Tag Archives: brown trout

New box of river nymphs complete!

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

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!

C&R

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Catch and release is something I’ve always done on the river’s and it does work for sure!

Many of times Ive caught the same fish over the years and even in the same day.

I know quite a few that knock trout on the head for the pot and it’s up to them, but myself I like to have my fun and then release them to fight another day! C&R is the way forward to save are wonderful trout for the future and securing are great sport!

Few short C&R videos below 🙂

March Brown Fly Pattern!

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It’s that time again that the March browns are starting to show up in and around the large dark olive hatches so I had to restock the dries box for the pattern that I use to match the hatch. I didn’t have many left from last year so it was a few hours on the vice and I was ready to go!

I do enjoy this time of year when the March Brown’s starts to hatch because this is the time that the larger trout start to show looking for a mouth full after the long winter months!

I find the key to catching the larger trout of the river is to spend a lot of time watching the water and timing the hatches perfect In certain spots of the river. Most large deep pools hold the bigger fish but they are not always seen! I can spend the whole hatch watching one place of the river and waiting for that tell-tale sign or sound, the dimple or the slurp! This can get the pulse going and the hands shaking for sure. It doesn’t always happen but when it does its fantastic!

This trout below was one of them fantastic days 🙂 Watching and waiting will pay off in the end!

When I get to the river bank I decide there and then what im going to do after looking at the conditions. if it feels right I go looking and watching. But other days I just like to amble my way up river fishing most spots and taking in the scenery and the local wildlife..

march brown

I’ve also been tying the March brown nymph that works very well before the hatch starts. I like to fish this with the French leader in the long slow pools where the larger fish tend to wait around waiting on the hatch to start, I also fish this nymph if there is a tricky fish feeding that don’t want to eat the dun. I like to put a small amount of gink to the cdc and the tail, this helps to slow the fly down as it goes through the water column. This can be a killer and has worked on so many occasions for me!

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 🙂

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.

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 :).

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 🙂

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!

Hide and seek!

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Last week i bought myself a video camera planning to make a few short videos on fish rising and hopefully a few other catching fish on the dries and nymphs.

For the last few days ive been walking the banks looking for big fish rising and i finally found what i was looking 🙂 check out the video below and see this beast taking brookduns one after anther

After taking the video above watching this fine large brown trout feeding i turned the camera off and made my way to the spot where the fish was. The rod wasnt even set up so that was done in no time still watching the trout rising, but when it came to leader and tipped extra care was taken with trying the knots! didn’t want to hook it and have knot slip or anything so it was ll down to me to get the cast right and to land the fish,, Well i manged to get the right cast and the trout took the fly sweet as a nut and what a ride it took me on. after a while the trout come to the net i made anther short video just before release,, cracking fish and what a lovely wild fish it was 🙂

video of the fish landed just before release 🙂 Hog!

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 🙂

Fishing Photos.

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Sorry about the lack of posts all but ill be getting on top of it soon so keep checking in now and again and see whats new!

I’ve had a few trips out on my own over the last few weeks and also a few trips out with my mate Sion Lewis, AKA Lewy 🙂 but due 2 family commitments i really haven’t had the time to sit down and write about the trips so i’ve put a load of photos together of the days out so hope you like!

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Hard going is not the word for it.

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After chatting to Paul Jenkins in the week, we decided to have a trip out together over the weekend and see if we could have a little fun chasing the brown’s on the sunday as saturday was a no go for Paul because the wales match was on.

Paul arranged to pick me up at 8.30 outside the house, I did plan on sleeping on till eight but my son had other ideas, 7 o clock he was pouring milk in my ear and that’s not nice im telling you After jumping out of bed and getting the milk out of my ear, I checked out the window to see what sort of morning it was, to my surprise I couldn’t see a thing, I could see about 20 yards at most, Pontypridd was covered in a blanket of heavy fog, but best of all it wasnt raining. Happy days as we say!. After a strong mug of coffee and a few tracker bars Paul turned up and off we set. We decided to have a look up the Rhondda to see if anything was moving, The Rhondda on times can fish well early season but today it was hard going, The river was on its bones and as clear as glass, not good really. We both opted for the french leader and decided on going fish for fish, I set up first so I was the first stepping in the water, I went into the tail end of a long deep run and kept low keeping my shadow of the water as much as I could. After around 15 minutes of fishing hard I hooked into a trout on the tail end and soon as the hook set the trout left the water and that was that, Not a good start for myself. After my brief encounter it was Paul’s turn. Paul stepping into the run that I lost the first fish of the day below. Bad angling on my part but you can’t get them all as Paul said!

Paul fished through a few lovely looking runs and pools without even a take or anything, Hard going be buggered, we both must have covered well over 200 yards of the river with only a few fish to hand. On this we decided to leave the Rhondda and take to the bigger river, The taff. After a short drive we got to where a little slower water was to fish the dries. We needed something to pick our spirits up after the disappointing effort up the Rhondda. After standing at the back for a few minutes we were in luck, there were a few olives on the water and a few fish rising close to the banks, finally something to target. Paul stepped in and started to work his magic with the dry by picking a few trout out on the 12″mark. We were on the look out for the bigger boys but it wasnt to be, maybe some other day! Slowly we worked our way around the long slow runs and pools with a few fish to hand but it was far from easy. Maybe next week will be a little better but who knows. Just a few photos of are day below.