Monthly Archives: April 2012

Out and about in heavy water conditions

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Well, as everyone here is south wales knows, the rivers are all in flood and have been for a few weeks now but I just had to get out and wet a line somewhere to relieve the tension.

I didn’t rush out as early as I normally do, I think I left the house around 9ish and to tell the truth I didnt really know where I was heading with the waters so high in all the rivers in my area. Even the streams are high and would be a battle to keep your feet stuck to the bottom, so the only thing I could do really was to cover as much water as I could and find the slacks and the back ends of the pools. I took the two rods as normal but I knew that I would probably be stuck to bugging with the conditions. I didn’t see much fly life around just the odd olive passing by. I only saw two fish rise so that didn’t really warrant me to set the dry-fly rod up so I took it apart and slid it in the back of my vest to keep it out of the way so I could concentrate on the nymphing side of things. As usual I was using my 10ft 3wt streamflex, set up with the french leader for the nymphing. I was using two nymphs as normal; on the dropper I was using a goldhead 2.5 phesant tail flashback and on the point I was using a copper head 3.5 peeping caddis.  Most fish came to the caddis pattern as i expected with the flow being so fast and with a small amount of colour to it. Fishing was good and for the water I could fish I just fished every little bit of it till it was bugged out as I say!. I even left a few spots for some time and then went back and this is a good little trick to getting another chance to catch a few more. Ill let the photos do the talking!

Tying dries to match the hatch.

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Well finally getting the chance to sit down and replenish the dryfly box with the fly patterns that match the hatches on my local rivers here in south Wales at the moment .

At the moment there are brook dunns, large dark olives and a few other smaller olives, these smaller olives have been hatching a little later on in the day and the fish have been mopping them up and not bothering with anything else really. It took me a bit of time to realise what was going on one afternoon but I figured it out after going right through the box and watching carefully. These times can be so frustrating but it’s all part of the fun of the fishing dries. Here are a few of the pattens that I’ve tied up to match the hatch.

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Treating myself

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Well this was long over due and I should have done it months ago, I was in desperate need of a new set of waders as two of my old pairs had really given up the ghost. Many patches were bought and a couple of tubs of aquasure but I was told once you start to repair them, their never ever the same.

I decide to go for the Airflo Delta Stocking foot waders after reading all the feefo reviews on the Fishtec website site. I always take first hand information to heart and I knew a couple of anglers who own a pair of these too. Each person was happy with their choice and just one had a problem when they first had them, but a quick call to Fishtec customer services and this was quickly rectified.

I haven’t had a new pair of chest waders in a long time so I was looking forward to rambling about the river and not having wet feet for a change. I opted for the Delta waders as they also came with a pair of free wading boots. I won’t be using these for a while but when my current boots die these will be my go to boots.

Whilst I was on the website I was browsing around the clothing section and looking at what I need for the coming year, you can’t take it with you after all! I decided to go for a new fishing garment as my chest pack was becoming cluttered and just too small for my needs.

I’ve never really been into wearing a vest whilst fishing as I’m a chest pack kind of guy, but after fishing with Kieron Jenkins for the day and trying on the Airflo Outlander Mesh Vest I just had to have one!  A lovely light mesh design with multiple inner and outer pockets everything is to hand and no digging about in flaps or deep pockets looking for my gink or leader straightener .

My chest pack seemed as if it was weighting me down, it was like I had a house brick tied around my neck, It didn’t help that it was so full ofcourse but after swapping all my gear to the new Airflo Mesh Vest it was like I had nothing on. The pockets are all tucked up out of the way keeping fly boxes and nylon dry it also features a mesh back so it allows my body to breath whilst walking long distances.