As friday day was coming to its end I decided to have a walk down to see how the Rhondda was looking after the recent rain to see if there was any possibility of fishing it the following morning with my mate Dan. It was still running high but running as clear as a bell. It was all set then to fish in the morning, well we thought it was.

The following morning I woke to the sound of rain on my flat roof. After dragging myself out of bed to have a look to see how the Taff was running  to gauge how much rain we had in the night, it was clear that we had a fair bit but I was hoping that the Rhondda wasn’t effected too much. It’s surprising with the Rhondda, it rises quick and falls just as quick. Not bad having two cracking rivers on your door step. As I was thinking and hoping that it was fishable, my mate Dan rang to say he was on his way and to meet him by the train station. After a short wait, Dan arrived and we made the dreaded walk to have a look at the Rhondda. I could hear the river and I knew straight away we had no chance, I looked over the wall and it was running way deep and fast with a slight colour. That was the end of that so we had a quick chat and then decided to check the clydach out . We put are marching boots on and away we went. We finally got to the stream around 9ish and all looked good. It was Dan’s first time on the clydach and I just couldn’t wait to show him around. I know Dan loves fishing the stream and I knew that he was in for a treat. The stream was running with a fair flow and coloured but I knew that it would clear off later in the day. Dan set up on the dry straight away and I could see that he was itching for the first cast so I left him to it. Myself, I set up on the klink and dink because of the water colour knowing that I had a better chance with the nymphs but also knowing there was a chance on the dry. I put on a Size 14 hare’s ear klinkhammer, and on the dink a 2m gold hare’s ear jig.  When I’m using this method in the stream when it’s coloured I tend not to cast the fly line out, I just use a long leader and get in as close as I can and hold everything of the water to minimize drag on both the nymphs and dry and it works very well for me.

Dan below tying his very large dry on at the start of the day.

These are the kind of runs that are all over the Clydach and what more can I say but beautiful, I’m a lucky man. Every corner looks better than the last and every pool and run holds a golden gem. As the day went on with many fine trout to hand, Dan my good mate was a little camera-shy for some reason and took over taking the shots and a few short videos of me using the klink and dink. Just want to say, Dan thanks for taking the photos and the great videos mate. I hope the flies come in handy;) As I was saying Dan shot a few cracking videos of me catching a few trout in a lovely looking pool. Here they are.

The video below was my best fish of the day for myself. It put up a cracking fight taking me down river and trying its best to snag me up in the tree roots but after that little commotion, he slipped into the net and after a quick photo was released to get on with its business without harm

Here is a better shot of the trout from the video above 🙂

After catching that fine stream trout me and Dan just sat back and had a bite to eat and just talked about the fishing as you do and a few other things. After Dan talked my ear off 😉 I thought it was time to move on, Dan I just had to get that in mate :). At this point the river was clearing up a little and a few brook duns started to come off along with a few olives & stone flies. With this hatch on we were just waiting on the fish to start rising but it just didn’t happen. They were just hooked on the nymph and didn’t bother with the dry for some reason. I found out Dan was a bit of a purist at this point on the streams and didn’t really want to change from the single dry fly and it was hard trying to convince him to put a nymph under his dry; the stubborn bugger. Dan being Dan just had to go on with the dry for a little longer and prove me wrong by catching a fair few in one long run, I take my hat off to his perseverance and determination to catch on the dry, here is the stubborn bugger below getting into a good position.

As the day went on me and Dan got stuck right into it fishing hard with many trout to hand and a few good fish lost at the net. I’ve got to say Dan lost a right lump in one run and was very  unlucky not to land it . I’m sure it would have been the fish of the day by miles, big head shake and a flash and gone. It’s never a nice thing losing a good fish  but chin up and move on and find the next.

After a long days fishing with dan with a good number of lovely wild trout to hand its was that time to make a move home again. Not an easy decision to make with the fishing being so good and having great company to share it with. Thanks Dan.

Just two more video from the great day’s fishing on the klink and dink along with a few more photos.

And finally the view of the river when we were going home