Tag Archives: dries

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!

Monnow Auction Guided day with Barry and Paul A.k.a. chuckle brothers!:)

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Slightly different day today for me I helped Rob Bending Guiding Barry and Paul, the successful winners of his Monnow auction lot, A day on the river Usk chasing wild browns!

More the dry fly anglers they both wanted to see what the French leader was all about and how it’s used Effectively.

They both had the right gear for it, 10ft 3/4wt rods & they were ready to go! We started off with the basics including, casting, line control, presentation & bite detection & before we knew it they were both getting takes & fish.

The guys were both keen to learn about fly selection & the reasoning behind it & this was explained & demonstrated throughout the day with the abundance of fly life & hatches coming off.

Later in the day the fish really came on & the guys got in to the fish with some dry fly action with the fish on hawthorns, medium olives & then midges. It was a pleasure to help rob guide two absolute gentlemen who were open minded & keen asking about the why? When? & How? Instead of just catching a bin full of fish.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day & you’re more than welcome back down anytime gents & cheers for the beers! 🍻

In search of grayling on the river Severn

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Over the weekend Me and and my good butty Sam Weston traveled up to the river Severn for a day of grayling Fishing.

The river Severn is a wonderful river and very beautiful with wide open valley with a meandering river running through it, You never know what’s around the next bend and every pools clear and fine gravel under foot! It’s such a beautiful place.

Was quite fresh starting off and quite cold with frost on the ground so first we started off with nymphs in the slower deep pools.

My setup, Hanak 10ft 3wt superlight using a french leader with a 2 nymph setup with a yellow indicator around 12″ long. From there 4ft of tippet with a dropper around 20″ up from the point. Simple setup to start with. For Nymphs, I went for a little colour due to being so cold and no sight of any movement or fly life, It’s a start! Later on I went for more natural colours and still nothing really. Just one of those days!

I found it quite difficult to pin down the grayling using all sorts of nymphs, after a spell of catching trout, I dredged the bottom and fished just under the surface to no avail, They just didn’t seam to be anywhere or feeding, It happens on times. Your always learning and thinking in these situations. Me and Sam did manage to pin a few down later on in the day but was very quiet. Trout were very active so we moved around a lot trying to avoid them!

For the last hour a small hatch of olives kicked off and there was a little window of dry fly action, smaller grayling but action none the less!

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

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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

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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Large dark olives are out in force!

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Headed out this morning around half past 9 with a plan 🙂

The plan was to see if the trout had moved into the shallower glides and runs already with all the fly life that has been going on, I did turn a few rocks over at the start to see what was going on under there. loads of stone clingers and olive nymphs ready to emerge 🙂 The wind and the bright sun was a bit of a pain from the start so I did wonder if the flies were going to make a appearance later on in the day with any good numbers. Only time would tell.

As ive said in other posts, early season can be tough and frustrating but it does get better as it goes on so hang on in there!.  I started with fishing the French leader with only the single nymph. set up was 4ft of 1.40 stroft around 3ft from the indicator to the point fly, the fly choice was a 3m silver head hares ear hotspot, scruffy as hell thing but a good early season fly for me!

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 The dry fly patterns I use to match the large dark olive hatch are the cdc emerger for the start of the hatch that works a treat and as the hatch goes on and the trout switch to the dun I use something a little different 🙂 Both patterns below!

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As I was bugging my way into the second run of the morning my good mate Sion Lewis AKA Lewy give me a ring asking where I was, not long after Lewy met me on the river hoping to brush the cobwebs away after a long absence off the river due to work commitments. It wasn’t long and lewy was into his first trout of the season for him.  Not a bad trout for the first either, lucky bugger 🙂

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As we moved our way around the river the olives started to hatch and the trout started to feed hard, we both were taking fish on the nymphs and the dry but we both decided on moving out of the faster flowing waters to go on to the flat pools concentrating on the rising fish!  The olive hatch was in full swing and fish started to rise all over the place. I did see a good number of March brown going by. I did catch one and give it a good looking at and they were march browns! It’s nice to see them in good numbers on the river Taff, over the years the hatches of the march brown have been very rare. I’ll try to get a good photo next time out, my little camera just doesn’t do the job so ill have my kit with me on the next outing. .

I’ll leave you with a few photos of the trout that we both caught 🙂

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Pheasant Tail Emerger Pattern

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It’s great to have the dry-fly setup once again and my go to pattern early season is the pheasant tail emerger. Fishing is still slow but I enjoy just creeping around the river when the hatches start. At the moment the large dark olives are coming on around 11am to about 2pm and then they tend to peter off, but in this time you can have a little fun, they don’t turn their noses up to this pattern and It have accounted for many of my big fish that I’ve managed to catch over the years on my local waters!

 I tie this fly in size16/14/12s

  • SONY DSCHook. Kamasan B100.
  • Thread, Black UTC 170.
  • Body. 4 pheasant tail fibers
  • Rib. 2lb mono.
  • Hackle. Blue dun.

I like to tie this pattern on the kamasan due to the quality of the hooks and the strength. It’s Very important to have full confidence in the hooks when you hook into that fish of a lifetime! These have the thumbs up from me! Here is a link for the hooks so please check it out they won’t let you down! ..https://www.cliff-harvey-angling.co.uk/search_prod_list.asp?maingroup=HOOKS&thirdgroup=Kamasan&cha_product_category=8

 

 

 

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!

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 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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