Fathers day Special :)

Sunday saw the rains of the following week go away and replaced with some clouds and sunshine :D  I havnt been able to go fishing for most of the week due to the rivers and stream being in spate so when the better half could see me sulking on the sofa she kindly said to me " oh go on then go bloody fishing " you can imagine my response :D   i quickly shot up with a big smile on my face and got my gear on and off i went.  I hit the stream and was expecting a it of colour and high water but it was none of these things.  It was gin clear and a few inches of water in it so it must have dropped quite a lot over night as it was in spate the day before.  Anyways  i could see fish rising all around for as long as i could see up stream and that got the heart racing a little and thought to myself bloody hell if things go rite this is going to be one hell of a day :)  first cast first fish :D a nice 10 inch browny with stunning gold colour with bright red spots and i had another 3 out of the pool too.


As the day got on and the sun high in the sky, every glide pocket and run i put my fly into there was a nice little wildy brown trout there to great my fly and i was more than happy to let thyem have it :) and then it happened at around 3 o'clock the fish switched off, there was still a lot of fly on the water Mayfly, BWO's, large brook dunns etc but the fish just wasnt interested so i decided to have a rest and wait for them to rise again and take some nice photo's.

The home stream :)



Then they came back on the feed and all hell broke loose, fish after fish they came to hand big and small same as before.  Then the better half phoned me ( i know i know never take your phone fishing with you ) and said you do know you have a home to come back to ( hehe ) so i had to retire on the river at around 7 o'clock and make the 6 mile hike back down the valley to get home.  But one awsome day, one hell of a fathers day presentand i cant wait to greet the home stream again :D

Fin perfection and spots hand painted by God himself.

Monday morning saw me having another day off ( which i wasnt complaining about ) due to some rain in the early hours of the same morning.  So when the heavens finished shedding its load and the sun and blue skies made an apperance i decided it was good fisihgn weather so i gave my pal Mostyn a quick ring to see if he fancied a good fe hours on the stream and he was more than happy to tag along ;)

As we were walking to our local stream before we even seen the river we were greeted by a sign of things to come, a HUGE mayfly that had flown away from the stream.  That lifted our spirits a bit and we both rushed to the river side in excitement to get our lines wet.  The water on the stream was a little bit high and muddy due to rain the day before and the early hours but still fishable with BWO's, mayfly, olives, large brook dunns and millions of midges on the water.  The first pool i popped my fly into proved so with 3 nice fin perfect wild trout around 5/6 inches all took in the fast water.  As the day got on and myself and Mostyn made our way up river and high into the mountains the water was going down a little and getting a bit clearer.  Nearlly every glide, pocket and riffle we were putting our flies into there was a fish to great and snap it up and we were more happy to give it to them, Then as i was in a pool i heard Mostyn shout DANIEL DANIEL come here quick.  When i arrived from a few pools down what greated me was a big almighty splah in the water whilst Mostyn played a nice fish i would guestimate at arount 2lb but sadly it unhooked itself to fight another day.  But at the end of the day myself and Mostyn couldnt count how many fish we both had caught and we oboth cant wait to get back on the stream :D

Some nice pools full of fish :)




The mayfly which greeted us before hitting the stream  and a BWO spinner :)




Mostyn striking into a nice fish but sadly loosing the battle :(

And the rewards :D








One of the prettiest trout i think i have ever seen :D

A Great Few Days Fishing

I havnt been fishing for a while so when i found out i will be having a few days off work i knew i had to get out on the rivers and small streams here in South Wales.  First up Sunday 05/06/2011 was the lower River Taff.  I only had 2 hours fishing from 4:00pm to 6:00 pm but what a 2 hours they were :) first i started off with a duo klink and dink method and managed quite a few all to the dink in rough and fast water of the little wiers on the stretch i was fishing and the bigger fish were winding me up leaping furiously out of the water saying haha you cant catch me no matter how hard i tried grrrrrrr.  But after fishing the wier pools of the lower Taff i came to a slow moving bit of water in the middle of the pool, the fish were rising freely but didnt want to know with the klink and dink so i tried a griffith gnat instead.  Still nothing, so i tried a single claret klinkhammer on a size 14.   My first cast and i rose a fish BUT i only seen a little flash so thought it was only a little fish around 1/2lb so i put a bit of pressure onto the line, what a mistake, ther was crash, bags and what all i could fell was thud thud thud and a big splash and the fish was gone :(

So after loosing my favorate klinkhammer i thought ill try a fly which i have never used before a black klinkhammer with a peacock hearl as the thorax and again my first cast i was into a fish, not as big as the one that got away but a decent size fish about 1 3/4 lb and sped off down stream jumping and splashing giving off a good show for the onlookers watching me as i fight him to the net.  But after i landed that fishi i had another fish around 1 lb and gave just as good a fight.

