Tag Archives: Airflo

In search of wild brown trout in the welsh mountain lakes

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It’s a little different to what i normally do but my good butty Dan asked if I fancied fishing for wild browns in a lake in the welsh mountains and I jumped at the chance! I’ve fished the lake before and it was a great days fishing but the weather was a little better with overcast skies and a good steady breeze on the water that day!

We were greeted with bright sun and hot, very hot! Not the best conditions for chasing wild brown trout in! But fishing is fishing and we made the most of the fresh air and beautiful scenery! Not to shabby hey?

There was some promise with clouds building over head throughout the day but the takes and fish were hard to come by.

We both moved around the lake looking for drop offs and waiting for cloud cover to cast. We both had a few takes but they seamed very reluctant to hammer the fly, It was a little Frustrating at times but time past chatting away about the fish Dan lost the day before. I’ll not say much about it because he’s a big fella and I don’t fancy having a black eye lol all I can say is, it was big, very big!

Dan below with a stunning wild brown trout that he fooled with a little black lure he tied on the lake bank, Stripped very quickly

After Flogging the water to death we decided to move back across the lake to get some food and tie a few flies to pass the time and to see if the weather would change a little.

As the day went on the cloud cover got a little better and fish started to rise for a bit, I did try but to no avail sadly. It was quite difficult in amongst the weed beds so I give up!

I did finally avoid the blank after what felt a age trying to catch. It was a lovely fish that for the size give me a hell of a scrap and took a few runs and leaps before slipping it into the net

Time slipped away chatting about all things in life with Dan and the fish he lost the day before 😉 All in all a great day with great company. Sometimes it’s not all about how many you catch, It’s about taking everything in and relaxing with good mates! And thats what we did!

Until next time and tight lines all!

Fishing the river Usk

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Over the weekend me and my good mate sam went and had a little look at the river Usk in Mardy. It’s been a long time since I’ve fished the beat, I think it was the year before on the March browns and we caught it perfect if I can remember rightly!

We got to the river quite early and bumped into another angler walking off the beat but he was on the Wye and Usk passport, so after a little chat and saving the guy some cash in his future trips we headed up river scanning the river for anything moving! We did spot a fish but it only popped up the once. Time was around 10.30am and there were some Signs of fly activity!

Fly life this time of the year can be a right mix-and-match. Olives, small olives, brookduns, yellow mays, mayfly, black gnats and many more! It Can be a minefield for anglers matching the size and pattern that the trout lock onto!

While waiting on the trout to react to the flies, me and Sam done a little nymphing in the fast water and the deeper pools with good results. We both got busted up and was a little disappointed but that’s how it goes.

We did catch around half a dozen between us, nothing big but pure quality!

Finally moving out of the fast water, we made our way to the long tails hoping to find trout rising and there were a few taking olives and the odd bigger duns so we set up the dry rods. I was using my 10ft 3wt with a leader around 16/18ft for Presentation

But just before Stalking a trout rising on the far bank, I watched a guy for a while before going over to chat with him. His name was Glyn and he was quite new to it so I lent a hand changing his set up and helping him get better presentation. Was great chatting about fishing and we dropped onto the subject of the fishing blogs he reads. He said he reads a blog taff Diaries 🙂 made me smile because it was all good. I then Re-introduced myself as the writer. we both laughed for a bit after!

I love how fishing can bring people together from all walks of life on the river. It was great chatting away about flies and leaders and I hope I helped and explained it enough to understand

Sam getting ready to slip the net under yet another lovely river Usk wild brown trout on the dry!

These are the flies I fished throughout the day below. Simple but they do the job 🙂

Welsh river trials on the river Tawe , leg 1

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Well we asked for rain and we got it but way to much and on the day of the bloody trial. Typical hey!

Condition are not the best river rising and slightly coloured but the weather says it’s going to pass over around midday, Fingers crossed for the boys because it’s going to get interesting.

Today I’ll be controlling Terry Evans / Wales manager and good friend!

Always a tense time waiting for the time to kick off, it’s like time slows down. Your thoughts go onto that first fish and to get it the net to settle them early match nerves!

