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 )

 

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 !!

Chattanooga Choo Choo

I have to be honest I never knew that Chattanooga was a place until today, well that’s until I meet Valerie and Michael from Chattanooga Tennessee in the USA, a lovely couple who only get out fishing a handful of times a year, it was a slight shame that there one day here in Wales wasn’t the best weather we have ever had, rain showers, blowing quite hard making casting a little hard at times and a lot chillier than they are used to back home.

We started off nymphing with Valerie having the first fish of the day with in a few minutes and another with in 5 minutes of that, which was good news to me as the weather over night had completely changed, which did make me think it could spoil the fun today, as I walked to see how Michael was getting on I could hear someone whistling, I thought it was someone who knew me, but it was Valerie with another much bigger fish, well done Valerie, when I got to Michael he hadn’t caught anything as yet, but as he got into some deeper water the fish started to come both trout and grayling, we had a spot of lunch and a warm up for the people from warmer climes.

After lunch there was a very brief sunny warmer spell where a few flies started to hatch and Valerie and Michael had a spell on the dries, not sure how many fish were caught somewhere between 8-10 between them and Michael had 2 fish break him, but a fantastic short spell of action, with in the next hour the wind turned towards the north and increased in force making the rises dry up and also fish taking anything sub surface so we called it a day a had a steady stroll back down the river.

What Vallerie & Michael Thought Of There Day.

Mike and I enjoyed our day fishing with you on the Severn.  Even with the low water, you were able to put us on the fish to make for a fun day.  Your obvious knowledge of the Severn, along with your warm personality, made the day a real pleasure.  Thanks so much for helping to make our holiday memorable!

Best wishes,

Vallerie Greer

Washington To A Bit Of A Wash Out

A day with the Rivera’s today from Washington DC, the weather forecast said it might rain at 12pm or maybe 6pm but we would have to make the most of it, the day started of quite nice if a little cool, talking to John and Maria they said that they only fish a handful of times a year so would be a little rusty, I thought I would keep things very simple for them a little bit of duo, to start off with things seemed a little slow, nothing moving on the surface, so hopefully the nymph under the dry would pay dividends, talking with Maria she had a couple of fish on but nothing landed, I advised her to not lift into the fish quite as hard and walked up the river to see how John was getting on , he hadn’t had a touch in the first run, so I moved him to another run and explained how to fish it and things started looking up, nothing very big to start with then a couple of better trout, I think John had around 5-6 fish in this run, by now Maria had landed a couple of fish and it was time for a move to another run and a change of nymph, a change for the better as well Maria hooked into the best fish of the day a very nice grayling, by now it had started to spot with rain, the rain got heavier and heavier, as the rain increased the less the fish seemed less interested in our flies, so by 3pm a wet John called it a day

A Brillant Day

Sorry for the short post, things are a little mad at the moment, I had a day out with John today, what a fantastic day and a fantastic fella, John is from San Francisco in the US, John is an experienced fly fisherman and also has done some guiding in the US, in the morning the fish came thick and fast with a good mix of trout and grayling, we had a short break for lunch and it seemed like the fish were having a long lunch as they had all seemed to have gone to sleep, well not quite all, but it was a lot quieter than in the morning.

John also quite clever with his hands and makes some lovely jewellery, really like the silver trout belt buckle.