Feedback & Reports

Having fished Lower Canon bridge the day before we knew the river conditions and were keen to make a start on a new stretch to us Fownhope 5. Finding the parking easily we loaded up the gear and made the relatively short walk through the field to the river. A quick look at the printed out beat map we made the decision to start at the furthest point down stream and work our way back up towards the car. This entailed conquering a hill as due to a landslide access through the woods is unavailable. I've not personally climbed Mt Kilimanjaro but feel after making the summit of the hill at Fownhope I'm more than ready! With all the gear making it over the hill and too the two available fields was a big effort but well worth it. There are several fishable spots and the use of spikes and ropes open up the availability to a couple more. Finding clear spots between the weed seamed to be the key and this stretch would seem to be home to shoals of chub. Having fished the morning with only chub to show, to K.B, for our efforts and the looming hill ever present for the return journey the call was made to return to the first field and finish the day there. Once back in the first field and suitably recovered from the ascent I dropped into the swim nearest the fishing hut and was soon playing a chub followed by the first barbel of the day. K.B was fishing slightly up from me and had got straight back into pulling out chub. As the day came do a close and K.B still only having caught chub he moved to the top of the stretch and fished off the croy landing a last gasp barbel along with more chub. The day finished with myself on 3 barbel and 1 chub too K.B with 1 Barbel 13 chub and one other, a nice small eel that amused me more than its captor.

4 Barbel, 14 Chub, 1 Other

First time on this beat and with plenty of swims to go at will be back.

4 Barbel, 7 Chub

Hoped the previous days rain would spark some interest, it did but only the trout! One at 20 inches which pumped the heart for a few seconds.
started 5am, fished The Rocks with an otter(though he seemed more interested in playing) finished at 1pm.

4 Trout

6 trout up to 1lb between us. No sign of any salmon.

6 Trout

1 trout around a pound and a number of small fish, all caught on a size 10 Cascade salmon fly. No sign of any salmon.

Nothing seen or caught - water quite murky, well under 12" visibility.

Found getting to the swims a bit tricky because of the 5ft high stingers and undergrowth but once we had beaten our way through to the river, fishing wasn't to much of a problem. The river was in good order apart from a slight algae bloom which put some colour in but we found it didn't affect the fishing too much. We enjoyed some good sport with both chub and barbel taking our pellet feeder tactics fairly regularly and over the course of the weekend we managed 9 barbel to roughly 9lbs and 6 chub to 5lbs plus.
All in all a great weekend and hope to get back as soon as possible.

9 Barbel, 6 Chub

Halibut pellets hair rigged, best Barbel 6.5lbs. River low/med flow.

2 Barbel, 2 Chub

Great day following some heavy showers. Water clear with a little colour. Slow to start with fish taking nymphs or black spiders. Fly hatch mid afternoon with a nice early evening rise with fish taking mayfly, Hawthorne, blue dune etc. No fish of any size but enjoyable all the same. Only criticism would be the over grown woodland sections. With over hanging branches and brash making access impossible to large sections of the beat, even by wading on at least one third of the beat, which was disappointing.

6 Trout

Canoe traffic horrendous. Not worth fishing between 10am and 6.30pm. More chance of winning lottery than catching a barbel! Sunny with showers. All fish caught on pellets between 7 & 9.30pm. Best barbel approx. 8.8lbs. Best chub approx. 4lb.

5 Barbel, 3 Chub