Tag Archives: rising trout

Fishing the river Usk

5 Replies

Over the weekend me and my good mate sam went and had a little look at the river Usk in Mardy. It’s been a long time since I’ve fished the beat, I think it was the year before on the March browns and we caught it perfect if I can remember rightly!

We got to the river quite early and bumped into another angler walking off the beat but he was on the Wye and Usk passport, so after a little chat and saving the guy some cash in his future trips we headed up river scanning the river for anything moving! We did spot a fish but it only popped up the once. Time was around 10.30am and there were some Signs of fly activity!

Fly life this time of the year can be a right mix-and-match. Olives, small olives, brookduns, yellow mays, mayfly, black gnats and many more! It Can be a minefield for anglers matching the size and pattern that the trout lock onto!

While waiting on the trout to react to the flies, me and Sam done a little nymphing in the fast water and the deeper pools with good results. We both got busted up and was a little disappointed but that’s how it goes.

We did catch around half a dozen between us, nothing big but pure quality!

Finally moving out of the fast water, we made our way to the long tails hoping to find trout rising and there were a few taking olives and the odd bigger duns so we set up the dry rods. I was using my 10ft 3wt with a leader around 16/18ft for Presentation

But just before Stalking a trout rising on the far bank, I watched a guy for a while before going over to chat with him. His name was Glyn and he was quite new to it so I lent a hand changing his set up and helping him get better presentation. Was great chatting about fishing and we dropped onto the subject of the fishing blogs he reads. He said he reads a blog taff Diaries 🙂 made me smile because it was all good. I then Re-introduced myself as the writer. we both laughed for a bit after!

I love how fishing can bring people together from all walks of life on the river. It was great chatting away about flies and leaders and I hope I helped and explained it enough to understand

Sam getting ready to slip the net under yet another lovely river Usk wild brown trout on the dry!

These are the flies I fished throughout the day below. Simple but they do the job 🙂

March Brown Fly Pattern!

2 Replies

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!

DSCF1676

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!

SONY DSC

 

 

Large dark olives are out in force!

2 Replies

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!

SONY DSC

 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!

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

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 🙂

DSCF1650

DSCF1620

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 🙂

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Pheasant Tail Emerger Pattern

Leave a reply

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!

Leave a reply

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! 🙂

SONY DSC

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!

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

 

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!

Stream fishing.

Leave a reply

Well it happened once again with the rain coming in and making the main rivers unfishable and deadly again.

With the rivers being out I knew that the streams would be the best bet and most often or not they are totally fishable even when the rivers are way up. My good mate Lewy fancied a change from the bigger rivers and sewin fishing so this was a good opportunity to do so, so the stream it was.

We set off around 12 taking it easy just thinking we would just have a few hours out and be home early to keep the wives happy 😉 The stream was not untouched by the heavy rains and she was pushing and coloured but it can fish quite well in these condition and from past experiences I knew that it would clear later on in the day. Dry fly was not an option so it was nymphing till the river cleared, I was looking out for fish on the fin but it was just pushing too much and too coloured. There was an abundance of stone flies hanging in the air and a few olives but it made no difference what was hatching in the conditions.

Sion fishing a fine pool below.

Sion took a few out of this pool and after the takes dried up he worked his way around the pocket water above doing the same by taking fish from every little crease and pocket There was no signs of the river clearing at this point and with a few odd showers we didn’t expect it to really.

As we moved around the stream, we both took turns fishing spots and going fish for fish, many fish were caught and every one of them were beautiful little gems. I took a lot of photos throughout the few hours we were out and usually i’m the one behind the camera but Lewy took over for some time catching a few shots of me holding a few little gems

I’ll leave you with a few photos of the day below.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Flicking the dry fly

Leave a reply

After chatting to my mate Sion Lewis on the phone, we decided to have a few hours out before the rain kicked in as it was forecast to come in later on in the day.

Sion being a good man that he is come and picked me up and off we set looking for rising fish. The timing was perfect really when we finally got on the bank with blue wing olives coming off nicely and the odd rise, but it didn’t take long for the trout to lock on and start gorging on these little wee sweeties.

