Chills And Thrills On The Ithon

Taking a peep out of the window on Saturday morning it was obvious the forecasters had got it right, the sky was cloudless and the car was white over with frost. The first hard frost of the year so on went the thermal layers before setting out to the river.

I'd planned returning to a Wye and Usk Foundation beat I hadn't fished for several years...Disserth on the River Ithon, not much had changed since my last visit and I worked my way upstream fishing a duo of tungsten flies on a long leader.

The autumn colours on the trees combined with the bright sunshine was breathtaking and photos can never really do it justice.

Fishing however was a bit of a struggle and I ended up walking away empty handed from pools that looked like they were going to yield a few fish.

Three grayling (and a couple of OOS brown trout) taken on nymphs on the way up and a switch to dry fly on the way back down produced three more which was much more satisfying to catch.

On Sunday I meet up with a mate and we headed a little further upstream the Ithon on some private water. It was a far cry from the cloudless skies of Saturday and for much of the day it rained and the cold wind chilled any exposed parts of the body very quickly.

But the fish were definitely more responsive from the previous day and a combination of long leader/nymphs and dry fly brought some nice fish to the net for both of us with a couple of the grayling getting close to personal bests. We were also treated to a sporadic rise which lasted for 1/2 an hour or so and although we nailed a couple of the fish it was obvious they were tuned into something specific and were not interested in much we were throwing at them!

Last fish of the day and also the biggest one to make it to the net!

 

With the clocks going back one hour and gloomy overcast skies it all got dark very early, fortunately the long retreat back to the cars did at least circulate the blood and bring some feeling back to the fingertips.