Mixed · Mixed Sandstone Limestone · Gloucestershire / Severn Vale

Little Avon River

Little Main Restigouche terrain map
Terrain map

The Little Avon is the sort of river you could drive past a hundred times without suspecting it held a trout.

Species

About as good as it gets

Low and clear — careful approach country. Take your time — read the water before you cast.

90% confidence in this read
Water temperature for brown trout
Ideal
12°C est.ideal 10–16°C
0°14°28°
Why this score · for brown trout
  • Temperature10028% weight
  • Flow8022% weight
  • Clarity9518% weight
  • Feeding Time8513% weight
  • Pressure807% weight
  • Prey Activity5512% weight
Conditions
Level
0.21 m
Water temp
12.3°C
Estimated
Clarity
Clear
Air temp
22°C
Wind
SW 16 km/h
Gentle breeze
Pressure
1023 hPa
Rain · 24h
0.0 mm
No rain
Rain · ahead
0.0 mm
No meaningful rain · next 48h

Live readings — water temperature is an estimate where the gauge does not record it.

How to fish it · for brown trout
When
Through the open season, late March into September. Large Dark Olives and grannom April-May; hawthorn fly late April; Blue-Winged Olive on summer evenings with a spinner fall at dusk; black gnat, sedges and terrestrials through the warm months; small dark olives into the back end.
Where
The upper beats above the A38 at Stone — a steep, intimate run of pools, riffles and glides over gravel. Wild fish hold tight to undercut banks, alder shade, the beds of water crowfoot and the cushion in front of any obstruction.
Method
Upstream nymph and stalked dry fly to spotted or rising fish. Move slowly, keep low, cast short and accurately — the clear low water reads every false move. Summer bank access is hard work (head-high nettles), so wading is often the only way in; winter is the easier bank season.
Kit
8 to 8'6 #3-4. Floating line, 12 ft leader to 4 lb fluoro/copolymer. Polarising glasses essential.
Why this works
Excellent conditions. Temperature is favourable (100), Prey activity is weakest (55).
Through the year
0–3 scale · May highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Trout seasonSeason
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
GrannomHatch
2
2
Evening SedgeHatch
2
3
3
3
2
Large Dark OliveHatch
1
2
2
1
Iron BlueHatch
1
2
2
1

Numbers are intensity 0 (none) to 3 (peak) — a guide, not a guarantee.

Permits & access
Permit required — see local rules.
  • Berkeley Estate Fishing Syndicate water — members only, no day tickets
  • Wild, self-sustaining trout; no stocking in recent years and catch-and-release encouraged
  • Fly-only for trout and grayling; standard coarse methods permitted for coarse species on the lower beats
  • EA rod licence (trout & coarse) required
  • A short public 'Free-Stretch' near the river mouth is the only non-member water.
Directions
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About this water

The Little Avon is the sort of river you could drive past a hundred times without suspecting it held a trout. It rises from Cotswold springs above Wickwar and runs about fifteen kilometres northwest through Charfield and Stone to Berkeley, where a set of tidal gates hold back the Severn. It is really two rivers. The upper beats above the A38 are proper trout-and-grayling water — a steep, intimate sequence of pools, riffles and glides over gravel, with beds of water crowfoot waving in the holding lies. Below Stone it flattens onto the vale, slows, and becomes coarse-fish country, parts of it choked with pipe reed. The Berkeley Estate Fishing Syndicate runs around seven kilometres of it (Damery to below Berkeley) as a genuine mixed fishery: fly for the wild browns and grayling, standard tackle for the coarse fish. It is members-only — no day tickets. There has been no stocking for years; the trout are river-bred and worth treating gently, and now and then a big fish runs up from the estuary.

  • Mixed sandstone limestone
Seasons & zones
  • Trout22 March → 30 September
  • Coarse16 June → 14 March
Other water nearby · 5