Category Archives: Fly tying boutique

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!

Little rivers with little reward!

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Managed to get out for a few hours with my mate Burnsy on a small local river that normally fishes real well and has a good head of grayling in it, but not today for some reason

Conditions were steady with a bright sky and not to cold with a low wind. An anglers dream at this time of year. Setting up, I was thinking this should be good but I was so wrong! You can never tell how a day will go but that’s fishing!

Everything looked great with water levels spot on but the fishing was as tough as old boots. Changing methods, fishing hard on the bottom with big beads and mixing the depth up to no avail. As the afternoon progressed, the odd large dark olives came off and the odd spinner passed fluttering about but not enough to get the fish moving. I finally gave up and dug deep in my box and pulled out a squirmy worm, things got desperate for a take! Few casts later I took a grayling to my surprise.

If in doubt worm them out from now on lol, it doesn’t matter how long you have been fishing and how much experience you have, on days like this you feel like a newbie. Challenging and changing conditions can make you or break you. Never give up. Always think of doing different things and work every little run, ripple or pool. It was hard but we both caught a few in the end so not a red letter day but more than that we had a good day chewing the fat and putting the world to right.

Grayling in small rivers

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Finally the rain stopped enough to get on a river here is South Wales

The river levels are still a little high in many of the larger rivers so me and a good mate Dan decided to fish a smaller river looking for grayling. The river doesn’t hold a massive head of fish and not that big but it’s not all about that, It was just getting out and walking a new part of the river and searching out the little pockets and pools!

It’s a great little freestone river that is hidden among housing estates and industrial factories but the river is alive. At around 12pm there was a steady hatch of large dark olives coming off and I was hoping fish would react but I only seen one fish rise and that was it but the fish became very active on the nymphs so we tucked in!

Method of the day was the French leader with a two nymph setup, I had two 3m size 14 grub pattern on that took did the trick! Fish seamed to be sitting in around 2ft of water and not much flow but wanted the nymphs dead,dead drift. Takes were very delicate!

My mate Dan went for the pink shrimp on the dropper and a big nasty squirmy worm on the point. He waved it around the river like he owned the place Lol. Love them or hate them they do the business!

Was a challenging day in amongst the trees and trying to get to right presentation but all in all a good day with great company as always!

Jig pattern for grayling

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Little pattern that I just tied up for the grayling on my local rivers!

I’m out tomorrow on the lower waters of the river taff near Cardiff so going to give them a dip down in the posh area of the taff 🙂

Ian Gillard at http://get-slotted.co.uk/ sent some trout line hybrid squirrel in rust colour for me to try so come up with this pattern below. Rust and a purple rib. Looks nice and sure it’s going to do the business for sure! I’ve added a little of the black pepper to the thorax also, it looks awesome wet!

New box of river nymphs complete!

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Been doing my best on completing this box of nymphs to get started on a smaller box ready for the future trips out!

I’m always looking at new patterns and trolling through fly images on good old uncle goggle looking for new ideas most nights. There are some real awesome people out there tying and always something new to give a go!

We all have our go-to nymphs and patterns that we have full faith in but we are always looking for that edge. Over the years of competing for wales in the river internationals and meeting some real awesome anglers, I’ve collected patterns from most and this is where I mix and match patterns for different rivers. Every little helps they say!

The next box will be more for grayling for the winter months so I’ll post some images after it’s complete. Tight lines guys and girls

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

Nice to be back tying after such a long time

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Well it’s been a long time since I’ve posted sorry guys and girls. Due to an eye condition it put everything on hold for over 9/10 months but I’m Back doing what I love, fly Fishing and fly tying.

I’ve started tying new boxes and sorting my gear ready for a day on the water. Well soon as we have water! What a crazy few months it’s been with this hot weather. Rivers are on there bones and fish are stressed. But tonight the heavens have opened:). Well here is what I’ve been tying the last few days ready for my trip!

Just a few for the morning

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Looking in the box today i found that i was running low on a few patterns so i just sat down and tied a few for an early morning trip out with my mate Ceri sweeney.

6 of each pattern tied on size 16 j hooks bought from here.http://www.flytyingboutique.com/.

The water levels around my area in south Wales are quite low at the moment so smaller the better! God we need rain but not to much! Hope you like the patterns!

Jig nymphs.

 Emerges.

 Duns.

For the rising days to come.

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I’ve had a few problems over the last few weeks and unable to go fishing or even tie flies but im on the mend now and hopefully i’ll have a few trips out soon. Sorry for the lack of posts guys!

Last night I decided to sit down and start tying a few dries ready for the coming trout season, it’s not far away and im counting the days down till I can stick my feet in the water that hasn’t been fished all year; pocket water, my favorite! Fast shallow runs with rocks everywhere with flity trout laying in wait for  passing prey. What more could a fly fisherman ask for  🙂 This is what im talking about below

I’ve got a load more dry-fly patterns to tie up and post soon,  im just waiting on my new hooks to arrive from Phil, http://www.flytyingboutique.com/

First outing on the grayling

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Well not much to say of the day today, I was only out a few hours with my mate Lewy looking for the ladies.

It was an over cast day and a strong down stream wind that made things tricky with presentation and casting the french leader at a distance. There was a few fish on the fin but only small grayling so we kind of missed them out and let them get on with their business. I was looking for the better grayling in the drop offs of the pools and runs that i know and just testing really to see if there are a few better fish moving. It’s a little early on the taff from my experience over the last few years fishing it for grayling. We both managed to catch a good few small grayling and a bag full of out of season trout, i wish someone would tell them that. No harm done and all were returned safely as always.

My mate Lewy above has just started fishing with the french leader so ive been helping as much as I can and giving him a few tips, hes picking it up quite well so its been great watching him catch more fish and even catching fish in places that he would have never have caught fish before. As we both picked our way up the pools and deep holes, I came across a long run that had a fair depth to it, this called for a reset of the depth and nymphs. I pulled off around 6ft of 3lb stroft ABR and then tied in a dropper around 18″ above the point. I decided to put on a size 14  pink jig 3.5m gold head on the point and on the dropper a 3m pink buggy thing. The flow of the water in this part was quite fast so it called for the weights. After a few casts up river I moved up a few feet and could see a channel in the weed so I pitched the nymphs well up passed it and in the centre. As it was moving down, I seen a flash and a fish turning so I struck and I had a fish on, It shot up river like a clappers and then with a sharp turn back down river exploding out of the water. Straight away I could see it was a salmon, after a little bit of a run around i landed this fine fish. Result on the french leader and not a bad feat on a 3wt rod and 3lb tippet.

I didn’t get many photos of the day but I think the one above made up for it.

I’ve been buying my jig hooks, stroft and french leaders from Fly tying boutique. Please check out the link… http://www.flytyingboutique.com/Store/StoreIntro.asp.

It’s a great company and great service.