Tag Archives: Kieron jenkins

What a day at Draycote Water

2 Replies

I’ve never really been one for lake fishing, but I’ve been giving it a go lately… As you all know I’m more of a rivers man than anything but Kieron Jenkins a good mate of mine said we would have a day out on the boat for a change. I’ve always fished the banks for trout and never the boat so it was something new to me and I was quite excited to give it a bash to tell the truth…

We arrived in Coventry, just a few miles outside of Draycote, we made our way into Dunchurch to the GreenMan pub for breaky. Just after 9am we arrived at the water and made our way from the tackle shop to the water where we were making our first drift of the day. Kieron gave me an Airflo Di 3 sweep with 2 blobs on a cast around 16 ft. The point fly was a black and green blob and the top dropper was something a little more colourful. It did however take a little time to get used to the long leader with two fluffy birds on the cast 🙂 As we set the drogue, Kie explained that I had to find the depth that which the fish were feeding or settled at by counting the fly line down, 5, 10, 15 seconds and so on. The retrieve was a mixture of figure of eights to fish the flies slow or faster, pulling if they are aggressive.  As the first drift was under way my first cast I counted down 10 seconds and started to pull quickly in short bursts. Seconds later the line locked up and and I struck into the first fish of the day, a lovely overwintered rainbow and god they can fight! Much stronger than anything in the river for it’s size, I loved ever seconds of it…

SONY DSC

For the rest of the drift there were fish coming out everywhere, kie just went to town on me taking 8 fish to my lonely 2… all within 10 minutes! It was great to watch, you see nothing like that on a river. We went back through the same drift taking a few more and then decided to go look somewhere else, boats seemed to just ‘appear’ after we netted a few fish and were drifting pretty close behind us.

Kieron decided to go right up the top end of the lake to the shallow waters to give the buzzers a blast. It wasnt long and he was working his magic by taking a load on the brightest buzzer ive ever seen :O I wasnt doing too bad with a few good size trout to the boat, all be them stockies but what else do you expect this time of year? By this time i started to get the hang of it. I watched Kie cast hell of a long line across to a huge bush over hanging the waters edge, as he pulled the slack line to tightern up, there was a massive bow wave behind his fly… The fished must have come around 15 yards then bang, fish on! I actually said it was a whale as is breached the surface! !hat a fight and what a lump of a rainbow… It must have went over 7lb.

SONY DSC

As the day went on we were nailing fish everywhere and it was just cracking sport, we must have had over 25+ fish each to the boat. I know it’s not always like this but what a day and what a great trip out on a boat with a good friend, I think I can see myself doing a little more of this in the future :)…. We’ve just booked a boat for opening day on Blagdon… Look out Saturday!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

River Rhymney

Leave a reply

After speaking to Kieron Jenkins in the week at Gareth Haveys fishing shop where Gareth was holding a ospreys night with a 10% off everything, we decided to go give somewhere a look on the weekend to see if we could nail a few grayling. That was if the rivers dropped off after the crazy weather we had on thursday and friday.

SONY DSC

Kieron picked me up at 8am and then we went and picked up Sam Richards, a young youth angler. The taff was still pushing so we decided to go over and give the Rhymney a look. It’s great to have so many great rivers just a stone throw away from the house that hold grayling for the winter fishing. It was a quick stop to purchase our day tickets and off we set eagar to find a few graylng. After a short drive we got to where we wanted and before we knew it we were on the bank ready to step in. The river was running with a few inches over normal and a slight colour to it but was looking good. The method of the day was heavy nymphing keeping a short line and using heavy bugs to get them down hard on the deck.

SONY DSC

Sam was the first to enter the river and was the first to hook into a grayling and shortly after a second came to the net, Sam had it spot on.  Kieron moved on down river picking his way through the water not leaving anything unfished, so I moved on up river out the way and after a bit I manged a trout but nothing after that for some time. I moved on back down to find kie and sam, after a short walk I caught up with them and after that we all stuck together just working the likely looking spots for the grayling, Sam stepped in below us in a little deeper water and shortly after sam was into a fine grayling on the dropper fly.  Sam stayed in this pool for some time then hitting into something totally different, me and kie could see this was a decent fish. Kie stepped in to give him a few pointers and to ready the net but it was a long way from being netted, the fish held deep and just made his way up river and then back down, then it showed itself in a blast of energy by jumping clear of the water around 3ft. It was a salmon estimated around 8/10lb easy. Sam done his best but it wasn’t to be, the fish took him down river and pulled the hook after around 5 minutes. Unlucky sam but what fun fair play.

Sam below well bent into the salmon

SONY DSC

After that little fun we moved on and kie just done what he does best and started to pick off grayling in the good numbers and me,well i was a little slow this day and just couldnt conect with many fish.  Its good to have a few bad days because it makes you more egar to get out  and get it right! 🙂 It wasnt long after and the tempture started to drop and the light was faiding so that was a q to make a move.. Not a bad days fishing and far from easy but we all fooled a few so happy days.

SONY DSC

Ill leave you with all the photos taken on the day below

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Taff Diaries on Fishtec!

Leave a reply

Over the last few months i’ve been using almost exclusively Airflo fly fishing tackle and there are a few reasons for this…

I’ve always used ‘cheap fishing tackle’ and ended up buying more than once, something which is said time and time again between anglers and is true buying of products these days. The kit i’ve been shown by Kieron is great stuff, great build quality and preforms to the max. Most of the fly fishing tackle I’ve had is ideal for what I want and is just as good as anything I’ve seen by other, more expensive fishing tackle dealers.

