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

A good day out :)

I fished my local river again yesterday 14/03/2011.  It started off well with lots of LDO/Large Dark Olives, midges but nothing rising but the far few to the dry fly.  But i caught a nice 3/4 lb fish with full spawing colours on him in the first few casts on a flash back ptn and then after that we had a upstream wind for a few hours which put off the fly life and the fish it seemed :(

So after that i headed off down stream to see if anything was lurking around.  Noting for the first hour, but then the sun decided to reapear and brung on a nice hatch of LDO's and midges and brung a few fish to life :) i had another little 1/2 lb brown trout and a good friend of mine Mostyn kept dropping them off on the dry fly as they were rising pretty fast.  But a very good day out :)

Mostyn making a new cast.




A sign that Spring is here :)


A little beauty.

First bown trout of the season :)

I decided to go out on the river a bit later than i would normally start this morning ( 12:00 pm ) as i would normally start at around 7:30 am so that the water can warm up a little and try and catch some fish on the dry fly.  I tried Klink & Dink, cdc & elk, griffith gnat etc and nothing for about 2 miles up up river even though there were very large hatches of brook dunns, dark olives and midges. So i decided to nymph back down stream with a team of nymphs ( a size 18 hares ear nymph and a size 12 hares ear flash back czech nymph ).  My second cast down river i lost a nice 2 lb wildy as i was about to bring it to hand which i was not too happy about :( and i caught 12 brown trout smallest 3/4 lb and biggest around 1 1/4 lb and lost just as much as i caught ;) but nice to see some fish as i think i forgot what they looked like for a while due to the cold weather and spawning hahaha

here are a few pictures of the day.







Dark wing olive.


trying to help a few guys into a fish.

First fish of the 2011 trout season

i fished the main river today for a few hours as i thought i would give the small streams a rest for a few more weeks as it looks like the fish in them need a little bit more time to recover from the harsh winter and spawning. I was fishing a klink & dink New Zealand style and i didnt have a knock for around 2 hours ans there was no life on the surface of the water as there was an upstream wind and the water was still below -0, but when the sun did come out and the wind stoped there was a good hatch of midges and dark olives which brung some fish to live after about 30 minutes.

I casted up river but and waited for either my klinkhammer to go under from a fish taking my nymph or a rise, but as i was retreiving my line i spotted a fish turing from my flies as i must have spooked it.  I ducked down so that the fish couldnt see me and casted my fly about 5 fet above where i thought the fish was lying in wait, my fly was floating down stream about 2 feet and my klinkhammer went under, i struck, i seen the fish flash on its side and then all hell broke loose :) it took me 10 minutes to bring the fish in as i didnt have my landing net with me and i was playing it with my new 6ft 3# which was nice :D


here are a few pictures of the fish :)

Yours truely holding the fish while a kind angler gladly took a picture for me :)