Banwy River

[dbl]

I took advantage of my new Warrington membership to fish the short section of the Banwy controlled by the club. It lay conveniently on my way home. It's a spate river so even a brief interval after rain results in a massive drop. The levels weren't too bad, though the water was quite coloured. However, no fish showed any interest in my nymphs.

I wouldn't have bothered to post, but for the sudden eruption from the stream of a cormorant right under my rod. I was on the edge of the newly exposed bank with no more than 2/3 foot depth of water in front of me. The bird came straight out of the water, wings seemingly already spread, neck extended, and took off in a shallow but fast ascent upstream. I think it was as shocked as I was! I'm sure it didn't enter the water near me, so I'm wondering whether it had been swimming underwater upstream or dropping down? I was on the inner bank of a long curve, so the slacker water was by me. However, it was still moving quite quickly and the cormorant was no more than 4 foot from the bank and me.

[daves]

Sorry to hear that you too have a cormorant problem. They've virtually cleaned out the grayling from my local Driffield Beck & have seriously depleted them in many other East Yorkshire streams.

[orangeotter]

Carry a 12 bore next time David (dbl). Bad news though.

[dbl]

I had some Severn Trust vouchers to use up in a hurry and took advantage of having to pass by the Banwy to stop briefly at the Riverbend beat near the Cann Office hotel. Luckily the spate nature of the Banwy means that it fines down quickly and Tuesday afternoon was perfect.
It is a nice stretch, but I was short of time and new to the beat so I only got on to the bottom of the beat. The right hand bank here is quite open, the river has a comfortable even bed for wading and there are some good runs. A small beaded nymph with a indicator was my prospecting tool and almost at once the indicator moved away and a 12" OOS WBT was netted. Nice, but I was looking for the grayling that are alleged to be in this gravelly stretch!
Sadly I did not see any grayling, though I briefly hooked another good sized WBT and then shook loose a small one after establishing it was not a grayling.
On my way out I met one of the landowners, who said that it is rarely fished. So it is worth exploring in the trout season, at least. However, I'm not sure about the activities of the caravan park visitors just downstream!
PS There is a busy cafe that does hot food just opposite the beat.