Day With Colin

I took Colin out for a day, he fishes chalk streams rather than free stone rivers, so to start with he found the bottom a little harder than the fine gravel chalk stream river beds, the main thing Colin wanted to learn was nymphing techniques.

So we started the day talking about the different styles of nymphing and all the various forms of bite detection, I must admit I could talk fishing all day long but it was time to put all the theory into practise, a quick demo and Colin was away and away to a good start he had a fish on within minutes which was also good as it was also on his brand new 10′ 3#, so my nymphing approach worked and rod christened, one strange thing as the trout season has finished they seemed to be very hungry and kept taking the grayling bugs.

The trout if in the middle of summer would have been fantastic but it was grayling we wanted, then the ladies started to play Colin was really pleased as the grayling he caught were a better stamp of fish to the rivers he usually fishes, by the end of the day I think Colin had caught around 10-12 fish ( Colin used his camera to take the pictures that’s why I’m holding the fish for him )

From Colin.

Thank you, a brilliant day and learnt so much about nymphing that I should be able to put into practice when I get back on the River.

Interesting Day

Had a call from Paul who said he had been fishing for 2 years and only caught 4 fish, well I thought to myself that I should be able to sort that out no problem at all, so we meet up had a good talk about his fishing and he said he really struggled with nymphing so we started with that, the main key things to think of are presentation and bite detection, I set him up with 3 nymphs and away we went with in around ten casts he had caught a fish and lost one and this was just the practise area and not the part of the water I thought would hold more fish.

It seemed a little strange as the better looking water was a lot quitter than the practise area, I thought something was not quite right, so I thought I would increase the weight of the point fly and bingo the fish started coming thick and fast both trout and grayling coming mainly to the point fly and the middle dropper.

We stopped for a short while for some lunch, while we sat there I could see a few fish moving on the top so I asked Paul if he fancied learning about down stream dry fly fishing, he hadn’t ever heard of fishing a dry down stream he thought you can only fish a dry up stream on a tight line, I explained that the advantage with a down stream dry is the first thing the fish sees is the fly.

We spent the last hour of the day fishing a dry and Paul caught another 3-4 fish so all in all he had caught in one session  one hell of a lot more fish than he had caught in the last 2 years, he had also caught on a rod that he had never caught a fish on before, so lots of fish caught and also lots of fishing techniques learned.

11,500 Miles To Catch A Grayling

Nigel originally from the UK but Moved to New Zealand wanted to come back to the UK to catch a grayling in Wales, listening to Nigel talk about sight fishing and fish on average 3-5lbs made me a little jealous and also think I hope he isn’t disappointed with the size of the fish in Wales.

I thought I would show Nigel my style of nymphing which seemed of great interest to him and also said that he could see it working back home in New Zealand, as Nigel worked his way through the first run several grayling around the pound mark came to the net, but he really wanted that special fish and asked if I could show him a spot that would hold bigger fish, I explained that every run will hold a bigger fish but it’s a case catching them can be the problem, as they didn’t get big by being stupid you really need a good presentation to fool them.

As we worked our way through the run a few better fish came to the net all to my little black nymph on the point, a couple of fish in the 40-42cm range and then a lump of 47cm which should make anyone happy and Nigel did seemed over the moon, the fish kept coming and a lovely part of the day was you could actually see fish in the run and watch them feed as well.

We had a walk further up stream to a nice run that sometimes throws up a bigger fish, but today wasn’t the day for this run all that seemed to be feeding was quite small fish, by the time Nigel had worked his way down the run it was around 3pm and as on so many days this year it’s been like a switch has been thrown and the river just dies, but Nigel had knocked another item off his bucket list and I was glad to be of assistance.

Busy Time Of Year

Well this is a crazy time of year for a fishing guide, but the weather has been quite good so things have been looking up, lots of clients and best of all loads of fish.

Also lots of people coming for casting lessons from complete novices to people coming to improve their skills, it’s been a very good year so far with everyone picking it up really quickly, or it must be the quality of the instruction !!

We have also had some amazing weather sun, wind, hot, cold and surprisingly not that much rain, bar for the one day the river rocketed up and coloured but it didn’t actually rain where we were, as we walked up the river the Carno brook was ragging and just above where it flows into the Severn was still clear and on its bones.

One gentle man had flown 11.500 miles to fulfil another item off his bucket list and catch a grayling in Wales, and he did rather well ( more to follow on this )

 

Amazing !!

I had Charlie and his son George for their first days fly casting/fishing day and they absolutely amazed me how they both picked up the casting, usually if two people come on person will learn a little quicker than the other but both of them picked up basic roll and overhead casting straight away, which made my life nice and easy.

