Feedback & Reports

A warm sunny morning and I was on this stream by 0930. A short, shallow beat which when waded, and even with care, it is unlikely that more than one pass could be made in a morning. A spooked fish early on told me there were some little blighters here, but with the air still cool under overhanging branches, there was no fly life, but I persevered with a dry fly rig, and on an exposed piece of water, half way up the beat and in sunshine, I spied a tiny rise at the head of a short pool. My pale watery emerger was too tempting for him, and this turned out to be my only fish, for time was tight, I was just stopping off for a short distraction between fishing the Taff at Abercanaid the previous afternoon evening with Daniel Popp, and was en route to the Wylye at in Wiltshire. Mountain stream to lowland stream to chalk stream...lucky me!
A difficult water, but fun, nevertheless!

1 Trout

6 x trout 6-10 inches, Rusty Klinkhammer. Water low and clear and a bright day after a rather cold night. Probably I started too early in the morning because nothing wanted to rise until about half way up. However, She Who Must Be Obeyed had scheduled a list of work for the Landrover and me later involving collecting bags of manure and taking stuff to the tip. How the British Sunday has changed! With the exception of Scotland it used to be a choice between church, chapel or going fishing. Now it's all about garden centres and recycling. Picked some blackberries on the way back down the beat.

6 Trout

No fish caught

I happened to be in the area on other business and stole an hour (11.00-12noon) on the brook which was running reasonably clear and at good level. Fish came to both dry fly and nymphs and were in all the likely places!

6 Trout

12 x trout 6-12 inches, Rusty Klinkhammer. Although I say it as shouldn't, 12 inches is not a bad trout for this little brook - although not a record. I mean one can catch a 15 pounds salmon from the Wye and nobody blinks twice. But with a 12 inch trout under the belt, one can swagger back from the Bideford Brook with a definite spring in the old stride, eh what.

12 Trout

4 x trout 6-10 inches, Rusty Klinkhammer. An early visit before breakfast. Raining, but this stream is still very low.

4 Trout

2 Trout

Very low water, very clear! I caught only one trout, but had a nice day :)

1 Trout

8 x trout 6-10 inches on Rusty Klinkhammer. A Friday evening on the Bideford Brook made a perfect antidote to a week spent stuck inside a classroom. It was tough going though, with very low, clear and slow moving water and spooky trout mostly on the pool tails. What saved the day was a strong hot wind, which actually produced a big ripple on several of the larger pools - most unusual on this sheltered stream. On running water or on still, for trout, sea trout or salmon, it's remarkable what you can get away with when the surface is rippled.

8 Trout

Fished 15:00-16:30 warm + bright sunshine - 5 wbt 5-6" all took #20 brown goldhead in faster water.

5 Trout