The fly pattern that I used to match the B.W.O

Makes you think on these times that all the time you have fished the river and fished these parts and not even having a take or even seeing a fish move. They are there but not bothered, but soon as these little jems start coming off every fish in the river goes mad. This can be a fantastic time for the dry fly angler and some great sport, you can even be cheeky and walk past fish and look for the better ones feeding. These better trout tend to be just ofF the bank and on times its like they are touching it, I had one today that was along side a large rock, I swear it must have been leaning on it and taking the flies that were touching the rock when coming around it in the flow. Love this kind of fishing because these tricky buggers can test the casting and presentation skills.

Me and Sion took turns on giving the tricky fish a go and just trying to target the better fish moving all the time we were out, it was great fun! Today the bugging rods didnt have a sniff and were set aside to keep out of the way.

Just a few photos below.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Slow and steady is the way!

Leave a reply

As you know I had plans to go out today with my good friend Ceri Sweeney. I was picked up by Ceri at 8 and off we set to see if we could have a little fun tracking down a few trout and grayling.

Overnight we had rain bringing the river up a few inches and giving it a slight colour but this was a good thing because the river really needed it. After a short drive we finally got to where we wanted to try first but for the water and the time there was no point of setting up the dry so I kept that on my back and set up the french leader on my 10ft 3wt. For the flow of water we were in, I had a 3m hares ear jig on the point and on the dropper a 2,5m hotspot pheasant tail. My thinking for the hotspot was that it would stand out in the murky waters. Ceri also setup on the french leader with similar weights and we pressed on fishing a long run on the far side. I decided to go below Ceri and give him some room and fish the back-end where it was a little shallower to get some idea where the fish were. After a few short casts i was into a lively trout about half a pound and as quick as i hooked it, it was released to fight again, in that Ceri just above me took a fine grayling about a 1lb and in the flow it put up a good account of itself and after a quick photo the fish was on its way to get about its business. Not a bad result in a short time.

Ceri netting the grayling.

After Ceri slipping this one back there was no stopping him taking around 6 more grayling in the same area and one trout, I didn’t have much luck on the grayling front but I was doing well on the trout. As Ceri was picking the grayling off I spotted a few fish rising on the far side of the run in the slack so I pulled the dry fly rod off my back and set it up. Not sure what they were taking I put on one of my newly tied emergers . I watched for a bit before taking a cast to see if I could work out which was the best fish and after a few moments I decided to go for one just off the bank. First drift nothing but on the second drift, bang fish on. It was a trout about on the 1lb mark, didn’t get a photo holding it because it had other ideas by jumping out of the net and unhooking itself, these trout are getting wise :).

As we pressed on up river I had a phone call off another mate, Mark willows, asking what I was up to and if I was fishing. After a short chat, Mark was on his way to meet us and have a dangle! Ceri wasn’t staying long because of other commitments so he planned on making a move about 1pm but before that time mark met us up and we all pressed on looking for the fish with a good amount of banter:)  I wasnt even fishing and I was having bites off Mark 🙂 I think it would take more than 3lb stroft to pull that fella in mind! After covering a fair bit of the river picking off a few more fish , Ceri had to leave so I stayed and Mark left with Ceri to go up river and fish somewhere else. I planned on meeting Mark further up river later on because I wanted to check out a few spots that I havent fished for some time. Just before the boys left, I hooked into a fine trout and Ceri took this photo for me below.

I made my way out of the fast water looking for slower waters to see if there were any fish rising, I seen the odd splashy rise but there was no way I could cover them on the far bank so I pushed on looking for something that I could cover without drowning. I finally found a few rising in the backend of a large pool so I slowly made my way up trying not spook the buggers. I spent some time creeping around there, taking a hand full of trout on my size 16 quill dun. One of the better ones below.

I finally met up with Mark and he was with one of his mates, I was introduced and I knew his face straight away, Rob Evans, Hywel Morgans apprentice 🙂  had to get that in Rob, Mark told me to mind so get him for it hehe.  We all moved onto a long pool looking for likely spots and with that I could see a rise on the far bank so I moved over and after a few casts I was into another fine trout, i netted it after a good run around. Rob said pass the cam over and took this below, another fine river taff brown trout, Cheers for taking the shot Rob!

