The River Ribble, Lancashire

Our River Ribble beat is a delight to fish. It extends to nearly three miles of mainly left hand bank – but also some right hand bank – fishing between the villages of Gisburn and Sawley in Lancashire. The Ribble hereabouts is a medium-sized river and shows a great variety of character: the steep-banked and heavily wooded upper reaches contrast with the more sylvan pastureland of the lower sections, which flows more sedately in typical pool-riffle sequence over a bed of gravel. Fishing is for both migratory and non-migratory game species and the club employs a keeper to watch over the beat and offer assistance to our members.

Salmon Fishing on the River Ribble

The Yorkshire Fly Fishers' Club offers salmon fishing on one of the best beats of the Ribble. Several named pools all with a track record for producing salmon, present the angler with a very realistic chance of a fish when conditions are favourable. The river is easily covered by the fly fisher with both double and single-handed rods. The Ribble is mainly considered a ‘back end’ river, but given appropriate conditions there is always the chance of a springer and certainly by June, good numbers of salmon begin to enter the system. Fish to over 20lb are returned most seasons and the average catch over the last ten years stands at over 50.

Sea Trout Fishing on the River Ribble

Much of our beat on the Ribble is ideally suited to night time sea trout fishing. The lower pools are gravel-bottomed and easy to wade and the river is of an ideal size to cover with a 6 or 7 weight single-handed rod. From late spring, a number of large sea trout enter the system and fish in excess of 5lbs are often caught. As the season progresses, the sea trout will continue to run through, and our members enjoy sport with these hard fighting migrants right through the summer. By August there can be good numbers of sea trout throughout the beat and it is not uncommon to encounter them during the day - given a lift and a touch of colour in the water, a team of flashy wet flies will often produce a response.

The night time sport with Ribble sea trout can be exciting. Our beat boasts a comfortable hut which serves as a great base from which to sit and watch the river as night falls and the bats begin to hawk across the surface. To hear big sea trout jumping clear in near darkness is one of the biggest thrills game fishing has to offer and our Ribble beat offers some of the best fishing of this kind in the north of England.

Trout & Grayling Fishing on the River Ribble

Trout and grayling fishing on the Ribble can be excellent. The river isn’t renowned for the size of its fish, but numbers are generally good and productive days can be had when conditions are favourable. The Ribble is one of the ‘earlier’ rivers in the area, boasting impressive large dark olive hatches which start towards the end of winter given suitably mild weather. By the time the trout season opens on 15th March, the hatch is usually in full swing and sport to dry fly can be enjoyed right from the off.

Our beat exhibits a great variety of water, with pools and glides through the open meadowland of the lower section, gradually turning to rocky pocket water heading into the more sheltered wooded section upstream. This affords the opportunity to find fishing in most weather and water conditions and allows the angler to deploy a full range of techniques, from traditional north country wet fly methods, through dry fly, nymph and even streamer fishing. Some of the pocket water of the upper reaches is well suited to modern short line nymph and tenkara techniques. There is something for everyone’s taste here.

Grayling are numerous on the Ribble and offer our members interesting sport through the winter months. They are ready risers and can often be caught on dry fly as early as January.

YFFC Image Gallery - Fishing On The River Ribble

 

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