We are seeing fish and having been very lightly fished the beat is in super order.
This morning a lovely Sea-Trout was landed by Dave W on a small pattern of his own in Dead Tree.
There should be some more sport coming as the fish are coming in on the tides and the river has eventually settled after some very heavy rains. I have to say on briefly looking at this I thought grilse forked tail wrist was there, but the eye is too far forwards. Thanks to James S and Barry M for their inspection!
Well done Dave great catch !

After months of the most depressing weather and rains we are now seeing the river settle.
Floods have caused some bank changes and access issues but the river now looks in terrific shape we expect sport to be very good in June!
Th estate has lets free in June the 13th to the 22nd of June these are now available!!!
Please email office@farnleyestate.co.uk
Call 07733389474
A few weeks ago Tony and Dom had a fun few days with fish on and off one that broke the leader.
Dom however managed to land one beauty

Many have remarked on the 2023 season being disappointing, agreed for another year we were hit by hot conditions in months that have always been reliable but in June there were big runs of salmon and sea trout coinciding with unseasonal heat sadly. When the rains came sport was then interrupted by up and down waters ! dammit 🙁
The good news is that the standard of fish running was definitely up with very plump specimens and a very good clutch of bigger fish.
This caused a problem for us to determine who might win the annual prize. We picked five potential winners and drew them on tickets :
July 18th Stefan Karlsson 19-20lb Salmon
July 21st Jason Walls 20lb Salmon
Aug 2nd Jon Walker early 20’s Salmon
Aug 12th Bertie Woodcock KC (sadly passed away this year) 18lb Salmon
sept 26th Gordon Wightman 22lb Salmon
30th sept Geprge Upex 20lb Salmon
15th October Barry Nichol 18lb Salmon
17th October Nigel Bateman 20lb Salmon
Phew and below this 14..17lb fish a few of !!
Jon Walker came out of the glass and a whisky prize is duly in his hands.
the river has a bright future with breeding fish of this fine quality.
To enquire about any 2024 lettings please email us on :

OR OFFICE 01434314004

Good luck everyone

Boy we were hit by deluges the estate resembled a paddy field. The harvesting of our hay was difficult to say the least and few people came unstuck in the tracks.
Looking at the month as a whole the river ebbed and flowed steps were dug out redug out bank high waters at times unfortunately. Fish were moving through and at times good runs could be spotted at the pump and end of the Dead Tree. Sporadic but some good sized ones and sea trout too.
The month started hot and bright but a nice fresh 5lb grilse was landed by the Bateman party.
to say the first week was disappointing was an understatement. Our regulars who have been known to do rather well under John Mumsey blanked as the river was dirty and up and down its just didnt happen sadly.

A long time client Chris Porter followed on from John and enjoyed his three days Im not sure what happened so Im waiting to catch up with him!
Phil Adams and his party were met with tough conditions (aargh!) I prayed the rains west would abate and the deluges we were getting. Grey court did well with a 33 and 24 inch salmon. Farnley did get on the scorecard with one in the willows of 33 inches. It was tough going with rapid flows making fishing very challenging.
John Mumsey had his second trip in September and the bloody river was up again… fishing was abandoned very very dissapointing.
Phil Lazell and tim were in luck (skill!) and a great time was had some fish were lost decent ones they banked an 8lb and 12lb salmon well done.
Richard Rowlands organised his annual team and again the river was high but they winkled out a couple Gordon Wightman 22lb (best of 2023!!!) and Jeff Lambert and nice 6lb sea trout

George Upex and Team Banjo were our final guests in September and I felt for them as the river was flowing dangerously fast … patience was rewarded on their final day and a 6lb grilse and 38″ large cock salmon made the trip worthwhile well done guys.

