Category Archives: Taff water level

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.

Early Season Trouting

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The season is well under way here back in south wales but its not easy as norm for this time of year!

Fishing this time of year can be tough and can only be a few short hours of action in the day and that’s if the flies hatch. Being so early, the main flies that hatch are the large dark olive. Hatches  have been starting around 11am to around 2pm but depending on the weather conditions!

Trout are not really responding to the nymphs around here in my local rivers but the grayling are in crazy mode ready to spawn and it’s hard to target only trout, so not done much nymphing as late so lessening the chances of catching out of season grayling. Although frustrating, using the dry fly and waiting on the hatches.. can be well worth it if your looking in the right places of the river. I’ve been very lucky to land a few of the better trout on the dry so one good fish can make that waiting worth while.DSCF8290

As we were wishing the rain to stop in the winter we are now wishing for rain to get the rivers going again and it’s happened and the rivers are in flood. I cant wait to get out and look for the bigger fish that have moved back into their spots! There has been a few match brown putting in an appearance so it’s looking up and can only get better from now on so lots of post coming up 🙂

Ill leave you with a few photos of what i’ve managed to catch!

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Grayling in the margins

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Well what a bloody mess this weather has been, rain rain rain! Rivers are in full flow and haven’t dropped much at all. I almost gave up and thought I would wait for the trout season to kick in but finally the rain stopped just enough for the river to drop and clear a little. Not ideal conditions but there we are, we have to make the most of it sometimes!

The river was still pushing and with a fair amount of colour but it’s the best it’s been for sometime so me and my butty Dan headed out hoping to find a few grayling tucked up in the margins out of the main flow!

Dan with a fine grayling below!

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Me and Dan went for more the czech nymping style of fishing, fishing close and under our feet and with a heavy bug at the point with a smaller more natural pattern on the dropper. The point fly with the most weight was to slow the drift and get down deep and to keep the smaller more natural nymph in the feeding zone! If it wasn’t dead drift they didn’t want to know at all! I did induce a few fish by giving the tip a jiggle and lifting the flies and dropping them, works well sometimes but not always!

Top dropper fly and the killer of the trip!

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Dan was well into the grayling, taking good numbers of all sizes tight in, we both switched back and forth going fish for fish working up the sides. Just wish we could have coveredd more of the water but it was impossible. I was glad the rain held off just enough for us to have a few hours to break the cabin fever.

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First session on the grayling.

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The trout season has just passed so the grayling are the next target.  Thymallus Thymallus, the lady of the stream!

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Waking up nice and early with a zing in my step I was soon out the door and down the river setting up the 10ft 3wt. due to being so early and cold the nymphs were what I started on!

The  point fly was a size 16 squirrel and partridge jig with a 2.5m bead and the dropper fly was an olive caddis pattern also with a 2.5m bead. These two nymphs are great all year around!I

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I headed for the slower waters around 3/4ft of where the grayling like to hang around this time of the year, I opted for the two nymph setup with the French leader. I slowly fished up river casting a long line covering a lot of water with not much disturbance.  It wasn’t long and the leader slipping up river to a fine grayling around the 1lb mark! First of the session and in perfect condition.

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As the afternoon went on a few small olives started to hatch and it wasn’t long and the grayling started to rise. Problem was there were so many small grayling it was quite impossible to hook a better size grayling due to the fast little buggers taking the fly or dragging it under, so  I changed back to the nymphs and fished hard on the bottom and it worked quite well.  I still caught many smaller grayling but there were many more bigger fish than small so result!

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Late season trout

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Only a few days of the trout season left now and to make the most of it my good friend, Nicholas Steedman, and I spent a day on a small stream hoping to find some late season trout. A cold night meant that the fishing was slow in the morning although we both caught some lovely small trout in their spawning colours:

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A superb hatch of various insects in the afternoon brought some great dry fly sport. The fish were clearly feeding hard before the winter and we were both able to pick off a number of fish that were picking off duns and emergers.

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The standout fly of the day was this hot spot nymph:

 

The hot spot is tied with the new Harvey Angling micro fibre which is perfect for creating a bright target point on nymphs. However, it’s so fine that you can also use it for bodies on nymphs. The olive fly in the photo below was particularly good during hatch in the afternoon:

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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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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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River Taff in Flood yet again!

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What the hell is going on with this weather we are having at the moment, sick to death of it!

The river Taff  is in flood yet again and has been for some time with this unbelivable weather we are having.  The river has been pushing for sometime but its not all bad. The salmon and sewin have had the water to move into their spawning spots without any problems of the poaching metal heads getting anywhere near them.

Check out the chart below for Pontypridd area.

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Popping into my local fishing store, Harvey Angling.

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Well due to the rivers being all in flood after this awful weather we have been having, I thought i’d sort the tying gear out and check over my tackle to make sure i’ve got everything ready for when this weather buggers off and gives us Fishermen a chance to wet a line.

Having a bit of time on my hand after going over everything I thought i’d go and visit my local tackle shop to stock up on leaders and tying materials for the coming grayling season 🙂 exciting times!!!.

Here is a link below to the shop and they are also on facebook as Harvey angling so please check them out and  add a like 🙂http://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/ It’s a great family run business and very helpful in every way. Gareth the son has recently taken over the shop from cliff retiring after a good many years. The shop has now gone under major overall and stocking a wide range of materials for all kinds of anglers.

Getting back to the goodies.

In the past i’ve been paying around £10 for the hends camou french leaders but with Gareth they are the cheapest i’ve seen being £5.49. what a saving yea!? This is only one of many great deals everyone are missing out on. Every  penny counts these days! I know where i’ll be buying mine from now on, cheers Gar.

Just a few things I picked up below.