After releasing this fish I made my way out of the river with Rob to give the water a break, we talked for some time about flies, nymphs, river quality and how well the taff is doing for what it used to be like, it’s just great having this wonderful river just a stone throw away from my home in Pontypridd. As we talked on, Mark was still fishing targeting fish rising just above us in the dead slow water, not the easiest place to catch fish, fine tippets and long leaders are a must in the areas and a delicate cast. Mark is a fine angler and one of the most patient anglers I know, if there are fish there he will worry them out or if that didn’t work he would wait till the cows come home for the fish to rise again. Mark below with one that he worried out. Good angling butty.

Rob below nymphing this fine run

As me and Rob watched Mark working the river I spotted another fish rising not far from where the other fish fell on the dry. This rise looked much better and I even seen the fishes’s nose at one point. I made my way over slowly to get the right angle on the fish to get the best presentation and not to spook it. First cast was on the button and a few seconds after the trout come up over the dry and a split second after the strike, the trout was on and I knew it was a quite a good un at that. After a good run around and some wild runs I managed to slip the net under the fish and have a good look at this wonderful Taff Trout. After a quick photo courtesy of Rob the trout was on its way back into the depth of the Taff.

It was a great days fishing with great friends and it was very nice to meet another fine angler Rob. Rob it was a pleasure mate.

I’ll leave you with a gallery of all the photos taken on the day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All before the rain set in

2 Replies

I was checking the weather report last night and it didn’t look good for today but I sorted the gear out anyway just in case the weather man was lying again 🙂  As I woke up and I listened to see if I could hear the rain on the flat roof but I heard nothing so up I got and opened the window to see. The Taff just below the house was looking totally fishable and inviting.

I didn’t wait around, I just got the gear on and made my way down to the Taff, this only took me a matter of minutes and I was on the river bank checking out the far run across the river where i’ve had some fantastic sport in the past. The water was up a few inches but not noticeable really but it did have a slight tinge of colour to it. Having both rods as usual I only set the 10ft 3wt up to do a spot of light nymphing on the slack side of the run that I was looking at.  The water depth was around 2 ft at most so I pulled about 3ft of stroft off and tied that to the indicator and at the point I  tied on a single nymph, it was a black bead hares ear jig, size 16.

I slowly got myself into position just below the run so I could cast the french leader up into the run and keep the indicator pointing up river giving me direct contact with the nymph.  Light nymphing can be so delicate and the takes just the same. Sometime the takes can be that delicate that you wont even see the line move or stop. It’s like a sense that something is wrong so you strike and there the fish is. Casting my way up the slack side I managed to fool a few trout and as I hit the head of the run I changed the weight of the fly so I could cover the more turbulent water. Many more fish fell to the single fly in this kind of water and after the takes slowed down I came from there looking for the next likely looking spot. At this time my good mate Sion Lewis turned up looking to fill his boots with the wild Taff brownies..

Sion lewis with a fine Taff Trout below

Me and Sion slowly worked our way around the runs and pools picking a good number of nice size trout out with a good amount of banter as you do amongst mates 🙂 I did mange a few on the dry after a short hatch of small olives made an appearance and even Sion got in on the action by whipping the rod out of my hands 🙂

The sun was bright for a while but it didn’t take long to cloud over and then the rain started and the river become quite coloured. Fishing become quite tough but we both pressed on fishing close to the banks and margins and the very slow waters of the fast runs. Visibility was very poor but we still manged to take a few in these conditions . Sion moved on up river past me targeting the much shallower water where visibility was much better. I kind of watched Sion fishing for a while and he was doing really well by taking fish from every small run and from behind every rock that was visible. Sometimes I just like to watch other anglers fishing and see how they tackle certain waters and how they go about it.  After another hour the condition just got worse and the river started to rise even more so that was that really. Not a bad few hours and some cracking sport with a good mate!