Apologies to all for these late posts! Its 2024 admittedly I know shocking .. here come the excuses, we have however been very tied up in the real world of running the Estate and involved in a serious refurbishment of the lodge.
Lets look back to August 2023 a brief summary.
A new rod Jon Walker kicked off August in splendid style with a beautiful 18lb fresh salmon. Well done Jon. The following Sunday the estate landed another in the teens for a few hours very early morning go.
On the 7th to 9th a new group enjoyed a fair few days sport with some good takes and three lovely fish landed! Well done R Turner, S Ryly and L Owen see you in 2024 well done for organising Titch ! Water kept coming .. not always a good thing as it knocked some days on the head sadly.
A regular G Nichols and his party were successful for their three days and had a very very successful time. B Vaughan had two in their teens and a sea trout, Graeme a lovely one in its teens and latterly B Vaughan a 5lb sea trout, their guest B Woodcock a specimen of 18lb.
Martin Mercer and his team had a lovely stay in mid August it was their first ever trip and the feedback was highly positive but the river was up and down making fishing extremely difficult. Paul Richardson had his first venture to Farnley and did very well and his guest J Hill fish were on and off but a tally of an 8lb, 15Lb and 17lb salmon sweetened their holiday!
Pictures are always gratefully received here so don’t be shy.
The end of August saw George and the gang on and unusually they were unlucky BUT LOST TWO … properly played but net shy 😉 Regulars Patrick Grey and Jason Walls with Phil Adams had a successful few days with sea trout grilse and salmon.two grilse a sea trout and salmon of 17lb and 10lb. A great effort with other good takes.
Rounding off August the estate had a few on their Sundays but the high river meant it was not that easy it was up to unfishable levels at times.
Finally Dave Waters team were on rounding off August with two salmon up to 10lb.
Numbers in August were below usual with the rains definitely meaning settled conditions were few and far between.

Regular updates will be appearing  ! Work in the real world on the Estate has been, to put it mildly, hectic. We have all manner of new lodge facilities which I’ll post and the usual “just keeping on top of everything”. We had a frustrating time in earlier in June with unrelenting sunshine and no rain.  I knew there were fish moving but they were generally, if not always, moving through the night and very very early in the morning. I guess the hot dry weather meant they travelled in cooler times to their destinations. Early on in June there were more salmon running, then switching to a pretty brilliant run of sea trout towards the end of June!  Now as I am updating today, Salmon are coming through again which is fantastic, maybe due to cooler temps and wetter weather which July started with.
Dominic and Clive had a fascinating trip in early June with a good run of Salmon, some very large in the beat. Dom had two well on and one broke the hook, all good ones which parted company. Clive had a specimen Sea Trout on, with an estimated weight in the teens, in the Hut. It’s been that kind of year unfortunately. Barry Nichols a friend and watcher here had some good ones on in April and May but nothing sadly banked.
Barry Mitchell, guiding Marney Swan’s party, saw some excellent fish moving. There were some plucks and pulls and one cracking fish hooked, which played and sadly lost in the Pump. Dave Waters had an excellent sea-trout for his trip and saw plenty (when they were moving!) given the bright unyielding weather.
My neighbour, Phil Adams, had a go and managed to hook 6 fish one of which was a grilse! A detailed report : Air 19.2C river 18.1C rain with Kielder 7cumecs. He moved into Grey Court and saw a good number and lost a grilse !! Dammit !!
Eddie and Danny had some luck with Eddie McCarthy landing a lovely 5lb sea-trout after a real battle. Latterly Graeme Nichols is on currently and Leon has already had a good sea-trout !
WE ARE EXTREMELY optimistic weather is improving for fish and fishers !  Following this report, Graeme and his party finished their trip with one 13lb salmon and four beautiful sea trout, the biggest being 5lbs.

Three days are now available end of July 20th to 22nd!! Get in touch asap if interested!

