Tag Archives: grayling

Nymphing on the River Taff

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I was out the door this morning by eight and in pursuit of the lovely grayling that swim the river Taff.

The river is just recovering from a heavy flood and I didn’t expect much because of past experiences of fishing after big floods but it didn’t bother me if I caught something or not, I just love being out on the water. The river bed has changed quite a lot and the shingle beds have moved all over the place, not a good thing for the reds im sure! But something good came out of it with a few nice holes and a few new runs scattered around the river making great spots for the grayling to ambush their passing prey or my nymphs:).

I had a play around with my video cam in one run that was fishing well and came up with this below.

I was fishing the french leader but not fishing it far away, more bugging really, fishing it just beyond the rod tip and keeping everything tight. I didnt even bother looking at the deeper waters I just concentrated on the water averaging from a few inches to about 2 ft.  Two nymphs as usual, on the point I was using a size 16 silver bead hares ear jig and on the dropper a copper head PT jig. I caught a good number of small grayling and one half decent grayling running on the 1lb mark, also a few nice size trout but I do wish someone would tell them that its out of season and they should stop taking my tasty nymphs 🙂 With the quality of the trout now at the moment it should be a cracking trout season. I’m so looking forward to hitting the small streams and one of my favourite rivers, the Rhondda!

The biggest grayling of the day below after unhooking.

The day turned out better than i thought it would so it was great.  Im really looking foward to the weekend so roll on friday to wet a line again!

New underwater video cam to play with.

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Just getting used to my new video camera today down on the taff. Quite different to the one I had and a little awkward to get right on the chest pack, I think i’ll have to make something to hold it in the right position so there is no figgeting about. i’ll have to get it right for the trout season thats for sure.

If the rain sorts its self out tonight i’ll probably get out somewhere and if not i’ll tie a few flies and put a few photos up.



Blustery old day on the taff

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Not the best conditions to fish the taff this morning with blustery wind blowing down river and as all anglers know, its a kiss of death and can be really hard work.

I was determined to fish this morning whatever the condition and whatever the outcome. With the weather, I only took the one rod for nymphing knowing  that presentation was going to be a nightmare and I could put my full concentration  on the one rod and not worry about anything else. The taff is still holding a good flow of water and has been for a good while now. I’m unable to fish my favourite spots and im just waiting on the day that it is possible. Today I set up the long leader with two 2.8 jigs. Due to the water I was fishing,  I had around 8ft to the point fly and a dropper around 20″ above that.  For the tippet material I was using 3lb  stroft ABR. I targeted the back-end of the pools and behind the boulders that are usually standing right out of the water, this makes good places for fish to pick off nymphs and not exert too much energy at the same time. Hot spots as I call them. Not easy to get the nymphs to fish natural today with the wind so I was keeping everything low and waiting for gaps in the wind so I could get the drift that I needed.  One of the places that I was talking about is shown below. I managed a few grayling but more trout than anything from behind this rock so I left them to it,

Working on up river looking for little eddies and pockets I manged to catch a trout well battled scared up by the cormerons, not looking its best but getting over the worse by the looks of him, it’s never nice seeing these fish scratched up and bite marks all over them. I had one small grayling with a perfect bite out of its tail aswell, check these out below.

Not a bad days fishing with lots of small grayling and a load of trout but as always its never about size for me it’s just getting out and enjoying something that I love.

Finally getting the chance to wet the feet.

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After a late night last night at the vice tying a few different patterns to play with, i checked the taff river levels to see how the old girl was running after the resent rains and after seeing the levels i was in with a chance to wet a line in the morning.

I didn’t get up early as usual, I woke around 8am and didn’t rush to get out, I checked the levels and it was okish and it didn’t alter that much overnight so it was more of just getting out really and looking for the shallow parts of the river where the fish would be sheltering from the heavy main flow.  As my streamflex 10ft 3wt  is still out of action, I set the french leader up on my greys 8ft 4wt,  I’ve done this in the past in tighter smaller rivers and got on fine but I was fishing a much bigger river so I just had to stick it out.  It wasn’t that bad really but I did miss my 10ft.  As normal I always carry two rods and the other rod was set up for the klink and dink. I didn’t see any fly life today or any movement on the water surface , the only movement I seen on the surface was a large salmon showing it’s head a few times and then disappearing back into the depths. After seeing the tourist playing around I got back to the nymphing. I managed a load of the yearling grayling and around the same amount in brown trout.This grayling was the biggest of the day below.

I was catching fish on both methods and all in about 2ft of water, I did walk in a little deeper water taking it easy and it was touch and go so I made a move back in the bank.  Last time I thought I would be ok out there, I took a dip and a fair swim :S Really dont want to do that again that’s for sure, Brown pants after that one. As the day went on, the fishing started to slow so I decided to check out what was moving around on the bottom, after a few funny looks off people wondering what I was doing I had a right mix of nymphs and shrimps and caddis cases and as i’ve done in the past I found an old can and used the bottom for a petri dish. Works quite well. The macro shots are not the best but not bad considering its on the bank side freehand.

Not a bad day and it was nice to get out and wet a line and wash a few troubles away. I’ll leave you with a few photos of the lovely day. Just before I leave I had a lovely christmas present off the wife:) I had an under water video camcorder so i’ll be making a few more short videos of my forays the next time im out, so please look in time to time and see what ive been up to.

Tying with company after a bad day

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This weekend has been a right washout and an expensive one at that!

