Pickhill, named after Pickhill Hall - not to be confused with Pickhill Old Hall, which is further upstream - adjoins Ormrod's and runs for about 1 mile downstream from the Graig Cottages. It is left bank only with easy access and good fishing for all methods and is very popular with Members.
Graig Straight
It begins with the Graig Straight, averaging fifteen yards wide. The water is fast and turbulent just below the island with the current on our side. 40 yards into this water, the current moves to the far bank. The water is deeper under the far bank and is the holding water for salmon. With 6-12 inches of water on, this is excellent fly water for salmon. It is easily waded but the water is often 'heavier' than it looks and you can find the gravel shifting under your feet.
Much of this straight is good trout and grayling water, with fish from bank to bank. Some of the most freely rising fish on our waters can be found on this stretch, rising to prolific hatches of fly from early spring through the summer.
The bottom is mainly of gravel here and is easily waded - but note the caution above. This is a good stretch of fly water for all species.
Around the island and into the straight, large ranunculus beds established themselves in 2002. These provide a rich larder for the many trout and grayling, and provide plentiful cover also. In low water there can be so much weed that only a full floating line will keep your fly abopve it.
The Railway Bridge
This pool, commonly known as the Buttresses, is at the tail of the Graig Straight. The above photo was taken looking downstream. It is a good holding pool during periods of low water. The pool averages about five feet in depth, with a pot of around eight feet just below a large willow tree (pruned hard back in 2010) that hangs over the edge of the pot (left of picture). Salmon lie where the current leaves the right bank, across into mid-stream and around the large willow. It is here that salmon are often seen, if not caught.
The pool tails off to around one and half feet deep. Being above fast broken water, fish often rest here before moving into the body of the pool.
Once again, trout and grayling abound in the pool tail.
The Garden Pool
This is a lovely pool which is about one hundred yards long.
It begins with a very fast and narrow run about twenty five yards long. The fish lie at the bottom of this run in low water where it breaks against a small willow on our bank, shown above looking up stream. The steep banks make for difficult fishing, but you can be well rewarded for your efforts.
The pool, pictured left looking down stream in winter, then glides towards the tail end with plenty of cover from willow and alder. Fish tend to lie in the last twenty yards during spates.
The Brook Mouth
A fast run twenty five yards long pushes tight in against our bank. During low water, fish lie in the quieter water fifteen yards down, just on the other side of the run.
Nunnely's Run
Beginning below the brook mouth averaging five feet deep this is a quick glide running for sixty yards, with two willow bushes twenty yards apart. Fish are often picked up around these areas.
Nunnely's Pool
The most prolific pool on beat two, Nunnely's Pool begins at the first groyne on the far bank and runs for thirty yards. It is about six to ten feet deep and fish lie throughout, in high or low water.
Johnny Morris
This is a fast streamy run fifty yards long averaging three feet deep, with a series of groynes on the far bank. Fish lie by each groyne during low water and lie closer to the near bank during spates. The tail is slower and deeper and often holds fish. As with many of our best holding pools, this is just above a fast shallow run.
George's Run
Running fifty yards long averaging three to four feet deep under the far bank and much shallower on our bank. George's Run starts where the current running out of Johnny Morris’s splits into two streams, one on each bank. This is due to a shallow reef in the centre of the head and there are a couple of deep holes beside the fast water which are very well worth fishing. The fish mainly lie where the two currents meet about one third of the way down, and also along the far bank from there to the bottom of the run, underneath the last willow on the far bank. The pool is pictured above, looking downstream from the head.
This water again has a gravel bottom and is easily waded. This is another good stretch of fly water for salmon, trout and grayling, the grayling enjoying the broken water at the head during the summer months, with the trout towards the tail.
The Big Pool
The end of George's run enters a large pool, the Big Pool. It averages six feet deep and is thirty yards long, turning ninety degrees to the right at the tail. In the above picture, the water flows in from the right, the tail of George's Run, before flowing down to the Car Park Pool ahead.
Fish are caught in the centre and at the tail, by the last little willow on the near bank.
The Car Park Pool (lower limit)
This pool runs thirty yards long averaging five feet deep, ending at the brook mouth on the near bank. This last stretch has a nice flow with the bottom being bolder strewn. Occasional fish are picked up here and although most people don't seem to bother with it, it is in fact a good bit of water.
From here, the bottom of Pickhill, we have no fishing until you come to The Captain's, about a mile and a half further downstream.
Access
Parking is under the railway arch at Ormrod's for the top of the Beat or in a fenced off car park down the lane past Pickhill Hall and duly marked on the map, for the lower end.
Leaving bangor on Dee village, turn right on to the A 525 towards Wrexham. After 1.25 miles, at the traffic lights in Cross Lanes, turn right onto the B 5130. Continue for another 1.4 miles, turning right down a lane at a sharp bend at 'Finger Post Cottage' (there's a post box in the wall). If you cross the weak bridge over the little river Clywedog, you have gone too far. Continue down the small lane, passing the hall. At the farm entrance there is a gate to a track between fields. Continue down this track until you reach the car park.
The car park is enclosed by wire and poles to protect cars against farm animals.
No pubs, clubs or diners, just a stretch of beautiful water set in excellent surroundings of meadows and woodland.
