Saturday 14 July 2012

Finally some decent fishing :D

After the heavy rain here in South Wales for a a good couple of months and jumping in and out of the rivers and streams when the levels drops a little bit myself and a friend Lee fished the river Taff today after it hadn't rained all night and the river level had dropped quite substantially.  I was using my 10ft 3# with a French leader with a team of nymphs and Lee was using a 11 ft 3# with a presentation leader on a klink&dink.  To start off with there wasn't a lot of fly life about only the odd olive but nothing rising freely but we managed a few to the dry and nymphs before we made our way up river as there was people practising for the internationals at the end of the month.  As we got to back onto the river the heavens opened and we were stuck under a tree for a while until it died down a little but the heavy rain had done the damage and brought the river up slightly and very coloured too which we were not very happy about and nearly called it a day.  Luckily we didn't as after half hour or so after the rain had stopped the river cleared up a little and a massive hatch of pale wateries and bwo's came off the water and the fish were feeding heavily on them from the start of the hatch so we both opted to the dry fly a size 14 olive klinkhammer. We managed to pick off a few nice ones averaging at around 14 inch fish with very very light rises which is a bit odd i thought as they normally tend to rise very splashy/violently most of the time.





Working through the runs picking up the odd trout or two we spotted a really nice fish rising up against a banking and Lee had first digs at the fish to see if he could catch it but it wasn't too interested for some reason but still it kept on rising.  So we both let it be for 10/15 minutes before i had a go myself.  By this time it was rising every couple of seconds and i just knew it was going to take the fly when it passes him if I present it correctly. Within 3 casts it supped the fly softly under the surface and it was hooked. To start off with i didn't think it was as big as i thought it was but then it started taking line and quickly too down river whilst jumping in the air. I think i done my best to keep it out of the fast water so that the fish couldn't keep its strength up while in the oxygenated water so i put a lot of side strain on it whilst it tried making runs for the fast water.  After a good old scrap Lee kindly netted the fish for me as the fish was down river from me  A really nicely spotted 21 inch WBT 


After that fish we made our way through some more runs picking off the odd fish or two with Lee catching some really nice fish around 15 inches as it was getting late and the hatch was quieting down a little. But a really good days fishing and i hope and pray that it is the last of the heavy rain 


The fly which done most of the damage through the day
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A really late in the season brook dunn
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Lee fishing a double run
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one of Lee very nice catches
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21 inch WBT :)
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A few other trout pics
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3 comments:

  1. Hello Daniel!!

    first of all I'd like to congratulate you for your blog, I find it as instructive as nice at the same time, beautiful pics and narration.

    Well, I'm Pablo and I am newbie in Swansea. I guess you must be somewhere around Cardiff, aren't you? Prior Swansea I was living in Bangor, where I had the chance to fish the Ogwen river and tributaries.

    I share with you the love to fly fish small streams when not tiny brooks, nevermind the size of the fish but the quality of the environment and the excitment of wild brown trout fishing!!

    I wonder if you could advice me some small streams around and near Swansea. I have been researching a little and I have found some waters likely to such purpose like Afon Lliw, afon Llan, Lower Clydach,... Do you know them? Are they free waters?

    Best regards and keep posting mate!!!

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  2. Hi Pablo glad you like the blog and even more glad that you (like myself) like things small streams and wild trout fishing :)Yes i am from the upper Taff valley. Unfortunately i have not fished any small streams down west Wales past Glyn-Neath/Resolvan and unfortunately id imagine that the rivers/streams which you have mentioned is like everything else with nothing is free. If you wish you can forward me your email address/twitter and we can have a chat about what streams to fish, flies etc etc

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  3. Hi again Daniel,
    my email is gnorongnoro@yahoo.es
    Shame the Taff valley is too far to me, still have no car...
    email me back to get in touch

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