I was up at the crack of dawn this morning all set to fish the Rhondda in its low state.

The weather was not looking to good first thing this morning with heavy cloud cover and a little bit of a chill in the air, but by the time I got on the river and set up my greys 4wt with the dry and my streamflex 3wt with the french leader the cloud started to disperse and the sun started to make a show. As I said the river was very low so a stealthy approach was needed, this is where the french leader comes into its own by enabling you to cast the nymphs well up-stream and keeping minimal drag for presentation. At the moment im using a 21ft camo leader so i can cover a lot of water without making a step. Enough waffle, back to the fishing.

It was all slow-moving,  just picking through the pockets with a 2m flash back PTN. In no time i was into the first trout of the day and after that many more came to hand on the leader. I didn’t see any fish on the fin so the dry rod was on my back and that’s where it stayed most of the morning until around 12ish when a few brook duns started hatching and a few B.W.O  and a few other upwings that I could get close enough to identify.

As i moved around the Rhondda picking a few fish up from the small pockets and glides i decided to take a bit of a break and turn a few rocks over and see what was going on. I didn’t have anything on me to put the nymphs in so i improvised with an old can that i found on the back side. Worked a treat too. I found mostly stoneclingers and a few cased caddis and small lava of some sort and a few snails. I only took photos of the stoneclingers/Heptagenid below.

After letting the nymphs go i done a little more fishing but with the dry fly. I was  fishing blind really just casting into likely looking places behind rocks and along side the fast water, well what fast water i could find.  Didnt do bad though with a few to the net and a few miss takes and after that little bit of fun i made a move  home to earn a few points with the wife 🙂  Few photos to finish off below