A Good Week (and a bit)

the last 12 days have seen me out fishing 6 times, and that simply cant be bad. I posted a report for the 3 over the bank holiday but thought I would also share some pictures of the other 3 with you. Won't drag this out with words so here are the pics.


Best of the weekend was yet again caught by Nick, I am seriously starting to believe this guy carries maggots in his pockets..


Cracking fish of 2lbs 6oz, a good fish for the Taff


My smaller (1lb 6oz) but very acrobatic addition, finally poached one form under Nick's nose instead of vice versa.



Back he goes

A Bank Holiday Well Spent

I don’t know about the rest of you but I enjoy my fishing a lot more when I have someone to share the experience with, that is not to say I do not enjoy the solitude of lone angling with only the wildlife for company, but to share the memorable moments with a friend is surely special. Over the bank holiday I fished with two good friends of mine, Steve and Nick, both I met purely through fishing as we all share a passion for fly fishing for grayling in the winter and are all crazy enough to tackle the “butt clenching” wading that is the middle Taff when she is a foot or two high.

Saturday

Nick and I fished all three days of the long weekend whilst Steve joined us from Sunday, missing some tricky but rewarding fishing by doing so. We spent the morning on a river I have not fished before, the Rhondda, a small-medium sized tributary of the Taff which joins at Pontypridd. The Rhondda is one of those rivers with a real schizophrenic character, starting in pocket water with a strong thigh deep flow and large submerged boulders and debris ready to trip the unwary (we both took a dunking at some point). After less than a mile she changes almost becoming chalkstream-esque  with long shallow glides and beds of ranunculus easily visible in the clear flow, here she is kind and peaceful lulling you into a false sense of security before the next section of rapids when yet again she will try to make you look a fool as you stumble on slippery footholds in the strong current.

For Saturday morning we chose to do things the hard way and fish the pocket water. Our logic was with the river a bit high the fish would be concentrated in the numerous slacks behind boulders and in the eddies. Our weapons of choice were similar setups of 10’ 3# weight rods with 9m of tapered leader and no fly lines, a bastardised form of leader to hand nymphing I suppose. Heavy jigs (3.5mm tungsten) were flicked along the creases of slack and although concentrated turned out to be an exaggeration a good number of fish were caught between us. The jigs we use are fairly similar with both of us agreeing on some key triggers, I will cover these in a separate post on early season flies soon.

Nick into a nice little trout from one of the weirpools

Those long floppy rods are spot on for close range work, protecting light tippets and allowing you to reach over currents with no drag.

Must remember to check my hooks after snagging, this one cost me a good few fish before I realised, live and learn.

The best of the day for Nick at just around the 2lb mark. 

The afternoon was spent on the Taff proper, we met up with Kieron Jenkins (rons blog thing) who is an awesome young fisherman who competes at the international level for Wales. I was amazed at how open he was with his secret (not any more) flies and fishing spots. He pointed us in the direction of some decent fishing and left us too it. Annoyingly I started dropping fish and after the fourth shook the hook after a few seconds my language became somewhat blue, a check of the fly showed that the point had dulled after snagging a rock, nothing the hook sharpener couldn’t sort out and business was soon resumed with some more fish caught.

Sunday

We travelled a bit further afield on Sunday to fish on the upper Usk, higher water had kept us from the lower beats but we were told of the chance of some monsters lurking at Pantyscallog. The river couldn’t be more different from the Taff, it tumbles over waterfalls and through bedrock gullies in beautiful countryside, there was not even a trolley or BMX anywhere and not once did someone’s dog jump in my swim! The water was relatively clear but still slightly high so out came the long bugging rods and heavy jigs again, slack water was the order of the day with the increased flows with most of the fish found off the edge of the main current at the heads of the pools.

One memorable instance which really highlights the experience of fishing with a mate is a lovely fish we (definitely a team on this one) caught below a bridge. Looking over the edge (you simply have to when crossing a river don’t you?) we spotted a nice little trout leisurely taking nymphs just in front of a rock. I stayed up on the bridge and kept my eye on him whilst Nick climbed down and got below him. After a few casts and some directions from me Nick plopped his nymphs 3’ directly in front of the trout and with no hesitation I saw a flash of white and shouted at Nick to strike, the fish was quickly released but the smiles on our faces showed the brilliance of the brief moment. Nick says he never saw an indication of the take from where he was and struck solely on my shout, how many fish take and reject a fly without any indication on our lines I wonder? 

