Grayling On The River Ithon

With all the recent rain it was difficult to find anywhere to fish over the weekend. With the Irfon & Wye both out of sorts my first choice was the River Edw but when I got there the river was pushing through hard and this river can be difficult wading at the best of times, so I headed for the River Ithon about 10 miles away.

Looking over the bridge when I arrived I could see that the river was quite high with a fair bit of colour still in it...perfect!!!



Having fished this river many times I have found this tributary to the Wye fishes best in just these conditions so I tackled up and set off down river. Trout came immediately to spider & nymph patterns and a later switch to some heavy bug patterns in some noted grayling area produced instant results.



It turned out to be a very memorable days fishing in terms of quality with 4 of my 10 Grayling measuring over 15" and many trout up to 10" to fill in the gaps.

When this river is low it can be hard to find any fish and you can end up with a very frustrating day, but choose the right day and you can come away with a big smile on your face.

I also squeezed in a couple more outings...one on the river Irfon (still very high but running clear) & another on a very picturesque stillwater near Rhayader called Llyngwyn where you can always spot Red Kites flying overhead.



The Irfon was still pushing hard but had cleared adequately to produce a few Trout & Grayling to shortlined nymph methods and being out on a boat at Llyngwyn is just a delightful place to spend a few hours...catching some Rainbows is just a bonus.

Parr For The Course

A quick visit to The Wye on Saturday evening highlighted to me that this/last years fry have fared pretty well in managing to survive to get to the Parr stage with huge numbers splashing around on the Builth Wells town waters.

This is almost certainly due to the relatively low river conditions during their growth period without the loss normally associated with the numerous winter spates that the Wye has encountered in previous years.

The Parr were certainly difficult to avoid when fishing but a change from a nymph to a 'Elk Hair Caddis' dry fly attracted a number of Grayling, nothing huge but plenty of fun all the same.

Earlier on in the day I undertook a little 'Kick Sampling' of the rivers - Irfon, Wye & Edw with mixed results.

The entomology of the local rivers is something that I have recently become more interested in and at the moment I am definitely at the 'learner' stage but understanding what crawls under your feet while fishing can be very informative to your fly choice.

My initial findings show the Edw and Wye to be in pretty good health as far as invertebrate life but the Irfon I feel is certainly lacking in a few of the common species with no Freshwater Shrimps (Gammarus) found at all.

I will endeavour to maintain a regular sampling of these rivers in the future.

Fun On The Clun

I took my first ever trip to the River Clun in Shropshire on Tuesday afternoon as a guest, this particular stretch is very secluded and seemingly miles from anywhere.

We approached the river quietly where we were immediately greeted by many trout breaking the surface to feed. I started on the dry fly and put on quite a large sized klinkhamer (#14 Partridge 15BNX extreme hook) as many of the flies coming off were Mayflies & Large Olives. This brought instant results taking and losing both Trout and Grayling from the off.

To say it was 'challenging' fishing would be somewhat an understatement, the River Clun is like an assault course in places with fallen trees, deep pools, steep banks and casting is mostly in the form of a roll cast (many times crawling on your knees) but in some ways that all adds to the fun and trying to catch a wary Trout in these conditions is a real thrill.

We ended the day well past 10.00pm with a tally of 50+ fish between us both, mostly Trout but with a good percentage of Grayling, caught on both dry and nymphs.

The food supply on this river is plentiful and the fish are very plump and fit as a result and eager to put up a good scrap.

My next visit to this river cannot come soon enough.