it I would have assumed it was a brown trout bump!

All 3 were fly fishing as deep as possible under the kind instruction of the ghillie Colin. Unfortunately nothing seen or touched. Wonderful day to sit on the bank with Kelly's kettle slowly coming to the boil & watch the passing wildlife. Caught in the sunlight on the far side of the river was a marching army of many thousands of unidentified flies heading upstream with the aid of a tailwind; Every 20-30 metres they would dip down to touch the water before continuing their journey. I was once told they do this to sense the direction of the current to ensure they are heading upstream to deposit their eggs later on well upstream?
WUF Note: the unidentified flies were almost certainly grannom.

A beautiful, bright Spring day with an intermittent easterly (upstream) breeze. Virtually nothing was hatching, just the occasional Large Dark Olive and the odd Grannom. I can’t have seen more than two fish move in seven hours fishing. However, a Klinkhammer Duo above a size 16 GRHE resulted in plenty of sport along the length of the beat. Nine Trout to hand and several more pricked. All were good fish with three over 12 inches.

9 Trout

No Salmon caught despite an excellent days fishing with both fly and lures. River conditions low and very clear so not ideal, however there were four 10 to 12lb fish in one pool that moved on as soon as I presented a lure.