Me using the long rod to reach over the fast water in front of me and fish the slack on the far side, this simply would not be possible with my 8'6'' loaded with fly line.

The lucky bugger poaches yet another 2lber from my swim.

A little more picturesque than the Taff, but the old girl certainly holds her own when it comes to the fishing.

 

Monday

Monday the three of us fished the main Taff again, I caught my first ever fish on a streamer pattern and Nick and Steve both caught plenty on nymphs. Unusually for the Taff the fish did not seem to be rising at all this weekend and I managed to tempt only 2 fish up for the dry in the 3 days, Steve did better with 3 on the dry and Nick doesn’t believe in fishing anything without tungsten (just joking mate).

Steve had to leave us early and the rain was coming so Nick and I decided a quick trip higher up the Rhondda was a better bet than struggling on the Taff with ever increasing flows. We headed up to the calmer smoother section and fished tight under far bank trees where incoming creeks were causing small eddies and slacks. We had an amazing hour with 6 fish caught up to 2lbs. Every slack we found held multiple fish and if it had not been for the rain we could have had a really good afternoon. Unfortunately something must have been flushed down from higher up the valley as the river turned the colour of off milk and the only thing I hooked after that was a used Elastoplast (second most disgusting thing I have ever caught, dead and I mean very dead lamb is still the first).

We called it a day then but in testament to the quality of the fishing on this litter filled, powerful urban trout river Nick is coming back next weekend to do it all again.

Steve starts the ball rolling with a nice fish to the duo.

My best of the weekend from the Rhondda, the fish was tucked away under a tree at the back of an eddie, an induced take was the downfall of this one, I will remember this spot and hope to meet the trout again after it has put on another pound or two. 

Showers on the Taff

Just a quick pic report from the Taff, big uprights hatching, rising fish, sunshine.....good day.












Unfortunately I get to do it all again tomorrow, it's a hard life

Dan

Entomology- Large Dark Olive

Two olive species hatch at this time of year on the River Taff, the March Brown (Rithrogena germanica) and the Large Dark Olive (Baetis rhodani). Not all rivers or even most are lucky enough to have the larger of these two flies, the March Browns but nearly all running water is blessed with LDOs. On most they are the first larger upwing to appear each year and can hatch from the very beginning of the trout season and persist all the way through to its close.

The LDO has two semi-distinct generations, a “slow generation” matures over winter and hatches in spring and the “fast” generation ia hatched in the spring and hatches in the summer and autumn. I have not found any evidence to support this next bit but I am assuming the winter generation is slow simply because it is maturing in colder water and so develops less rapidly. This double generation lifestyle leads to almost year round hatches but the largest generally occur in early spring and autumn and this is when they are most important to us anglers.

The Nymphs

Not my own picture unfrotunately, taken from biopix.com a website with some truly epic insect photography. My photos simply wouldn't do this beautiful creature justice.

The nymphs of these flies are agile darters which are generally accepted to inhabit riffley fast water. They spend most of their time holding on to stones and plants for dear life but are strong swimmers when they decide to move. They are streamlined and relatively large (about 5-10mm) with 3 tails and pronounced wing buds. They are generally found amongst weed and gravel feeding on algae and general organic detritus.

The emergence generally happens from the fast water and the duns can be seen drifting down to the tails of pools at the end of riffles. If LDOs are hatching but the trout are not seen taking them it is well worth trying some nymph patterns in the faster water in case the trout are locked on to the emerging nymphs. The nymph patterns are not only useful during a hatch though as these nymphs are present year round in the lower water column and the same flies can be used to represent most of the Beatis.

They are well represented by slim pheasant tail and biot nymphs, often beaded to get the down in the riffles where these nymphs live.

A simple pheasant tail does well, this is tied with a 2mm bead on a size 16 thin gauge hook. 

The addition of a CDC hackle often seems to make a difference and adds a lot of movement to the basic pheasant tail scaffold.

The Endrick's spider uses partridge to add the movement, suggesting legs and life. Again this fly is tied on a size 16 hook, I don't have partridge hackles small enough so use a dubbing loop to achieve the desired length.  