A nice 1 3/4 lb trout
 




Day twoand three06/06/20100 & 07/06/2011 was the return of the home stream.  Those of you which know me personally will know where this little beauty of a stream is, but for thise of you which dont......... tough luck ;) but myself and a good friend of mine Mostyn started out both days at around 12:30pm.  Before we hit the water we were greated by a special sight of the mayfly and upright olives floating and flying down and up river with wilder brown trout supping and splashign at the on the water, some even leaping out of the water trying to catch the flies :)  Mostyn creeps up to the water and gets on his knees so that he doesnt sppok these wild beauties and it payed off first cast first fish, a nice 5/6 inch wild brownie.  So this imidiatly gave me the good vibe and couldnt wait to get into one myself.  I found myself surrounded by slow and fast water fishing a single klinkhammer and first cast into the fast water a nice little trout came to the fly but didnt hook on so i tried and tried again and after about 5 minutes of trying it hooked on, my heart was racing even though it wasnt a big fish around 5/6 inches BUT it was a wild brown tout and i love them :) as the day went along myself and Mostyn caught plenty of fish and some nice ones too for a small stream reaching to 1 1/4 lb in weight and lovely marking on them too.

Here are quite a few pictures of the two days :D

there was a good head of mayfly coming off the water :)

I cant wait to get back on this stream and catch these little fin perfection beauties :D









Mostyn fishing a nice pool on the home stream and grinning from ear to ear at a mayfy :)

something for the summer

Well summer is up us ( some shape ) and the fish are rising and fighting hard after the long winter.  In my fly box out of all the various flies i one use a handfull all the way through the season.  A PTN, Hares ear nymph, Griffith Gnat, Cdc Elk and various klinkhammers. All of which you can fish in fast and slow water as thats what i love fishing :)

Here are a few pictures of the flies which i use and a video of how to make a fly which i love to use on the small streams :)

A PTN klinkhammer


Cdc & Elk


Griffith Gnat


Hares ear nymph


Pheasant Tail nymph


Plus a video on how to make a Klinkhammer :)

PLease feel free to leave a comment on what flies you are using if anything different.

A Great Easter

Easter weekend saw me entertaining the River Taff again for a few hours but a little further up river.  As i aproached the water i noticed the usuall suspects on the water such as brrok dunns, LDO's, BWO's etc but hardly and fish rising except the odd few, so i decided to fish a klink & dink method.  I started in the slow water and nothing not even a little twitch so decided to go into the faster water at the heads of the pools, it turned out to be the rite decision as i hit into a fish straight away and lost it straight away too as i didnt put enough tension on my line as the fish caught me a bit off guard :P but after giving the pool a 5 minute break i soon hit into another fish and another and another and another :D so after fishing that pool to death i decided to make my way down river a good few pools and make my way back up river.  The first pool i hit there was fishing rising everywhere small and large and as soon as my flies hit the water i was into a ncie trout and it gave me a nice fight too and after that i had salmon parr after salmon parr which was fun and i stayed in that pool for the rest of the morning :)  i just wish i could have stayed there a little longer but had familly commitments :(

Here are a few pictures of the morning.

 A nice little cock fish




Some more nice trout :)







One of the many salmon parr which i caught ;)

What A Day

Thursday 21/04/2011 saw me venturing off to the lower reaches of the River Taff, it was a long journy by  bus and train and was a very hot day ( hottest day of the year so far ) and as soon as myself and fishing companion Terry Bromwell hit the water there were grannom, BWO's, midges and LDO's everywhere and the fish were rising willinly to them even the little ones about an inch in length.

to start off with we had a few nice trout about 1lb in weight which was nice to start the day off with :) rising to klinkhammers and taking nymphs too. Then after venturing off up river Terry was using a french leader czech nymphing some of the deeper faster waters and what a result, some nice trout, a double hook up of salmon parr and a monsterous 3lb grayling :) and then after that there was more and more trout caught and some juvinile grayling too.  But what a day and i cant wait to get back on the river again very soon  :D

Terry fishing a nice pool.


Things which make you go aww




A monsterous grayling :)






and some video's which i took on the day :)

Its Been A While

Its been a while since i have been fishing since i have had a massive chest infection but now that im all ok :) i decided to get a few hours on the river Taff yesterday morning ( 10/04/2011 ) and it was a scorture.  As soon as we turned up on the river you could see the ubundance of midges on the water aswell as olives, dunns and the odd mayfly or two and the fish were rising quite frequently for them. 


But after a while it was seeminng to be impossible to catch any fish with the normal tecniques ie klink & dink, cdc & elk etc so after passing all them flies across a little food lane on the far bank infront of numerouse fish it was clear to me that there was only one solution a size 18 Griffith Gnat and in my first cast i placed the fly perfectly up against the wall and BAMB my first fish in 2 weeks a nice 8/9 inch wild brown trout :) so i deceided after that fish to move up river as the first fish made quite a comosion on the water, it didnt take long for my second ( 2 casts to be exact ;) ) in the fast water and this time it was another 8/9 inch monster wild brown trout.  They may be small but a lot of fun :D

Small but big in fight, plus so very beautiful.



A safe release for both :)


A friend of mine nymphing a nice hole but to no provail hehe