I’ll leave you with a gallery of the photos that we both took in our few hours out,

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Lewy you old dog, congratulations on making the Wales team mate, Proud of you and look forward to fishing with you in the international next year. We got lots of fishing to do now and we got a good excuse for it now 🙂

Rhondda outing after the recent flood

8 Replies

Im so glad that the weather made  improvement from raining hard most of the weekend and giving me the chance to wet a fly before I had to back to work on Monday.

Waking up this morning and seeing the weather had broken I was  relieved to say the least. It felt like the rain was never going to stop and i was thinking no fishing this weekend for me..  After a quick coffee and  putting the gear on i was on my way to the Rhondda around 7 am. Before i entered the Rhondda i give the Taff a quick look to see how the old girl was running. She was still pushing a fair bit of flood water and a fair bit of colour also. Unfishable really. The Rhondda was in much better shape but still running with a good force but clear. I know after a good flood and dropping water it can be unbelievable fishing on times. As usual i had my both rods with me, My greys 10ft 3wt and the greys 8ft 4wt. Im known as two rod Terry around these parts:) I feel naked with only one so even if i don’t use its always with me. French leader set on the 10ft and the dry on the other.  With so much water i put a 3.5m gold head hairs ear on the point and on the dropper a 2.8m P.TN vereant  

Starting off with the french leader i picked my way up river very gingerly fishing all the slack water i could find and placing my feet as careful as i could, i didn’t want a wetting and didn’t fancy taking a swim either.  I come to a very fast deep run and made my way across the river so i could fish the slack part behind a few submerged boulders where if i was a trout ide be hiding. I set my video cam on and thought ide show you  a few videos using the french leader with good success.

After making these short videos i made my way up river a little further to the slower water hoping that there might be a fish or two on the fin, at this time there were a few B.W.O on the water so i was betting there was. But before i got to the slower waters i see a lovely rise on the far side of a fast run, just beside a huge rock.  I had a size 14 olive pattern on well  hackled for the fast water so you can pick it out easily. Getting myself into a good position i mad a few  casts to judge the distance and flow. Atter getting it right after a few casts,well more than a few cast i managed to fool him.  Here he is below

Well the way it was going i thought it just couldnt get better. (WELL THATS WHAT I THOUGHT) Trout started to rise in good numbers all down to the better hatch of olives on the water and i was steadily making good numbers. This is why i like to use two rods because you can change over with no bother at all. As i was making my way just watching the bank for the really slow and small rises, hoping for a better size trout to be feeding i seen a small little splash under a tree branch just touching the water, well not a splash it was more like a little jet of water, nothing really i just thought minnows, but something just told me to check it out.  I made my way to a spot over looking the water and to my SURPRISE!!! i seen this large trout just mopping up the olives just under an over hanging bush. I got the camera out and shot this video 🙂 I was just  fascinated watching him taking the flies. I think im really lucky to see this and catch this on camera on are river.

 The adrenaline started to pump and i knew that i had to go into stalker mode as i call it:). To get to the spot where he was feeding i had to walk about 100 yards back up river and make my ways down to where he was feeding.. As i as walking back down i was wishing he was still there and still feeding. As i got closer i could see him just coming up under the bush. I moved down past him trying not to make much noise in the water and not to send any ripples across the water.  I greased the fly up and put mud on the tippet and dipped both in the water before casting. I knew that i had one chance and one chance only. I made the cast and the fly just drifted bang on-line where he was feeding and the drift was perfect but he didn’t even move. So i sat back and watched for a few moment and i seen that he was started to take one out of every few olives that pasts. He rose and i left it for a moment and i made the cast. It all kind of went in slow motion and he just sucked it in and i made the strike . He just sat there for a second and then he started to shake his head and straight away he was fully out of the water tail waking down river. There was no way i was going to stop him so off i went. After a wild few runs and jumps i managed to get him to hand. Cracking fish and im still smiling writing this 🙂 after a few quick photos i slipped him back to fight anther day. Here he is

What more can i say after catching this fine trout. After releasing him i just sat there just taking everything in and after that i headed off home with a hell of a smile on my face just thinking it just don’t get better than that…