The Dun

Again not my pic but isn't it stunning.

These are relatively large flies easily identified by their pair of small oval hindwings and the pairs of short veins between the larger veins on their forewings. They have two tails unlike the nymphs and these are well mimicked using highly spread microfibbets. The colour of the duns is different depending on sex and location and their size is variable although generally they are large and dark and, well, olive. Early in the season the flies tend to be about a size 14 but later hatches are smaller and can be down to an 18, this drop in size during the year is also seen in the nymphs although obviously small immature nymphs are present all year round. The hatches tend to be centred around 12-2pm so are angler friendly in that you can concentrate your fishing during the short warm periods in otherwise frigid days.

Generally they are well represented by many of the olive upwing patterns but some of my favourites to fish as emergers and duns are –

Paradun – for fishing the faster water if the fish are taking them as soon as they hatch

CDC Olive – for fishing in the slower water during hatches where the duns are floating a long way

Ducks dun – one of my favourite olive patterns and probably the one I would reach for first, the hackle makes it buoyant enough to fish in fast water but the CDC a convincing footprint for the slow glassy stuff

Greenwell’s Glory – not one I fish personally as I have a phobia of winged flies but it is one of the classic flies for a LDO hatch so has to be included here.

The Spinner

The spinner is not generally of much interest to anglers. The mated females will land on a partially submerged boulder or debris and then crawl underwater with their wings folded back to deposit their eggs near its base.

This means there is no fabled spinner falls as with the BWO and subsequently no rising fish although I am sure they will be picking off any drowned females they can find, some of the males may find their way on to the water but most will eventually die over the land.

 A plea

I am in the process of learning about all this entomology stuff, if anything here is wrong please let me know by email or comment. Don't want to teach myself the wrong stuff.

First trout of the season

Well the season has been underway for the best part of a month and I have only managed to get out twice. The first time resulted in a bountiful net full of grayling and a solitary heart stopping with a nice trout that was some sort of acrobat. Leap after leap the fish tried to escape until he managed to spit the hook at my feet in disgust at my feeble skills.

The second trip was in the midst of a strangely hot spell last weekend. I have decided to spread out from the areas I know and tried a beat further downstream from my normal haunts. It is not the quietest beat being quite close to a busy road but it is a beautiful piece of water.

Ignore the rubbish on the banks from last winter’s floods, this will soon be hidden by the leaves. It is a lovely swim with a long slow glide at the bottom full of riding fish and a nice fast run at the head.

 

The slower water at the bottom of the run was covered in rising fish but after catching a few of them on a size 22 f-fly it appeared they were all grayling, a few rises appeared trouty but these were apparently just aggressive little silver ladies.

The riffle at the top was a different story. I have made a resolution this season that I am going to slow down everything I do, take more time to sit watch and think before tackling a run. This has already made my fishing more relaxed and enjoyable and will hopefully see my ability to read water improve over this summer. This particular run had a couple of current flows, one of which flowed under some trees on the far bank, with the bright sunshine I figured the shade may well be a good place to start.  As there were some LDOs hatching the small f-fly was changed for a size 16 klink and a beaded pheasant tail of the same size. The duo is a brilliant method for working shallow riffles, I am not getting in to the “etiquette” of indicators but personally think the use of a dryfly is a delicate and skilful technique. I was feeling confident, I had matched the hatch, chosen a current to work up and was using a method I have faith in.

For once this all seemed to come together and the first trout of the season was soon in the net, I just hope the rest of the season is as good to me. It very nearly got better soon after but I will spare you the one that got away story, at least I know where he lives now.

A lovely start to the trout season, he was followed on the next cast by an identical twin from the same lie.

My entomology knowledge is, to be frank, appalling, but I am intent on changing that. I am going to be writing a series of posts on here about the hatches that occur throughout the year. With my pitiful knowledge they may not be great but I promise to try and research them a bit. The first is on the hatch I witnessed last trip, the large dark olive, it also mentions the March brown, a sadly rare upwing now. 

A pair of stonclingers, possibly March brown nymphs but I am more than likely wrong.

Some pheasant tails

I have a date with the Test in a few weeks time and it should definitely be illegal to do so without some of Sawyer's famous nymphs, well atleast variants thereof.



