Feedback & Reports

Arrived at first light for a three hour session, the river was dropping and coloured with a bit of pace. Managed three fish in the first hour and not a knock after the largest of the two Barbel weighing in at 9lb 3oz decided to hold bottom and took some budgeing anyway its good to be up and running for a new river season. Upper hill court is a very underated venue hoping to do some trotting on the lower stretch this year.

2 Barbel, 1 Chub

Dry fly on dropper, small tungsten bead nymph on point.

Strong downstream wind with bright sunshine and very low, clear water, so challenging fishing. In the circumstances I was pleased to come away with anything and certainly didn't mind they were all on the small side. I missed a couple of takes too. I'll be back when there's a bit more water.

3 Trout

5 Trout

2 Barbel, 5 Chub

River had dropped quickly to 1’10 at 8.00 am.
Still a surprising amount of colour. Only fished until 1.00pm when the colour didn’t seem to get any better and getting quite warm so called it a day. Trout showed interest in a bright Toby early on but no salmon seen.

4 Trout

1 8lb Common carp, but before I could start fishing i had to cut the weeds and long grass down to even get a peg that was relatively fishable, I'm a pensioner and I ended up finishing early as I pulled my back out
David Matthews

1 Other

Really odd. River looked perfect. A decent lift in the water level, plenty of colour but only about 1m of height. 4 of us fished hard in all the known pegs for a total of 1 bite on opening day. And that was an eel…

We suspect that something must have washed in to the river to knock the fish so off the feed. We didn’t even get the usual tip rattles from chublets.

Excellent start to the season the river was up but dropping throughout the day with a good colour 2 barbel 8lb 12oz and 8lb 4oz and 2 chub 5lb 4oz and 3lb the barbel fell to 14mm robin red pellets and the chub were caught on meat.The 5other were eels.

2 Barbel, 2 Chub, 5 Other

Good water level on a bright, hot day. No surface activity. 3 trout to a goldhead hares ear nymph in the deeper runs. 2 were nudging 1lb mark. Casting difficult in a lot of the lower section. With a lot of fallen trees to navigate. Lovely spot.

3 Trout

5 eel

3 Barbel, 2 Chub, 5 Other