Trout are well distributed over all beats.

Grayling are plentiful in beats 1, 2, 3 and 4. They not found above the Flight Pool (beat 6), and in recent years have been fairly scarce above Charfield Mills (beat 5).

Chub are well distributed in all the beats below the Flight Pool.

Roach and Bream are also present (beat 1), although they are not often fished for. As such, they are encountered fairly infrequently.

In past years, rainbow trout escaped into the river from an upstream fish farm. This ceased to be a problem from 2007/8.

This is classic small stream fishing. The river is fairly narrow and in some sections the banks are heavily tree’d. Chest waders are required to get the best out of fly-fishing.

WARNING - WADE WITH CARE! Some stretches are 5ft deep plus and therefore over the top of even chest waders.

Because of the small width of the river, short rods are the order of the day. Fly-fishing requires a rod no longer than 7ft with a #3-5 floating line. No long casting is required, just accuracy as otherwise you will be catching more trees than fish!

There is a good hatch of Large Dark Olive in the spring (March/April). These can bring on a rise of fish in the coldest of days. Hawthorns make a brief appearance at the end of April/start of May and can be abundant in the right conditions.
The river has a good hatch of mayflies in the last two weeks on May, which can trickle on until the end of June.

From May/June onwards there are a profusion of small olives hatching. Small sedges are present from June. The evening sport in the summer can be very good. BWOs unfortunately are not abundant.

Midges are present throughout the season, and a size 20/22 dry Griffiths Gnat can catch fish on most months of the year.

Dry flies, spiders and nymphs are all worthwhile. Fish will come up to dry flies throughout most of the trout season.  Failing that, a cast of spiders or a small weighted nymph are usually successful.  Gold or tungsten headed Pheasant Tails and GHREs are popular.

For float fishing, a 10ft rod is ideal - anything longer is a handicap! All the normal baits will catch fish including maggots, worms, sweet corn. Best floats are the Grayling style as they ride the rough water better than very slim ones.