Suffice to say the weather has been nothing short of dire for our fishing this season, what happened to the usual spates every now and again? instead unrelenting dry conditions. In September we eventually had some decent downpours that lifted the river a bit! and our spirits. The water seemed to cause the bank plant life to go crazy which meant a mad phase of strimming and mowing along with dealing with trees that decided to fall over across our paths to add to the estate work. To keep abreast of this and other goings on please follow this link to our Instagram site : Farnley Estate Instagram

We welcomed back our many regular friends Chris B John M Trevor and Glyn, Christopher P, Dr Phil, Phil L and Tim, Richard R et al. A new guest Brian J and his friend enjoyed the estate but the heat and lack of water really meant it was a poor first opportunity here, we hope they will return in better times.

Chris B , Val and their guests enjoyed a lovely time looked after by Barry Mitchell and in between some fine lunches they managed some fish ! Chris had an absolutely lovely one around 15 pounds well done. Another grilse and a decent 13lb fish landed in the Hut Pool capped a good visit. We were saddened to note the passing of James DeLahooke shortly after his trip here he was a regular here and a fine fisherman RIP. https://www.racingpost.com/bloodstock/death-of-james-delahooke-at-77-whose-eye-for-a-horse-fuelled-juddmonte-success/577724

John M and his pals arrived soon after to hopefully connect with a few but the river was not in great fettle sadly ! It was a struggle but a nice 10 pound salmon and two sea trout to 6 pounds. The river got up quickly and it meant they picked up stumps and headed off early probable the first time all year the river was too big and coloured to fish.

A long standing fisherman Christopher P arrived with great expectations as the water had settled following the rise and the colour was superb! His team enjoyed some excellent sport with seven landed and probably an equal number made contact. Their tally is interesting in that one 6 pound fish caught Monday, a six a five and a nine Tuesday and then the bigger ones ! Wednesday 9..12 and a 13 pound fish!! Quite an achievement.

Phil Adams our neighbour and co owner of the Grey Court beat took three days after this and hopes were fairly high as the water looked fairly good and the weather was more suitable for us  fisherfolk. The first day proved to be an absolute classic because after this the river fell back and it really was not a lot of use fishing wise. There were fish showing one or two pulls and a day that ended in five caught two of which on Grey Court and three on Farnley. Richard had two of these with a little help from Phil landing and later on a really good one was landed by Phil in the Hut after a serious battle estimated to be around 22 pounds on the Ally Gowans calculator. It was a fun day with a glass or two of Chateau Courac and great Mediterranean food for lunch.

Hot on the heels for their second trip John, Trevor and Glyn armed with flies a plenty to tempt the fish. Ready for action :

The river was unfortunately in poor fettle we really need rain now !! They had a few but not what one would expect in September, however a noteworthy sea trout of seven pounds was landed.

We have three more parties coming and we will report back soonest! Good luck to all Tyne fishers and some very interesting news we have seen silver yes fresh fish moving in the past few days so possibly a small autumn run if the water can just hold up ????

It has been well reported that the river has enjoyed some of the biggest runs of migratory fish since 1996! What is very disappointing was the haste these fish headed west. The main cause appears to be the high water temperatures and fish looking to move into more oxygenated cooler waters up river.
Graeme N and his friends booked in for a week and it turned out to be extremely challenging. We had some fresh water and some releases but the hot conditions really killed off the chances although terrific numbers could be seen moving from time to time.
The good news if that Graeme caught a beautiful fresh one under 10lb Im not sure of the exact weight and there are no pics as its on his GoPro which maybe means we will get a little video ?
We had a few cancellations due to the hot conditions and wierdly it actually rained ! One of my good friends Barry N along with John T and Jim had a few hours here and there which meant a lot of cursing as there were fish showing occasional pull but nothing ….until! Barry had a nice 3lb sea trout and lovely grilse. The following evening a decent one Id guess 12-14lb as a result of changing tactics.

Mike S and Arthur arrived for two days as a result of a no show with the river in decent order with water and reports of fish moving through again.
They stuck at it well and Arthur had one one which parted company dammit!
Mike hit the jackpot with a lovely grilse 6-7lb Pump Pool!!
Id like to share a picture here but in the excitement all that happened was a great shot of the Himalayan Balsam !!!!! At least nobody dropped the phone in the water as has happened (yes it was me).