Category Archives: Fly Tying

See our favourite patterns and the ones that work best on our local rivers

Trout season is here and yes i’ve been out finally!

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As we all know the start of the season can be a killer, slow and very frustrating trying to catch your first trout of the new season, but don’t give up there is always one or two that like to play ball somewhere!

It’s trout season finally and the grayling are still playing ball also and are fun and I won’t turn no fish down but they can be a pain when your trying to locate a trout. At the moment the large dark olives been hatching slowly but getting better as spring arrives.  On the saturday the weather was very unsettled  with bright sun and a down stream wind so that was a washout but  sunday was a much better day with light rain and less wind. Good conditions for a better chance of a good hatch of dark olives. Around half past eleven, the LDO;s started to appear and steadily the hatch got better as the afternoon went on, the grayling didn’t wait around just mopping them up but I wasn’t looking for grayling,I was looking for a spotty! But i did have a little fun before moving on 🙂

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I moved away from the grayling and made my to the very ends of the pools waiting for a trout to poke its head out. Grayling tend to rise around the middle of the river and trout can be more tighter to the backs from where I was fishing, so that’s where i was watching. Finally I found two fish rising, i managed to catch the one and the second slipped the hook the bugger 🙂 I love this time of the year because on the river Taff you have to work that much harder to find and catch the trout!

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Not much trout action in the day but the grayling were fun and a few hours on the river is never wasted time! Looking forward to getting out next and maybe finding a few more trout rising and just maybe finding one of Taff monsters poking its nose out! Who knows what could happen!

Crystal clear compact dubbing box, 12 compartments

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Just bought myself a few of these crystal clear compact dubbing boxes, ideal for storing all sorts of dubbing and you would be surprised how much you can put in each slot! Instead of having your dubbing in bags or in a draw  taking up space at your fly tying station use one of these, cheap as chips!!! click here to check them out http://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/prod_show.asp?id=6259

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Finally a day on the grayling

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The conditions are great but the levels are not, the Taff has been holding its high level for weeks but it’s nice and clear and all you can do is fish the inside line in most pools with a fair bit of dodgy wading. Bit cold for swimming this time of year so much care is taken and with shore footing!

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I’ve been catching quite well and enjoying catching the small grayling in the shallower waters close to the banks but now and again you find a few fat pigs hiding in a hole 🙂  bloody Grayling are stuffed solid and I think a few that I have caught have been quite close to bursting haha  food must be plenty in there! Good news for all!

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I’m quite impressed on the condition of the grayling this year and its great to see them in good numbers in all sizes once again! Like everything it has it’s ups and down but the Taff hasn’t really had a good grayling year for a few years.

Tactics! I’ve been mostly working the inside of the fast runs due to the higher water levels, grayling like to just sit off the main flow darting in and out picking off food passing so less energy is used! Sp, target the slower water out of the main flow, this can prove deadly but don’t forget the fast water entirely. Everywhere is worth trying!. In the colder months of winter, grayling can be very picky on where they lay, they move around a lot. In the morning they can be right in the tails of pools and in the afternoon they can move right into the heads of the pool in a foot of water or less feeding hard. Some people can make the mistake of walking through this water and I have many of times thinking they are just not there, take the time to work the water’s and it will pay off in the end!

This fish below was caught in a tail end of a deep pool using the French leader with the two nymph setup. Tippet 1.80kg stroft. length around 4 half feet from the indicator to the point fly. dropper tied on around 20″ above point fly! Nymphs… Point fly 3.5m hotspot hairs ear jig and on the dropper a 3m copper olive caddis pattern, this was the fly that fooled the grayling below!

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DSCF1151All in all it was a cracking day and many fish fell to both of the flies shown above so get tying if you haven’t got them in your box! Not done much on here for sometime, sorry about that people but I will be back on track from now on! cheers for checking in guys and girls 🙂

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The dries were in and the bugs were out!