I have started the tying with his pheasant tails, I presonally like my nymphs small and heavy so have added beads to some and all are small(ish) size 16-18 although I have tied them down to a 22 with a 1mm bead in case they are needed.

Most are fairly self explanatory, they are simply wire and pheasant tail with a bead thrown in. No thread needed for Sawyer's flies, simple and durable and amazingly effective. Number 4 is a small version of the traditional fly. 1, 3 and 5 are beaded olive versions (obviously) which are nice and easy to see in clear water and good for sight fishing on the chalk.

The big ugly last one is a creation of my own, the pheasant tail is wrapped up to the thread thorax and then secured with wire, the thorax is then built up and remaining pheasant tails are brought forward again secured and bent back for legs. Takes a while to get the length right but the result is a pretty good nymph.



Would be interested to see anyone elses pheasant tails, if anyone is inclined to share.

Am i an Emo?

Am I becoming an outcast? I would like to think not, I think my friendships are still healthy and I have a beautiful girlfriend. Within my group of friends we laugh, joke and tease like any other. Something that happened last night had me questioning this view of myself though.

A friend and I went out to a gig and for a few beers, for those interested the band was La Dispute, they are a Michigan based hardcore rock band. The rock gig is an environment I feel comfortable in, I drink, listen and generally have a good time. It came as a bit of a shock to me when the girl in front of us turned round and told me to smile, cheer up and that I looked like “a fucking Emo”. Again for those that are interested this is an Emo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo well at least that is Emo muic, the Emos themselves are the moody followers of said music, they are notoriously melancholy and depressing, insisting that the world doesn’t understand them. To be called an Emo is not good, not good at all.

It had me thinking am I actually a depressing moody miserable git? My friend assured me otherwise and I am inclined to agree, not least because I don’t want to be. I was definitely not moody at the gig, I was thoroughly enjoying the music, beer and company. My only offence seems to have been the fact that I did not emit these feelings with every atom of my being, I should have been bouncing smiling and shouting apparently. Well that is not me, and I don’t think it is many fishermen/womens way.

I personally feel no need to transmit my emotions to total strangers around me, my pursuits are generally inward looking and often solitary. At the most my hobbies are shared with a handful of close friends and we feel no need for that justification from another person that the rock club girl apparently thrives on.

Does this introvert nature make me an Emo or an outcast? Is this introvert nature with no dependence on social reassurance of my actions part of the reason for my love of fishing? Are all anglers naturally introverted? I don’t know. It is fundamental to me being me. Sure I enjoy sharing special moments with people. Hell, if you meet me in a pub I will natter all night about the unbelievably complex wonders of the natural world and fishing in particular. If however you see me quietly stood nodding away at a rock gig, I am not depressed, I am enjoying the music in my own way with no desire to share that experience with the strangers around me. If that changes look for me in the mosh pit but I wouldn’t count on it.

Winter grayling so far

Fishing on my Taffy club waters has been limited for the last few weeks. The EA river levels graph for Pontypridd resembles the Himalayas and last week was definitely near Everest. The river was, for only a few hours, 4.1m above its usual winter level. By anyone’s standards that is dangerous wading and grayling fishing has been a no no. The only winter grayling fishing I have squeezed in has meant long trips down to Hampshire to fish the chalk where the levels are alarmingly low. This is almost certainly due to the massive amount of abstraction from their near dry water table to provide baths for the over populated region. In spite of low levels the French leader has claimed a good number of the finicky stressed residents. The only down side to fishing these rivers is the large stocked trout, these fish are seriously suicidal and smash the 0.08mm tippets I use for clear water grayling.

 
Taken by Edd of FTAC not myself, what a force!

Back on the Taff and a few days without rain from Friday had the river drop to a normal level once more and I could finally leave the fly tying and give some of the new bugs a swim. The river was magical, good flow and crystal clear with olives and midge hatching all day including a few meaty mouthfuls amongst them. The cold water seemed to have the fish stuck squarely to the bottom though and no rises were seen during my trip.

I started fishing a favourite run of mine behind a factory where the tops of boulders are just visible. A 3.5mm jig (will post the dressing of this as it is slaying grayling and trout where ever I fish it at the moment) on the point with a 2mm size 20 hares ear on a dropper was lobbed behind the boulders in the hope of some fish from the slacks. I know leader to hand fishing is not everyone’s cup of tea but I know of no more sensitive nymphing tactics, you can feel everything as the jig bounces along the bottom at close range and still lob a decent line with no worries of drag.

