Fly Fishing on the River Wellow Brook

Wellow Brook is a small Somerset stream that rises from springs in the Mendip Hills at Ston Easton. It runs east through Midsomer Norton and Radstock, then north-east through Shoscombe and Wellow before turning north to Midford. There it meets the Cam Brook, and the two continue as the Midford Brook for a short distance to the Bristol Avon, close to the Dundas Aqueduct. Ordnance Survey maps show the Midford Brook, though the Environment Agency treats the Wellow Brook as running all the way to the Avon.

It is a spate river. Clay soils and steep valleys make it quick to rise after rain, and below Radstock the valley is quiet farmland with few buildings, so the brook has kept a natural course of pools and riffles. The Bristol Avon Rivers Trust and the Wild Trout Trust have worked on it, adding woody structures to the channel at Welton near Midsomer Norton.

The fishing is for wild brown trout. Every Environment Agency survey on the brook found them, and most also found eels. The Frome and District Angling Association has about three quarters of a mile of single bank at Wellow, fly only with barbless or crushed-barb flies, and catch and release, and the Avon and Tributaries Angling Association has water on the Wellow, Cam and Midford Brooks.

Fishing here is held by clubs, so check the details for the stretch you plan to fish.