Good day on the stream

As the sun was shining and the river/stream levels had dropped in the past few days i thought i would give my hardy featherweight 7ft 3# a walk on the local stream today. I started off a little late in the day at 12:30pm. As i got to the water i could see that the water was Gin clear and not a lot of fly on the water or in the air too so I knew it was going to be hard fishing. I opted for a size olive 14 Klinkhammer tied on a partridge extreme klinkhammer hook. in the first few pools I didn't rise a single fish in the fast of flat calm at the side of the fast water in the runs and got a little frustrated. So i carried on fishing through the day on the same fly picking off the odd fish or two aswell as the odd splashy rise as I plodded along but it didn't matter as i was out in the county side with a clear mind and not a care in the world  After working through the pools i came to a pool called the crossing pool (for obvious reasons) there is a lot of pocket water above which i have only fished once before in my life and normally walk straight past it up into the mountains but not today. As I didn't have much time on my hands i fished all the pockets and fast water and it payed off beautifully with lots of wilder than wild brown trout as every time i placed my fly at the side or in the fast water there was a trout there to have a taste of what i had to offer  (as you can imagine I wasn't complaining) but then i had the dreaded phone call with what signal i had on my mobile phone due to being so high up in the mountains to say that i had to go from my beloved stream and wild brown trout to go to a bbq 

How i wished i had stayed on my beloved stream and carried on fishing until the light faded but it wasnt to be. But like the great Arnold said. I WILL BE BACK 


Plenty of these about  



My fly went from this at the start of the day

To this at the end of the day

Some mouth watering pocket/boulder water full of wild brown trout

The improved PTN

With the rain making the rivers and streams swollen in the past few months I have had time to catch up on my reading of the book fly fishing and fly tying part 2 by hends products.

I noticed a few nice nymph patterns in the book which I thought might do the trick with the high and coloured river levels so I game them a go.  To no surprise they done the job pretty well by catching me a good number of trout.

Here is a Step By Step of a nymph which i like to call the improved PTN


A size 14 jig hook from Fly Tying Boutique with a 3ml silver slotted tungsten bead.  You can tie it with any bead from 2ml to 4ml depending on what water you are fishing

tie a few fibres from a cock hack or a Chinese hen hackle and then work the thread back to the bead forming a taper.

pinch down some copper wier

then attach some pheasant tail and wrap both together down to the tail of the fly

wrap the pheasant tail around the hook up to the bead and tie down with a few wraps of the thread

Make a few turns of the cooper wire to the bead, tie down hard and twist the excess copper wire.

Dub on some crystal flash ice dubbing and wrap around as a thorax.

Then dub on some hares ear over the ice dubbing but not covering it completely

Then whip finish around the bead, put some varnish on the thread to hold in place and use a dubbing teaser to pull out some fibres to make the fly more life like.

You can also use pink for the summer/winter grayling

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

A really late in the season brook dunn

Lee fishing a double run

one of Lee very nice catches

21 inch WBT :)


A few other trout pics

A few flies

Due to the heavy rain and winds lately myself  (id image yourself's too) have been stuck in doors itching to wet a line every time the river levels drop only to be accompanied by even more rain to prevent you from fishing.  So i decided to fill some empty spaces where the dry fly section ( aswell as a few little nymphs ) in my box is ready for when the river level drops enough for me to get out on the upland streams here in South Wales.

Hope you enjoy.
X-Caddis

CDC & ELK

My personal favourites Klinkammer / Emergers.  Olive, Tan & Black



PTN &Hares Ear nymphs.


Last but not least.  I don't know what these two are called but they look like as if they will catch fish ;)

Just a quick one

After finishing my chors  around the house today my better half kindly agreed that i could get out for a few hours on the river.  I ventured off with my 7ft 3# as i was heading for a little stream.  When i got onto the water the river level was really low and clear.  Whilst working up through the runs i only managed to pick off 2 fish but was very hard work, so i decided to fish the main river instead and marched down towards the main stem abround a 3 mile march down river.  I fished my way up river with klink&dink and Managed to pick off a few nice fish around 3/4lb as i fished through the runs.  By this time it was getting pretty late so fished a few more runs before i set off for home.  I put my fly line in a shallow but very fast bit of was.  As my flies were coming down river not a single nudge but i just knew that there had to be a fish there.  I placed it back up river one more time and my klinkhammer shot under and i struck...........  My line shot off down river and i thought to myself oh SH## what am i going to do as i didn't take my landing net with me  AAHHHHHHH.   So i let it run..............and run..................and run down into the next pool with me falling all over the place running trying to catch up with the fish ( quite funny actually even i was laughing at myself  hahahaha  )  and eventually the fish stayed in the 1 pool shaking its head prefusivly and taking sharp fast runs but it was getting tired.  After a good 10 minute battle i managed to bring the fish into the shallows and pick him out of the water  :D