The morning was slow with no fish caught, not even a touch and so after an hour I decided to move on to pastures new. The flow was still pretty strong so I figured if I was a fish I would be a lazy bastard and be lying in a slack somewhere. The inside of a bend about 200yds above the previous run offered slack water and cover, it was worth a look.

Hugging the banks and moving slowly I eventually made my way to the edge of the slacks and drifted my nymphs through the crease. The 3.5mm was far too heavy for this slow water and was changed down to a 2.5mm which bounced bottom once or twice each drift, perfect. It was not long before the coloured mono shot down and I lifted into the first fish of the day. This fish seemed to think it was safer in the air and virtually jumped in to my arms, an OOS brown was soon returned none the worse for its antics. A couple of steps further up the crease and the indicator was wrenched sideways and line stripped from the reel as another trout made a bid for the bay. On a 3# rod this fish took a bit of stopping but eventually slipped over the net and a nice 2lber was unhooked and slipped back.

The crease produced a few more trout and half a dozen grayling before the light faded and I headed for home to warm my frozen ice blocks of feet. Has anyone else noted that climbing panel fences with frozen feet and numb legs is not easy, especially in waders? I very nearly face planted the concrete trying to short cut back to the car, face first from a 4 foot fence is not the way to end a fishing trip!

Hopefully the weather will hold and I will be back to the Taff soon, family and work commitments mean this will not be till the end of the January at least now though. Also running out of spaces in my fly boxes, need to get some new ones, bigger ones.

Dan

The Itchen - 14th November

I left early from Cardiff, 5am to be exact, and headed out on to the M4 or my home from home as it is fast becoming. As day broke a crisp misty start to the proceedings was obvious and I approached Winchester with the excitement steadily building. I absolutely love chalkstream grayling fishing and the Itchen is a chalkstream I had never fished before (way out of my price range during the trout season).

I setup whilst waiting for Nick (the 20 minute drive for him obviously too much on a Saturday morning haha). 

 

The welcoming party raced over in the hope of sugar cubes or mints, they were disappointed by my lack of treats.

I had already planned this in my head and my smaller rod was put onto the duo method with a size 20, 1.5mm beaded hares ear (on a grub hook) suspended below a size 16 balloon caddis. I also setup the longer (10’ 3#) rod with a French leader but removed the indicator and just had very fine mono (1.8lb) to a single nymph (the same hares ear as below the caddis). This was to be my stalking rod and the duo for searching the riffles and pools where I could not see the bottom. When Nick eventually arrived, all of five minutes after me, I already knew exactly what tackle he would be bringing from his boot, the guy is absolutely addicted to short line nymphing and sure enough a team of flies on a French leader were soon hooked through an eye and we were off. 

We stopped off at the little fishing hut and had a quick chat before starting the serious business. As Nick settled into the very first pool I made my way up to a long sweeping bend. Before I even reached the river Nick was shouting that he had a decent fish on. This guy must have some kind of pheromone leaching from every pore on his body, he simply can’t stop catching the big ladies. However this time he had accidentally put on his rubber hooks and as I turned round all I saw was his indicator spat back at his face, gutting.

The spot I chose to fish was classic Dan, a lovely sweeping bend with all the current on the far bank and no easy way to access it from this side of the river. A reed bed had grown up in the slack on the inside of the bend and what could possible go wrong with walking out over that right? A few steps and suddenly there was no ground beneath my feet anymore and I was up to my thighs in stinky silt. Well since I was already here and now close enough for a cast I decided to fish anyway. The duo was flicked up into the current and it was not long before the caddis disappeared and I lifted in to the first grayling of the day on the nymph. As it was so warm the grayling were still looking up for their food and the nymph was taken at about 2 foot below the surface in 6 foot of water, no need to trudge the depths just yet this year.

I spent about half an hour up to my nether regions in the reed bed, managing to take 4 grayling and 2 trout, one of the grayling absolutely hammered the dry fly and jumped like a dolphin over and over again in a bid for freedom. When I tried to extricate myself I realised my problem, I could not move either leg hmmmmmmmmm. By slowly rocking backwards and forwards I eventually worked myself free and crawled on to solid ground once more, although I somehow left both the soles to my pair of wading boots behind, Father Christmas may have to bring me a new pair this year.