I’ve now become part of their bloggers scheme where I received an email this morning describing that I’ve been lucky enough to have my blog featured under Fishtecs most favourite! Happy days 😀

Check the list out here for more exciting, informative and passionate fly fishing blogs – http://www.fishtec.co.uk/blog/more-great-fishing-blogs

Over the moon 😀 FishStalker.

Wales takes gold on the river Tay.

Leave a reply

Well what a hard week that was on the river Tay in Scotland, never have I ever fished a river so fast and wide and dangerous. The flow of water going through there was just beyond belief! Well where do I start really.

Dunkeld Bridge below 

I was lucky enough to be reserve for the Welsh rivers team for the international held on the river tay in Scotland and god what an eye opener it was. We headed out on the 23rd of June in advance of the comp so we would get a whole week of practice in for the international that was going to be held on the 29th. Conditions were not great with rain most days and an up and down stream wind. At points in the day, there were waves going down river and it was just bonkers to say the least. Kieron Jenkins, Captain of the team assigned everyone a different method to fish that day and would swap everyone the next day. Great tactics to covering all the water and seeing where the fish were and what depth they would be feeding at certain times in the day, Dries would go first then wets then the bugs would come in on the French leader and stimmy behind. Many fish come to all methods through the week but it was far from easy.

 The fly life wasn’t the best throughout the week but the odd day the fly life would be fantastic but you wouldn’t see a fish rise. This was so confusing and I just couldn’t believe that nothing was picking off these wee beasties, frustrated wasn’t the word for it. Most nights after a hard day searching out the water we would all be called in for a meeting by Kieron and Paul to discuss the day’s fishing as a team and lay the flies on the table for all to see. Then as a team we would decide on the best method to cover the water that we tackled that day. After the meetings we would all have a few hours tying and then to the bar for a little banter with the other teams. All in good fun. I met some cracking chaps and I do hope I get the chance to be there again some time.

Competition day…..

It was a nice and early start, double checking the gear over and then a quick breakfast and off we set to meet the controllers for the day’s fishing ahead. Around this time reports started coming in that the river had risen around 3ft over night and this was quite concerning for the fishing ahead.  The plan was that i would run for Kieron in the morning and then in the second session I would run for Mark Willows, this was a great opportunity for me to see other anglers on the water in focus mode and to see their styles in action. Kieron, me and his controller got to our peg and what we knew about the water just went straight out of the window. River was up,coloured and the wind was making a quite a nuisance of itself. The time come for kieron to step in for his first session and he started off in a lovely run screaming fish but it wasnt to be. Everything was working against him and he left the first session with a blank but made up in the second session. fishing was out and out hard going.

After the morning session were over we all had to go back and meet up and have a bite to eat before leaving for the last sessions of the day. This was a tense time waiting on the boys to come in and say how they done in the sessions. I think the all round smiles said it all when we all finally met up that we were doing well.  Food was done and handshakes all round and it was back out for the second round, eager and confident. This time I was out with Mark willows for the final sessions of the day, we got to the peg nice and early checking that water out and just hoping that we didn’t have to run out looking for something that was fishable. Mark set the one rod up on wets and the other on the heavy bugs. Before we knew it, it was time for Mark to get in and fish his heart out. As I said before nothing looked familiar and we were all back to a blank canvas.  As Mark fished the wets and covered a fair bit of water, I spotted a few fish on the other side rising, this was our opportunity to give them hell, the information was passed over to Mark and he instantly changed methods and made his way straight to the spot with plenty of time to spare in the first session. I had my fingers crossed that we wouldn’t blank in the first, with only minutes to spare Mark had a measure in the net. Big smiles all round. Mark moved out of the spot where the fish were rising and left them alone till the next session started, he changed over at this time doing a little bit of heavy bugging but with no success. The second session kicked in so he moved back into the spot where the fish were, after a few casts, Mark was into a fine trout and no blanks, that’s all we wanted to do. The last session ended with 2 fish and god what a relief it was.  Mark done so well and I was proud to be there with him.  After a big handshake we moved out to go back to the hotel to find out the final scores. We all waited in the car park after putting in the score cards.  You could feel the tension in the air. As we all moved on down the car park I could see paul with his hand in the air and with the biggest smile i’ve ever seen. You could see how proud he was with the team. We went into the club and straight away the handshakes kicked off with everyone  saying well done boys 🙂   We did it! Wales takes the gold, what a feeling and I was so proud of all the boys for pulling out all the stops and bringing home the gold for Wales. I don’t really remember much after that but here are the photos of the team and the captain Kieron Jenkins and Alun Hughes for taking top rod.

I’m a proud Welshman and im so proud of the boys for doing so well in the condition. Well done to all.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What a busy boy ive been!

1 Reply

Well not really had the chance to get out and do a spot of fishing but i have been tying a few flies ready for my trip up to Scotland for the international on the river Tay. This is going to be a big learning curve for myself and its going to be great to meet up with some of the best anglers in the country.

I’ll put a post up after I come back and a load of photos leading up to the match. It’s not long now 🙂

Well not long ago I was lucky enough to have the chance to fish the river Ebbw with kieron Jenkins and fish for some beautiful wild trout, check out Kieron jenkins’s feature in this months http://www.totalflyfisher.com/ and tell me what you think:)  It’s a great read so please have a look.

Look its me below 🙂