After having seen remarkably good river levels for a few months now, I had a bit of a shock earlier this week when I visited Bockingfold (Beat 7) for a spot of dry fly fishing in the evening.
The Sluice was up and the tide was out! At least it looked like low tide - the river had dropped several feet and there were just a few inches of water (and plenty of mud) in most places. I've no idea why the sluice was up, but contrary to my exhortations in this blog back in May, please don't go there!
I'll update this if I find that the situation has changed, but I don't know how to monitor it remotely, so any suggestions welcome.
If you decide instead to try the Reservoir instead, you might not be much better off at the moment. There is plenty of water, but almost as much weed. You might be able to cast a dry fly, but landing a fish would be almost impossible I suspect. This is despite making great efforts to try and control the weed earlier in the year, but this isn't blanket weed, but it's rather obstructive anyway.
If you do venture out, don't forget to put in a catch return, as they are getting very thin on the ground at the moment despite having seen some brave souls on the river.
Cheers
PeterB