The first fish of the day from deep in the reeds and about average for the quality we were in for.

The next piece of water was long, straight, wide, shallow and filled with weed. Perfect for stalking along trying to sight fish some grayling, luckily by now the mist had burned off (it took almost till 11am). This is exactly the fishing we came for and was truly magical. We both use nymphs that are far too small to see in the water so instead depend on accurate casts ahead of the fish we want and then tracking the line down whilst watching for the lovely lady to suck something, anything in or merely move to the side, flare the gills etc… Once you have your eye in it is extremely rewarding as your arm seems to lift of its own accord before your brain has registered what it is doing and the thumping twisting grayling is attached. 

The long glide was perfect for spotting the grayling (there are a few in this very poor pic), spotting them in real life was just as hard until they moved to take a nymph or rose to an emerging olive.

This sweet little calf seemed to think we were crazy, apparently we smelt as well as he sniffed my hand before snorting and running.

My best fish of the day was this beauty at 1.5lbs, I can still remember watching him move to his right and slightly up as my nymph came past, that was enough encouragement for me to lift the rod slightly to move the nymph and he hammered it.

The top of the beat has some deeper faster water perfect for Czech nymphing and we both caught a decent number of fish blind here, Nick yet again found a shoal and removed at least a dozen fish mainly around the pound mark with the largest of the day at 1.75 lb.

It was a lovely day and one I am hoping to repeat many times this winter, the next will be on the 11^th December when I am fishing with my Dad on the world famous River Test. The fishing is well worth the remortgage and 3 hour drive, for those Southern ladies fill my dreams and if I am lucky my net as well.

Dan

Right that’s the blog up to date now (well ish) and I am planning to keep it that way as much as possible. I will not blog every trip I have as that will soon get samey and boring, instead I hope to share some magical moments and hopefully some beautiful pictures and interesting thoughts and flies over the winter.

Oh and happy late Thanksgiving to all my American readers.

Oct/Nov Review and a (quick) rant

Where is old Jack Frost? Is he having a longer respite this year? Perhaps he over exerted himself in the early months and is still in recovery? It is now the end of November and I have yet to reach for the thermals for fishing, actually had to think about sun tan lotion on a few outings. Something is weird, not quite right, I can’t help but feeling we are going to pay for this with an extremely harsh winter when it does finally arrive.

The benefits of this milder weather are visible in the fly hatches, the little olives on our waters are still acting like it is a mild autumnal day and the fish are feeding on them. All of my recent outings on to the Taff have seen me leave the 4mm tungsten and 10’ 3# rod at home in favour of my (now fixed) dry fly rod and I have reaped the rewards. Plenty of fish have been taken on small CDCs and Griffiths Gnats imitating the midges and small olives (of unknown species as I am no entomologist). I may have caught more fishing the nymphs but if Jack Frost has been so kind as to leave the Taff alone for an extra month is it not rude to abandon this last dry fly bonanza?

The flipside to this has been the large number of out of season trout I have been catching. These guys and gals really need the hard frosts to switch their mind to more appropriate pastimes for a winter trout. They shouldn’t be bothering my dry flys so much at this time of year with their nasty teeth ruining my pretty, fragile CDC, but boy are they still hungry. I don’t feel as guilty as I normally do catching them out of season though, these fish are clearly not spawning yet and when they do they should be caught less frequently.

On that note I was recently reading a post on an American fly fishing forum about specifically fishing for spawning fish. The bloke was suggesting that large lures should be hung under a float and drifted past spawning fish to generate an anger attack. Is it just me or is this short sighted? Fish when spawning are far more stressed than usual right? Stressed fish produce less offspring, catching them stresses them out even more, you are going to ruin your friggin stream! At least we seem to have some common sense in this country and leave the spawning fish well alone. Salmon seem to be the only fish we deliberately target whilst spawning but that’s a whole kettle of fish I am not going to open here.

I am preparing a post on my favourite winter dry flys and nymphs, once I get around to setting up the camera on a bright enough day for some decent pics I will put my patterns on here. Hopefully there will be a few patterns included which make you think and perhaps even adjust some of your old favourites.

Tight lines

Dan