My thoughts on condition and looking at the water and height, Ide be using the French leader with a variety of colours, silver beads, black, orange and even white but with black pearly body’s and flashy Darker flies, Not forgetting the streamers in places!

It’s going to be interesting how Terry is going to attack the first beat and get the best out of it. Fast runs with good depth and lovely long pools, Looks quite fishy

Peg 2

Well terry headed into the head of this run and took a fish straight away but didn’t measure at 17.2cm Very unlucky and was needed due to conditions changing quite fast. Water was coming up and all the branches and rubbish started to come down. Most casts coming back with weed or small branches attached.

Finally a measure came in falling to a black small streamer pulled through the edge!

Not long after terry hooked a good fish but spat the hook while playing, Not a good thing to happen in a comp that is tuff Fishing but you must not think about the what ifs and carry on looking for the next one!

Conditions are changing by the minute now, There could be a few blanks in these early sessions for a few but that’s comp fishing, you haft to fish to the conditions and this could happen on comp day, You must be able to adapt to the changing conditions as quickly as possible.

As you can see in a short space of time the difference in water level after the first sessions below. The river was getting big and nasty!

The day was turning into a nightmare for the anglers and I was very glad I retained my place due to winning the brown bowl and didn’t haft to trial

There was much talk about blanks and how hard it was getting but the rain blew over and the river peeked so it started to drop quickly and the colour started to run out in the afternoon session. Look at that rise :S not good!

Still pushing but more fish able Terrys afternoon peg was a cracker but it wasn’t going to be easy due to a small river running in on the left side looking up river giving it more colour. But there was a seam between rivers that screamed fish. Terry managed 1 in the 3rd session and 3 in the last session.

Good angling in the condition for sure.

Overall a very tuff and hard trial but fish were caught and the first part is over. Next the taff for the final! Good luck to boys and good hunting for that one. Hopefully better condition

I’ll leave you with a few photos of the day below and what the boys had to contend with. If it was a normal days Fishing you would have packed up and gone for a pint! But this is comp fishing 🙂

Finale results for leg 1

C&R

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Catch and release is something I’ve always done on the river’s and it does work for sure!

Many of times Ive caught the same fish over the years and even in the same day.

I know quite a few that knock trout on the head for the pot and it’s up to them, but myself I like to have my fun and then release them to fight another day! C&R is the way forward to save are wonderful trout for the future and securing are great sport!

Few short C&R videos below 🙂

Browns and Brook duns.

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Well the Brook duns are out in force and about time to!

I manged to get out on the river for a few hours in the week after a bonkers morning so rang the boss and had the day off and after sorting a load of stuff out i hit the river for a few hours.

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I knew one of my mates was on the river that day so i made a quick call and met up with him and his butty. when i met them up around 11.30 the flies started to hatch and the day looked quit promising. Finally we caught sight of the brook duns taking off on the stones as we walked the river. In the  night  we had a fair amount of rain making the river quit cloudy but we knew it would clear over time and i always love fishing the river with a slight colour to it, it can be the best time to look for the larger fish on the move around and with good amounts of brook duns coming down the chances were in are favour :).

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As the hatch was well under way the trout started to go nuts and even the grayling got in on the action. Rob and Adrian were having a right ball taking fish left right and centre in a long pool. I held back just watching and spotting fish but my eye was set on something else. I just knew it would’nt be long and i would here that noise that makes the heart jump and the hand shake. GULP!!! 🙂 took me a bit of time to pin point the bugger because there were a few fish rising on the far bank tight. i waited and watched and then i seen the bugger, i watched a brook dun come down and then that spotty nose pocket through the film of the water and that gulp noise and it was the end of the brook dun. I got myself into a good casting position and made the cast. as the fly went down it went all in slow motion and bang fish on,, cracking fight and what a lovely fish to catch.  It was a lovely 4lb 8oz brown 🙂

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As the fishing was going nuts i sat there just watching Rob and Adrian catching fish and having  great time, we headed up river just using the dries, was plenty of  bugging water but bit sick of chucking tungsten and with so many fish rising it was just pointless anyway!. Rob and Adrian took many fish  around the 2lb mark.. I didn’t have much time left after that so i had 2 head home to pick my son up from school so the boys followed and all in all it was a wild few hours fishing and was great to see a cracking Brook duns hatch for ones 🙂 Rob below with some of the lovely browns he had!

