River Updates

March 2026

The first of this years updates prior to the trout fishing season opening next month. Over the course of the winter as usual the water levels rose and once again Abbey Meadow spent large proportions of the winter period underwater, if you are planning on fishing early season then beware that the bankside paths may still be very muddy and tretcherious underfoot, please do take care.

I visited the river last week for my first recce before the fun begins when the fishing season opens. Whilst it is obvious water levels have been high (as can be seen from the weed on the fences!) the river level itself isn't too bad and considering the recent good weather we've been having I should suspect that some good fishing will be had right from the off!

With quite a few new members this year I thought I'd use this opportunity to discuss how I approach fishing the river and how I have refined my fishing over a number of seasons now, it can be daunting approaching a new river, or for that matter fishing a river for the first time so hopefully this helps a few people out.

I'll start off with rod choice, the obvious choice of rod for a small river like ours would probably be an 8' #4 - or something there abouts. My personal preference is for a longer rod, a 10' #4. Since switching to this longer rod a couple of seasons ago I've enjoyed my fishing much more, it can be incredibly frustrating trying to overhead cast a short rod in a confined space, catching your fly in branches, bankside vegetation and your hat! With the longer rod I very rarely find myself using an overhead cast, I often fish with just a rods length of line out the tip ring. Roll casting and bow and arrow casting my way upstream, for areas where I do overhead cast (upper Abbey meadow and Bugle meadow) the longer rod helps me get over the bankside vegetation, mend the line easier and keep more line off the water so I can drift the fly drag free for much longer. I highly recommend you give a longer rod a go, I am confident you'll find the fishing much easier. I purchased my rod for £60 3 years ago, it's a Wychwood Flow, since I bought mine they've updated the rod slightly but it still retails for £60-70 online - well worth a punt if you don't want to fork out on an expensive rod just to give it a go.

I pair the rod with a 'small stream' fly line, something that has a shortened front taper which is better suited to short casts. A line such as the Barrio Small Stream or similar will do you right. Another option would be to over line the rod by one line weight, again this will help load the rod quicker for shorter casts.

I  keep my leader set-up fairly simple, I never go much longer than 9' in total. Mainly so I can keep better control over the fly and avoid it ending up in a tree. I start off with a 3' tapered furled leader, this had a very steep taper on it, starting off very thick at the fly line end and tapering down quickly to a tippet ring. This steep taper helps me turn the flys over nicely and also allows me to fish a long tippet without extending the overall leader length. To the tippet ring I attach around 4' of 6lb copolymer tippet material. If you don't have a furled leader then try cutting down a knotless tapered leader and attaching a small tippet ring to the end.

Once I've attached the tippet I slide on a rubber 'float stop' to this I attach a sticky back foam indicator, I've found this to be the best way of presenting a nymph. The rubber float stop allows me to easily adjust the depth I'm fishing at and the foam indicators land with the least amount of disturbance compared to a 'fish pimp' style indicator. Indicator fishing isn't for everyone though and in the past I have used the 'klink and dink' method with good success, the problem with this being you can't easily adjust depth. For dry flu fishing I simply slide the float stop off the line. 

Fly choice is very simple, a small beaded nymph will suffice in most situations. A black and Silver combination has worked well for me in the past, particularly for Sea Trout. Although you can't go wrong with a Pheasant Tail nymph - another very successful fly for me on the river. I rarely fish with more than one fly below the indicator. I keep the dry fly fishing simple - the best of which I've found to be on the Old River or Upper Abbey Meadow at dusk, a klinkhammer in various colours will usually do the job, and if there's no hatch on then a big daddy long legs pattern often brings them up. The most common insect hatch I've seen is Caddis particularly at dusk, so it's also worth having a few adult caddis patterns in your box.

As a general rule I prefer to get in the water were I can, although due to the nature of the riverbed I would advise you only wade at Silver Springs and the Old River. The other beats aren't suited to wading and as such should be fished from the bank. I find I spook far less fish when wading, often I'll walk right through a group of fish pushing them out my way with my boot! If you can't or don't want to wade then keeping low and quiet is imperative to avoid spooking fish in the clear water, use bankside vegetation to help conceal yourself, avoid too much false casting and drop your fly and line gently on the water.