Upper Wye

Back up to a very pretty part of the Upper Wye just below Rhayader which again did not disappoint.

The upstream breeze which is a rare occurrence on this part of the river made casting and fly presentation so much easier and although there were no fish rising I soon found some quality fish willing to take my nymph.

There was very few upwing flies coming off the water but as usual for this time of year there was quite a few small sedges skimming just above the surface, my nymph of choice was a #16 GRHE with a 2mm tungsten bead attached to help get it down in some of the fast turbulent water often found on these boulder strewn sections of the Upper Wye system. I find the Hares Ear nymph a good choice when there are sedge flies hatching and is my usual 'go to' fly in these situations.

Much Chewed #16 Tungsten Head Gold Ribbed Hares Ear Nymph

As I have mentioned before..what this part of the river lacks in quantity it certainly makes up in quality, many of the resident fish here will put a hefty bend in the rod and give you some heart stopping fights amongst the boulders.

The weather, location and the abundance of wildlife seen pretty much made for a perfect days fishing and to have near enough a mile of river all to myself I returned home feeling more than spoilt.

Rain Stops Play

Well it's sods law...I head down to one of my favourite rivers and find it looking in excellent condition and the fish in the mood for a bit of a play then after an hour or so of some hectic fishing the heavens open and duly empties it's water reservoirs right on my little patch!

The grayling and trout were readily taking both nymph and dry but an hour or so of relentless heavy rain soon filled up the little feeder streams and gushed chocolate coloured water into the river (a familiar consequence of lowland rivers) totally wiping out any chance of continuing fishing.

 

Then the rains come and 'game over'.



One of many of the feeder streams pouring in its coloured water.

With the majority of the river trout season well behind us lots of new waters I'd planned to fish this year will likely be 'put on the shelf' until next season unless things settle down well before 30th September.