I got invited by a friend ( Terry Bromwell/ Taff diaries ) to fish the lower River Taff and i was more than happy to say yes as i havnt been out in a while :) we arrived on the water at around 08:00 am and the weather was very hot and the river was low as we havnt had any rain since the first week of March. There was large dark olives, brook dunns and a few grannom flying about but nothing rising. I was armoured with my 10ft 3# fishing a team of nymphs as was Terry but he also had his 8ft 3# just incase the fish started rising. We started on a nice run underneath a fly over which usually holds some nice fish in the shallow fast water. Terry started off whilst i just hanged back and watched to see if he could pick anything off but not a single nudge/touch. As he was a little further up the run i decided to sneak in where he had fished and make my way up to see if i could intice any fish from thier hidding spots. I placed my team on nymphs all over the end of the run but to no prevale so decided to move up a nudge to a bit more faster water. As the water was very low and clear we had to tred carefully and try not to make any disturbance on the water so most of the time we were crawling on our knees trying not to spook any fish infront of us. I placed my flies at the edge of the fast water waiting for my indicator to slip under the water but nothing. I was determind that there must be a fish there or if not at least one so i placed my flies past it a few more times and eventually my indicator slipped away into the fast water and i was into a very nice WBT around one llb which fought really hard fighting me in the fast water and giving me and Terry a very good ariel display :) After that wonderfull WBT myself and terry picked off a few smaller WBT and small grayling too.
we decided to move up river a little bit as it was obvious that the fish were in the really bouldery fast water with the river being so low. We picked off more and more small grayling and Terry loosing a monsterous trout about 2lb. All of a sudden trout started looking up to see what was on the water and they were feeding on the surface so Terry pulled his dry fly out :p Near enough straight away he was into fish and another and another to his little olive patterns ( it was if they were only taking Terry's fly :p )
Terry then noticed some nice fish rising at the end of the next run. He stalked the fish taking very slow steps stopping for a minute at tiems and even crawling on his knees so that he wouldnt spook the fish and it worked a treat as they were still rising above him :) Terry then said to me that one of them was a monster. He placed his small olive patterns above the fish and let the fly pass them a few times but they were not interested. He stopped casting for a few minutes to leave the fish settle whilst staying still in the same spott untill they started rising again. He placed his fly above the rising fish again and whilst the fly was coming down river the fish went to go for his fly but turned away at the last minute. He places it past the fish again and one of the fish sipped at the fly and he was hooked. But one head shake and a run down river and he was off. Terry was gutted HAHAHAHA.
Anyways it was starting to get colder and later in the day so we both decided to to fish one last run but there wasnt a lot happening and we could only pick off one fish between us so we decided to call it a day from there which i caught :)
A brilliant days fishing and great company. Shall derfinatly fish the lower river again soon ;)
me nymphing some fast water.
One of the nicer trout.which i caught
Terry with one of his catches
Terry in stalk mode
