Feedback & Reports

Fished over the bank holiday weekend, 23-25 May. Mick has done some excellent work to make the rover more accessible and generally more pleasant. Nothing to report on the Saturday and Sunday, aside from some sporadic splashes in the Vanstone pool. On Monday, hooked a good fish at the bottom of the Vanstone but after a few blistering runs it escaped...devastated.

The river was at 1ft on the webcam with a little colour. The weather was overcast and cool (14 degrees) with a chilly breeze. The was a succession of hatches throughout the day, with a late afternoon mayfly hatch finally bringing the trout to the surface. Most fish were caught on nymph, but some were on dry mayfly.
The fishing was good, but there was no sign of the larger grayling or trout. The resident otter and mink will surely take their toll on this small stream, especially since the fish are trapped between the two weirs during the summer months.

7 Trout, 6 Grayling

Two fish caught on CDC F fly, largest fish approx 15 inches.
I spotted a MINK stalking along the river bank.

2 Trout

2 Trout

4 Trout

Tenkara klink & dink, first section up from Olchon is a joy to fish easy wading over flat bedrock that would put many a pavement to shame - caught most of 7 wbt here, none very large. Middle section pools met same camping party as mentioned by PL on Saturday, can't really begrudge people enjoying the environment. Lots of fish rising so the trout weren't bothered by campers, more down to inept fishing with an audience - a tree every other cast. Try again another day.
Top section from below footbridge up is hard going over broken bedrock in coloured water, with livestock fences every 20 yds and lots of barbed wire climbing to get around them - holed waders wet leg so gave up before end. Nice beat but access could be a tad less challenging - they're sheep not deer - although I met the couple who farm the middle/top sections on a previous recce & they are nice friendly & interested.

7 Trout

Dry fly with and without NZ style produced no result. Two fish were to black spider. Cold wind meant no surface activity although there were a variety of upwinged flies coming off. Water crystal clear and quite low.
Nice to see a river relatively free of himalayan balsam although there were one or two small patches. Hopefully these won't be allowed to spread further.

2 Trout

Lost x 2 trout, during the day, so blank. Still, I enjoyed the day. One comment I would have is that of access to some of the named pools on this beat is quite difficult and could be improved by the provision of wooden steps in certain areas.

It was a fantastic day. I started just above the cottage and caught (dry fly) there few trout around 8 inches. I tried nymph, but nothing.
Then I moved forward on a place where I caught a grayling a few days before. The weather was quite perfect, cloudy with a gentle breeze. Then I start dry fly and caught many graylings, all around 10 and 12 inches, with many missed. It was a really good afternoon. I even caught one on nymph (just for a test), and one trout also around 8/10 inches.

5 Trout, 15 Grayling

Very little sign of life despite clouds of fly-life hatching. Water conditions very good and no bother with wind, which appears to have been the norm of late. We managed only one fish between us but it was a cracker: a large WBT probably of the order of 18" long. Well done CB! We will of course go back to this great stretch of water.

1 Trout