Had a fish and eat day with my local fishing club saturday and I was busting to get on the water so I set up as quick as I could and in no time I was into the first small lady and shortly after another. Thinking all was going good, I made another cast and suddenly a Crack!  I was left just holding a small section of my streamflex 3wt :(, GUTTING.  I couldn’t see where the other part went but I was lucky one of my mates was down river and manged to pick it out for me. I’m well gutted and that was the end of my fishing day. I did use my other rod for a bit but I was too gutted to carry on.  I’ll be sending the part of the rod off in a few days so hopefully I will get things sorted.  Problem with me is that I know I will not have the same looks on the rod and i’ll be waiting for it to break again so im shopping for a new one, not sure what to go for yet.

I’ve been trying to keep my mind off the rod so instead of fishing i’ve been doing the next best thing, tying a few bugs and jigs in my new tying room and setup. As normal I wasnt alone tying, my cat is never far away as you can see below this photo.

Just a few patterns to fill the gaps in my fly box. Ill be tying through the week so ill post many more jig patterns and a few heavy bugs to get in them deep pockets where the big ladies hang around.

Bitter morning on the Taff

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Well as I was saying last night, I was hoping that the rain would hold off and it did thank god.

The alarm sounded at 7.30 and as I got up and looked out the window I could see that Jack frost was doing his bit. It looked absolutely freezing and made me think for a second, should I bother, after having a nice hot coffee and a barrel full of biscuits I was out the door. I arrived on the river around 8.45 and I wasn’t alone on the river fishing. I could see two herons working the margins down below me so I sat there for a bit just watching and looking for a few spots to give the first going over with the nymphs. I took both rods as normal, 10ft for the bugging and the 8ft for the dry and klink and dink.  The river didn’t drop that much over the night but it was fishable and the clarity was good.

I started off using the klink and dink working alongside a large deep pool just off the current thinking that the fish would be there sheltering from the main flow as normal. In no time I was into a load of small grayling and a few out of season trout. The small grayling are in good numbers this year in the Taff and I just hope you get the chance to grow on and give us good fishing for next year. Not getting anything any bigger I changed over to the heavy bugs, fishing the deeper waters on the back edge of the run hoping for something better. As I cast the nymphs up river, I started to track the indicator downwards, when it came in line with me it stopped so I lifted and I seen a fair size grayling turn in the water but a few seconds later the line went slack. Not having anther take in this spot I moved on looking for the next place to give a going over. I decided to fish a deep pool that has done me proud through the years but normally I would just get straight in with the heavy bugs but this time I just stayed back just fishing the klink and dink on the back end. I ended up taking three nice size grayling and a load of small ones and more trout that I could shake a stick at :(.  I left the pool after catching more trout than grayling so I moved onto the next spot to pick on.  I manged a few more grayling throughout the day but nothing in any large sizes so they will have to wait till next time.  Not a bad few hours in the conditions and the bloody cold 🙂 Photos Below.

River Taff

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It’s been a while since i’ve had a chance to get on the river with mother nature blessing us with rain for a while and putting the rivers out of action, I have to say its done my head in a little.

I only managed a few hours due to the night drawing in so it wasn’t a searching day, I just went back to a few places that has been producing a few better grayling for myself.  Due to the extra water, I was only using the 10ft 3wt streamflex setup for bugging. I took it easy moving up the slack side of the river just pitching the bugs just in front of me and tracking them down past me, takes were fast and really positive. It wasnt a bad few hours with a good mix of fish to the net. Really can’t wait to have a full day from first light to dark.

The Wye

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I managed to get back up the Wye again this weekend with a good mate Sion Lewis. It was his first outing up there and I was hoping that is was going to be a good days fishing for him on the ladies.

We turned up to the river pretty early so just to kill some time, hoping the air temp would warm up and get a few flies in the air I described to Sion my fishing tackle, why what rods and line I use. Sion was most interested in my fly line choice.  I was given a fly line by Kieron Jenkins which had a heavier taper towards the front few feet of the line. He described that the heavier tip would allow me to propel my flies, roll or overhead casting. I really like the fly line for klink and dink fishing, I can use a bigger dry fly and heavier nymphs as the taper of the line carries the extra weight easier at short and long range. Normal fishing line tapers are good for casting light dries and small nymphs but the Airflo Ridge Supple Tactical fly line excels in accuracy. Only recently I’ve got back into using the klink and dink, and im sure the line has helped me alot. Im impressed.

Here's the line - Click the pic to take a look

Anyway – back to the fishing. I wanted to fish the waters just below where me and Paul Jenkins fished first last week high up the Wye valley. I was hoping that it would be a little better than the day we had up there. It was Sion’s first trip on the upper Wye and he was well excited to fish new waters. The weather was looking great but there was a down river wind that was picking up by the hour and making it a little difficult but it didn’t bother us too much really, the thing was the wind was blowing all the leaves in the river and this was worse than anything. At some point you had to wait for a small clearing on the water surface to cast the fly. For the tight condition in amongst the cover and trees, the fishing was more at your feet in most places so I was using the klink and dink on my 8ft 4wt fishing rod. Sion was using a similar outfit also on the klink and dink.

It was quite early when we started fishing and it was very slow without any takes or even seeing fish moving or feeding, I knew from the weekend before it would probably pick up by the afternoon. As we worked our way up river keeping a sharp eye on the water we started to see a little fly life, Stone flies mostly and a few odd olives of some sort. This was just enough to kick off a few fish to rise, finally something to target. I covered one rise and with a quick splash I was into a fine wild brown trout. The colours were just beautiful and I would say it was on the 2 lb mark. Soon as I got him to the net and a quick look he was released without me even laying a hand on him. Sion stepped in where I was and after a few short casts beside a deep pocket on the far bank he was into a fine grayling on the nymph. The cheeky smile said it all, it was a new PB him. result! Nice one butty 🙂

A few photos of are great day we had below.

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.