Tag Archives: Nymphing

Grayling candy

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Well the grayling are back in the crosshairs and the vice has been red hot getting ready for it!

Hopefully the weather will be kind this year, giving us many chances to fish for the stunning fish!

Been tying all sorts and in all manner of colours,Pinks,purples, Flo orange and Gold. Always great to have a wide selection of colours in the box but also don’t forget the drab flies, the more natural looking colours, brown, tan, black, and greens!

Below there are a few selections of my favourites ready to hit the water. I’ll put up the more natural patterns soon. Warning please wear dark glasses with these images 🙂 All materials are bought from Funkyfly tying, Great company and great products!

Searching for the grayling with Paul Jenkins

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Sunday morning was a bit of a blessing with good cloud cover and no rain or wind but the weather report was saying it was changing for the worse in the afternoon so me and Paul Jenkins made the most of the good conditions and decided we would search out the grayling along the river Taff!

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Paul hasn’t done much fishing on the Taff for sometime due to fishing other water far and wide like the wye and other hidden little places so it was a change. We were on the water around 9.30 and checking out the fist pool of the day but someone already beat us to it so we moved up river to a long sweeping bend. Ideal place for the grayling to hide out. The far side was around 4ft deep with lovely pea gravel with the odd big rock around the place.

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Nothing much going on with any sort of fly hatch going on that early so the bugs were out. we both set up on the nymphs. Paul moved in above me fishing the shallow side and I went below fishing the deeper side with the heavy bugs dragging the bottom. Paul was fishing the lighter nymph in the shallower water just on the edge of the drop off. Grayling love that edge and the slope into the deeper water so always concentrate on them areas, they will produce fish! Paul was the first to hook up to a lovely grayling around the 1lb, fin perfect.

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Slowly we moved around the river searching all the likely looking areas and we did fish the slower deeper waters with the klink and dink and was rewarded with a few grayling but they just didn’t seem to be in that water in numbers! We targeted the heads of the pools with a little faster water due to seeing a few flies hatching. Fish did start rising but only for a short time and not really worth changing over, the wind started to pick up into the afternoon and the leaves stared to fall making things interesting and becoming a pain so we set off again up river to more open water and much slower.

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French leader twirly style!

We changed over to long leaders and light nymphs and this seemed to do the trick. We started to pick off grayling in good numbers by working down river very slowly pitching the nymphs upstream and letting the leader go past you and down river with lots of upstream mends to keep the dead drift going. The slower the better and the takes were coming in thick and fast. We were having so much fun we didn’t realise the time and with that we decided to call it a day.

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It was a great day out with Paul and the fishing was brilliant. Till the next trip and I can’t wait, ive got that grayling bug big time!

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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!

click on the images below to enlarge

 

 

 

 

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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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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Trying the new camera out!

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Bought a new toy a few weeks back, FinePix  XP 70 but god it’s not as easy to use as I thought it was going to be :S

It has got Video editing on the camera and after a lot of trail and error I come up with this below! Bear with me  guys, it’s a work in progress!  Got a few new posts under work and a load of fly patterns coming up soon so to 🙂

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 Rhymney

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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

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Grayling it is

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Well finally I had the chance to get out and do a bit of proper grayling fishing without the possibility of killing myself in the process due to high river conditions and wayward tree trunks!

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Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few weeks, between the river being in flood,and personal problems im back and will be updating much more often so please keep on checking out what I’ve been up to.

With the rivers finally dropped off nicely and the weather back to a constant mean, the chance of a blue sky over head and easy wading was grabbed by two hands and I was off out the door like a shot. The river couldn’t look any better but the morning frost was a little hard so I knew I should have left it a little bit later, but I had to get out. In the past years of grayling fishing on the Taff the magic hours have been from half eleven and to as late as three in the afternoon,  just before dark at the moment…

I knew it would be slow at first but I couldn’t help myself, I only took the bugging rod and left my dry fly rod at home. As you avid followers will know, I usually carry two fly rods but thought bugger it and just stuck with nymphs for the day… Not like me ey, Kie ;)… I knew there was a good chance of a hatch of olives could come off, but I have a little trick up my sleeve for when this happens. Anyway, as I thought, it was slow as hell at first, only taking a few out of season browns and not even a sniff from a grayling I moved further upstream and changed my approach.

ALL anglers fish the most likely looking spots, I mean the first crease or run which comes into sight. I do it all the time and am sometimes bit on the ass because of it. I decided to fish the less likely looking spots, fishing the water that I wouldn’t usually expect to catch grayling at this time of year, but today, it seemed that’s only where I could get them! I managed a few around the 9″ mark so it was well worth a shot.

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As time went on I seen the odd olive floating by so I moved into the head of the pools thinking that that’s where the nymphs are hatching so that’s where I would be if there was a fish at this time, sure enough after a few casts I managed one grayling over the 1lb mark and it went a little bonkers after that for some time. As I was looking down river I could see fish rising so I upped sticks and moved down to the tail of the pool to have a little fun. This is where the dry rod would have come in handy but I’ve been working on a few little things to cover this so a quick little change 🙂 and I was soon into fish after a few tweaks.

All in all a great day out with many grayling to the hand and im so looking forward to the next trip out.

Photo gallery below

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