After a short break we thought we would have a bit of fun and do a spot of fishing, which looked a lot better prospect than the last few weeks, Llyn Clywedog had started releasing water and now the water height was spot on, I set George up with a dry with a nymph underneath it and Charlie with two nymphs, a quick demo and they were away George hooked into a nice grayling almost straight away but with the lack of experience it came off which was a real shame, then Charlie shouted he had a fish on a nice trout and his very first fish on the fly and no sooner I had un hooked it George had a small grayling, so things were looking up, after around an hour they landed a few more fish and several lost ones so we decided to have some lunch and a move to a new run.

When we walked to the new run it had a nice bit of pace to it with the extra dam water pushing the levels up, in this run Charlie was came into his own with catching several fish, I think George was feeling a little tired by know he hooked a couple of nice fish but lost them which he was a little disappointed with but it’s all a learning process and as he was tired we called it a day, which wasn’t a bad decision as it started to rain quite hard jut after they left.

About Time Really

After sorting a few things out this morning I thought I would go and have a fish for a couple of hours, when I arrived down the river the water level had risen slightly as Llyn Clywedog is releasing water, there was a couple of guys worming and had next to no luck so they told me.

I set up with a dry sedge and a size 18 black nymph and quietly worked my way up stream, with in around 10 casts the dry dipped under and a grayling had taken the nymph, in the first run I hooked and landed 5 grayling but no trout, I had to turn round and go to another run as one of the wormers had set up camp at the top of my run, but never mind loads of water to fish, in the next run only 2 small grayling, but as I walked to the next run I noticed 4-5 fish just below an overhanging bush I put a longer cast up stream and let it drift down under the bush and dingo 4 fish in all and yet again all grayling, so I moved to a fast run to see if the trout were hanging about in the faster water but no just grayling again, so it was time to head for home.

A Multi Cultural Week.

Well firstly it’s been a while but I have been very busy with one thing and another, but the guiding and casting instruction has been in full swing, the rivers of Wales are super low making the fishing a little harder than normal in May, it’s been quite interesting for me as no two days have been the same, one day good hatches and the next nothing.

But both the Wye and the Severn have fished well considering the low water conditions, the main tactics are long light leaders and being quite stealthy in our approach, nymphs worked well on the Wye and strangely considering there weren’t many rises for this time of year dries worked the best on the Severn.

Over the past week I have taken out gentlemen from America, Canada, Holland and Wales, very multi cultural and almost like the start of one of those old jokes,  a man from America, Canada, Holland and Wales walked into a pub !!

Before The Wind & Rain

Well the wind and rain are on the way so I went and fished a few stretches of the river that I usually don’t go to, the run in the picture is very shallow and I have fished it many times with little success but I never say never, as I worked my way down the run it was dead, I have had small fish here but nothing very big, but then not a monster but a bigger than usual which was very pleasing, then another and another, for a change I caught around six nice fish just goes to show you should never ignore any water.

A Big Thank You To Big Scrim

A very big thank you to Tony for a very special day on the Dee, the forecast was very poor after the last week of lovely sunshine, but to be fair it wasn’t as bad as they said a little rain and strong winds, the first run looked amazing for nymphs but to both our surprises next to nothing, I had two touches and one fish on and almost straight back off, the run was quite fast and the odd fish rising here and there, so  as they say “I went back to the beginning” the odd blue winged olive fluttered in the air but as the water was so fast and broken I thought a small bwo pattern would keep sinking to quickly, so I tried a size 16 sedge pattern and bingo straight away a nice grayling, couple of cast and another and another if you spotted a rise in the fast water and placed the sedge three or four foot above it you were into a fish, quite amazing how you could run three nymphs through the run and next to nothing the fish only had eyes for the surface.

Things seemed a little quieter so time for a move, this time a long quite shallow glide with the odd fish moving, I still had the sedge on so why not try it again and the same result but still all grayling and no trout, it still kept going through my head that there should be some big fish sitting deeper in  the pools, so back to nymphs and see what I could do and to be honest not a lot three trout and nothing of size, try as I might the only way today was on the top, not a bad way to spend a day mainly fishing dries in October.

Starting Early

Well today was a little bit of a shame as the rain on Sunday had brought the river up and coloured quite badly, but Steve and Joe said they would give it a go anyhow, by the time they turned up on Monday morning the river had dropped a lot, but still had some colour in it, so we pressed on with the casting and both Steve and Joe picked it quickly, Joe had to stop regularly as at 10 he found it a little tiring, but as time went by he got better and better, very nice to see a youngster taking up fly fishing.

After a spot of lunch and a little refresher on what we had done on the casting it was time for some proper fishing, Joe had a little grayling in around 10 minutes then Steve missed one, then caught a brown trout and then missed another fish then the heavens opened once again, so it was a dash for the car.

Steve practising his roll cast.