20 inch +   3lb fish

next to my hardy featherweight 7ft 3#

safe returns and you can see how big it it as i am holding its tail whilst trying to revive the fish


And a few other fish ;)

smallest fish of the day

A Day Of Two Halfs

First Half.
Friday night saw me messaging a friend/Lee and he asked me how was the river and is it fish able after the recent rains which we have had over the past month.  It hadn't rained hard for a few days now so the river was dropping slowly so it shouldn't be a problem on the winter level.  I met up with Lee at around 09:30am, Lee had already been there for about 30 minutes before me and had managed to pick off a few small fish ( a good sign. )  We were both fishing with 10ft 3# rods and a team of nymphs.  I started by fishing the run which Lee had already fished as he wondered off down to the run below.  I fished the fast and slack water where you would expect the fish to be with heavy nymphs but not a single touch.  After Lee had finished fishing his run with just as much success as myself we headed off up river to venture for WBT.  The next run was a long fast run with a big boulder causing some breaks in the water at the top of the run which i knew hold fish so i gave the run to Lee.  Same as the run before he fished the fast and slack water at the sides with heavy nymphs but not a single touch, so I suggested that he switches from a 3ml tungsten to a lighter 2.5ml to see if the change in presentation will entice the fish to taking the nymph.  Within a few casts his sight indicator shot under the water like lightning but didn't hook up into the fish :-/  But unfortunately a few casts later he had his nymphs stuck in a tree hehehe :-p  Lee then insisted that I carry on fishing the run while his line is in the tree just in case he spooks the fish whilst getting his nymphs ( I was more than happy to oblige :) )  After a few casts and not taking much attention to my indicator whilst talking to Lee and onlookers I failed to notice my indicator slip away and only noticed i had a fish on when I felt the tip of my rod bounce.  I struck and the fish was on luckily, however a few head shakes and a leap later it soon set itself free ( DOH ) After hooking into that fish id thought id give Lee a hand in retrieving his flies.  What a mistake as after I did so and made my way back across river I stood on a loose rock and I was about to float down river but luckily Lee was there to grab my bag.  As you can imagine Lee was in stitches :-/  We then fished a few more runs but not a single fish to our names.  We were starting to wonder if all the fish had been taken down river from the recent flood :(

Second Half
After the disastrous mornings fishing i decided to take Lee to a spot which the fish usually  tend to stay after a good flood.  It was 12:00pm and we could see a good hatch of large dark olive and large brook dunns and the fish, sand martins and swifts were taking full advantage of them.  The fish were coming up to rise exposing their whole back fins and head slurping away at anything which passed them in the fast water.  We both approached the water carefully not to spook any rising fish.  In my section of the run I could see some really nice rising so I cast my team of nymphs around 5ft above the rising fish.  First cast and I was straight into a fish leaping and trying to run off but it was only a little fish around 1/2lb but done some damage as all the other fish which were rising were now not >:(  So i stood still and didn't make and casts at fish  for around 5 minutes and it payed off as the fish were rising again :)  I noticed a really nice fish rising around 10ft which looked to be around 3lb and gave it a go ;)  A few casts later and the fish just wasn't interested so I placed my fly a little further up river than i normally would and as the nymphs came down river my indicator softly slipped away and I struck.  The fish just shot off down river straight away as I held on for dear life as it stripped more and more line from my reel.  The fish finally slowed down so that i could put a little bit of pressure on it.  It leaped god knows how many times and gave some ferocious head shakes which I thought was going to snap me off for sure :-/  However around 5 minutes later the fish was safely in the net :)
A nice 2lb WBT.


After myself catching that fish id thought id sit back and watch Lee fish for 5 minutes.  I asked him to fish the fast water at the top of the run as previous visits to this spot has proven to me that the bigger fish hold up there.  He fished the run thourally for about 10 minutes without a nudge until he fished his nymphs tight up against a wall and he hooked up into a really good fish and when he hooked up into his fish he spooked a fish and it lept out of the water and must have been at least 4lb easily :-o and Lee's fish didn't hang around long after the big trout hit the water and sped off down river.  It was a repeat of me earlier when i hooked into my fish.  all you can do is hold on and let the fish take line ;)  It was giving Lee massive head shakes and when it couldn't get its own way it gave us some awesome aerobatic shows.  Lee done really well with the fish as he was using really light leader.  After a good fight an exhausted fish ( and angler hehe ) it was safely in the landing net and after a nice picture it was sent back to where it belongs in the wild :)
Lee with his 2lb+ fish


We carried on fishing then run out and a few above too for the next hour or so picking off another 3 2lb+ fish aswell as some smaller ones in between before we had to leave for the day.  However a really good days fishing and great company also :)

Here are a few more pics of the fish which we caught ;)