March Madness

I couldn't quite get my head around the fishing this weekend...a touch of Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will").





Wherever there was an underwater snag or an overhanging branch then it wasn't long before it was adorned with a couple of nymphs hanging off it, these tight little streams can really test the patience sometimes.

Things started slow and even this poor
fella had given up waiting for me to catch!




The two rivers I fished in the Welsh Marches looked perfect, carrying a little water with a tinge of colour normally means a 'red letter day', but still the trout were refusing to respond.



Only three trout (+5 grayling) caught in two days on rivers that can produce more than that out of one pool.

Getting Ready For The Rise

Mayfly Dun Patterns

This current lull period that we are in at the moment where the trout haven't got going yet has really got me daydreaming about things to come.

Mid May last year on the River Edw

I'm fortunate to work with someone with as great a passion for fly fishing as myself and most days deep discussions are had debating the forthcoming season and the expectation it brings.

We know that realistically we are still a few weeks from any serious chance of catching more than just one or two river brownies on the dry fly...so the anticipation got me sat down at the tying bench knocking up a couple of patterns that should be useful in the next couple of months or so.

Stewart spiders

Midge pattern using a technique demonstrated to me

recently where the hackle is wound around the tying

thread before laying down on the fly

Nostalgic Videos

This is a copy of a post I recently put on the 'Fly fishing forums' website and thought that for those that do not visit that site then it was worth adding on here.

I came across these videos on Youtube depicting life on the River Wye and its tributaries through the eyes of 'seasoned' people who have grown up around these rivers and have nostalgic memories to share about them.

The first one highlights some amazing stories of bygone days of Wye salmon and in particular some of the poaching that took place - hard to believe that so many salmon could be taken from one place at one time, I'm sure this could not happen now!



The second video concentrates more on the ecology of the Wye & tribs with some very interesting stories.



Well done to those who contributed and put together these most enjoyable short films.

Rivers Got The Blues

Well the end of the Grayling season is nearly upon us and although the trout season has already started on the Environment Agency catchment for the Wye area they are certainly not in too much of a mood to jolt themselves into any sort of action just yet.



Saturday I fished a tributary to the river Wye just on the Welsh borders, the colour of the water here takes on a most unusual turquoise hue this time of year and is typical of a lot of other streams in this area.

Although conditions seemed good the going proved to be a bit of a challenge, this has to be quite possibly the toughest time to fish our rivers with the Grayling going out of season and the Trout in a sort of torpor until temperatures get a bit higher.





The nice thing about this particular bit of water is there is a good average size of the Grayling with some real beauties to be caught.

After 6 hours of fairly intensive fishing I managed to net a total of 9 (including 2 trout) with a few more slipping the hook, although 4 of these fish were taken from one pool.

This I would say was quite typical of fishing this time of year...fish to be found in small pockets and long stretches of river seemingly fishless.

I now look forward to the coming months when the sun actually generates some warmth on the body and the dry fly is on the end of my tippet and not in a flybox buried deep in my vest pocket. Part of the pleasure of fly fishing is that every season has something that generates anticipation for the 'all year round' flyfisher.