 

 

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Hide and seek!

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Last week i bought myself a video camera planning to make a few short videos on fish rising and hopefully a few other catching fish on the dries and nymphs.

For the last few days ive been walking the banks looking for big fish rising and i finally found what i was looking 🙂 check out the video below and see this beast taking brookduns one after anther

After taking the video above watching this fine large brown trout feeding i turned the camera off and made my way to the spot where the fish was. The rod wasnt even set up so that was done in no time still watching the trout rising, but when it came to leader and tipped extra care was taken with trying the knots! didn’t want to hook it and have  knot slip or anything so it was ll down to me to get the cast right and to land the fish,, Well i manged to get the right cast and the trout took the fly sweet as a nut and what a ride it took me on.  after a while the trout come to the net  i made anther short video just before release,, cracking fish and what a lovely wild fish it was 🙂

video of the fish landed just before release 🙂 Hog!

 

FISHING BRITAIN with Hywel Morgan.

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Well a little different guys, had the opportunity to be involved in the show FISHING BRITAIN, presented by Hywel Morgan  on the river Taff.

I was a little nervous with a camera buzzing about but it went really well with a few fish caught on nymphs and dries… Not going to say to much 🙂

Hope you like guys and feedback be great 🙂

 

 

On the trout’s menu right now!

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Well  at the moment the large dark olives are on the trout menu because that’s all that’s bloody hatching at the moment with these wild winds and mad cold weather that has stuck with us. Please give us a break and move on winter weather, its spring for god sake!

The hatches have been starting around half 12 and going on for an hour to an hour and half at most, so be ready because it’s over before you now it!

These are  patterns that ive been using for the last few weeks on the river and they have been very successful.

Olive Emerger.

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Olive dun below.

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Check out a few trout that  have been enticed by these patterns in the last few weeks.

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Taff Diaries on Fishtec!

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Over the last few months i’ve been using almost exclusively Airflo fly fishing tackle and there are a few reasons for this…

I’ve always used ‘cheap fishing tackle’ and ended up buying more than once, something which is said time and time again between anglers and is true buying of products these days. The kit i’ve been shown by Kieron is great stuff, great build quality and preforms to the max. Most of the fly fishing tackle I’ve had is ideal for what I want and is just as good as anything I’ve seen by other, more expensive fishing tackle dealers.

I’ve now become part of their bloggers scheme where I received an email this morning describing that I’ve been lucky enough to have my blog featured under Fishtecs most favourite! Happy days 😀

Check the list out here for more exciting, informative and passionate fly fishing blogs – http://www.fishtec.co.uk/blog/more-great-fishing-blogs

Over the moon 😀 FishStalker.

Win an Airflo Ridge Clear Fly Line!

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Fancy winning yourself an Airflo Ridge Clear fly line? Well here’s your chance.

Teaming up with Total Flyfisher magazine, we’ve been able to offer one lucky person an Airflo Ridge Clear fly line worth £59.99. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is go onto facebook and make a few clicks.

By offering this prize Fishtec and Total Flyfisher are hoping to increase Facebook followers, which will enable us to offer more gear and prizes.

As soon as both pages hit the 1000 members mark we’ll pick out a winner, so don’t be shy in spreading the word, tell your mates, tell you mate’s mates – the sooner we hit 1000, the sooner you might win.

Click here to visit and like the Fishtec Fly page.

Click here to visit and like the Total Flyfisher page.

Designed for fishing, clear venues with easily spooked inhabitance, the Airflo Ridge Clear Fly line will make a valuable addition to anyone’s arsenal. And the lucky Facebook fan will get to choose the weight and density of the line they win.

Check out the video below to see what you could be winning – and don’t forget to get liking over on Facebook. Good luck.

Guest post courtesy of Fishtec fishing tackle store.