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Over night rains put the local rivers out of action but there is always one or two cheeky fish that will rise in places so don’t let it beat you get out there and look for them spots! sometimes in can be very rewarding as you can see below! 🙂

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The river Taff below the house was up and brown due to the over night rains but this didn’t stop me and my mate Tony  from getting down there and seeing if we could winkey a few out in the conditions! The water clarity was very poor and there was debate on just saying bugger it and go home, but we kept at it looking and checking out the slack spots in the shallower runs. In this time we walked around a fair bit and as we were doing this a good steady hatch of blue wing olives started to hatch with a good number of august duns putting in appearance.  finally we found a few fish rising and i stuck 2 the dries and my mate stuck 2 the heavy metal bugging everything as he does 😉  check this  greedy stone loach out trying to eat my mates huge bug haha classic eyes way to big for its belly!SONY DSC

 

As i was saying i found fish rising so my setup was a 12ft tapperd leader going down to a 4lb point and at the end i tied on around 2ft of 1.40 stroft, ..love the stuff!. The dry that i tied on was a size 16 bwo pattern i tie, works well nothing to perfect but it works! didn’t take long and i was into the first fish and then the second and so on! was all good fun on the light tackle the 3wt took a beating because of the flow of the water, even the small fish put a hell of a bend in the rod that made things quite interesting until you had the fish under the tip i couldn’t tell how big they were really!

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I was surprised how many fish we both managed to catch in the rubbish conditions but was worth sticking it out for sure!. It was a tough few hours but well worth it!  Ill leave with a few photos below , hope you enjoy!

fishing the river Taff here is south Wales!

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I didn’t have any plans to get out today due to having my son but my lovely wife finished work early and wanted peace and quiet so she sent me out with my fishing gear 🙂 Result!!!

I know u live in there so just play ball please!

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I didn’t really go far i just went down below the house a few hundred yards and targeted the deeper and faster runs where the water is much more oxygenated because of the lower water conditions! it was quite hot out but the flies didn’t seem to mind and the trout and grayling we making the most of it! It was a lovely few hours out and quite succesful  too! trout and grayling fell to dries and nymphs so was quite fun changing over and playing around! Didnt get any photos of the graying due to the buggers flipping around so much as they do! but here are a few photos of the lovely trout of the river Taff here in south Wales! Can’t get much better than this surely!

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Don’t let the heat stop you fishing!

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Well iv’e just become a Harvey Angling pro Team Member and its a great pleasure to be working with such a great local family business. Cheers Gar 🙂

I managed to get out for a few hours yesterday in this hot weather and try a few different methods to catch these sharp little buggers in this crazy weather we been having!  Hope the little bit of info helps you out on hot and bright days!

Below is a link to what i was up to and what method worked best for me!. check it out guys and girls 🙂

https://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/newsletter/fnewsletter.asp

I’ve been playing around tying small nymphs up on the new rang of  Gareth’s  new Hair and fur!

These are what ive come up with below 🙂

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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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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 🙂

 

 

Grayling fishing

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Well the trout season has passed and the Grayling are on the menu for me now and the cold weather will be setting in before we know it. Better put the summer gear away ladies and gents and dig the thermals out!

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea standing in freezing waters but i love it and look forward to every trip.

I’ve had a few trips out checking my Local water of the Taff to see if the Grayling are showing sights of shoaling up and checking the spots that have fished well for me every winter… Its been a little hit and miss to be honest and ive had the odd good day finding the odd group of grayling in the 1lb bracket but not really found the bigger fish, but im sure they will make a show soon! I had a hour yesterday just before dark and managed a couple of fine grayling in really good condition.. The method i was using was the braided leader with a pink dog on the dropper and a large peeping caddis on the point.. I was fishing hard on the bottom and as slow as i could, i did lose a few bugs but well worth it catching these below.

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If you would like 2 see the flies ive been catching on check out the links below, it also tells you how i fish these patterns and what materials are used to tie them, hope you like guys!

I’ll be posting new patterns every week so please subscribe to the email,, The peeping caddis will be next!

http://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/article/Winter-Pink-Czeck-Nymph-Bromwells-Bug/25

http://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/article/Winter-Bugs-Hot-Spot-Hares-Ear/27

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Dry flies to Match the Hatch!

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At the moment the Blue wing olive’s are still hatching and the August duns are putting in a show so here are the Three flies that i’ve been using mostly to cover the hatch!

Nothing special but they work!

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