As I’m writing this, on a somewhat overcast, yet muggy Saturday afternoon, it’s looking ominous up in the clouds….. Again !! More rain last night, and, as I was travelling back from Herefordshire this morning, coming through Penybont, near the Severn Arms pub, the Ithon was resembling the Zambezi !!! A steady flow, and chocolate brown too. I must admit these streams do benefit from a dam good flush through mid summer, so in fairness, it’s not a bad thing at all. I guess here in Rhaeadr Gwy, we’re well and truly spoilt, as, when the rivers are out of sorts, which is generally only a few days at a time, the big reservoirs and mountain llyns save the day, and offer fabulous sport on a dull overcast day, with a decent westerly breeze on the go.
This last week has been cracking on the streams, with some clonking trout to my dry fly !!! Yes I know, I always fish dries during basically spring right through till September!!!! Why, well simple, I love this tactic, it’s visual, it’s fun, and get it right, and you can have a field day, quite literally !!!! It’s also deadly accurate, and I can cast my dry onto a six pence at ten yards away…. Sometimes I get the life cycle wrong, but more often than not, if your presentation is good, your wading kept quite, with minimum of noise and scuffing of rocks etc etc, then you’ll pretty much get your rise to your fly, especially on the wilder streams, where brownies are opportunistic feeders, and when something goes over them that looks pretty dam tasty, they’ll smash it !!!! I like to get the fly right, it’s fun and it’s just pleasant to imitate what’s actually hatching, or present the correct spinner on that balmy evening on those long quite pools ….. The ones that sometimes hold a secret, a special fish , that deceptive rise, is it a small fish, its difficult to tell, its tight in, close to those exposed alder roots, and that overhanging cow parsley. He takes your Blue Winged Olive confidently, bang !!!!!! Woooooooooooooow, !!!!!! Hang on a mo, this is a really good fish, he gives you the run around. This happened to me just a few days ago on the lovely Edw, in fact twice in a sublime afternoon session, fishing a dry B.W.O. Lovely rises all afternoon… then there’s those rises, tight in, tricky casts, with technical water thrown in the mix, just to make you think !!!! Mother Nature fully in charge, as always !!!! But success, your cast lands true. A superb scrap on my six foot, two weight rod…. Just the best, quickly brought to my eager net, admired , rested then away in the slack water, a stunning fish of maybe sixteen inches. For a wild stream of that size, that’s a lump. A real leviathan that deserves the utmost respect, it’s very carefully rested in the net for a minute, then gently released with a thankyou …… swimming off with a kind of sulky attitude, back over in to that really deep secretive pool, it melts into nothing, part of the stream, back to its home, fantastic stuff !!!!
A lot of the River Edw beats and the Ithon tributaries, along with some fantastic feeders streams deep up in the Elenydd, have been consistently fun…. Dry fly sport has been just the best…. Stealth mode is sort of automatic with me on these wild streams, I’ve been fishing them since I was fourteen. Long before it became trendy to fish streams….. with gossamer tackle and fine lines. I just enjoy the buzz of the Lilliputian world, and deceiving trout from them, wether they’re only seven inch specimens, or twenty inch lumps that surprise you, and leave you a bit stunned for a few moments !!! Back in the day of course, I used to fish the River Morda, Tanat, Cynllaith and Carno. Border land streams, that were wild , secretive and full of little greedy trout. All fantastic fun, and as a youngster, I’d learn something on every sortie. I’d mix things up as uptime progressed, and treat myself to a couple of days at the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel, and a couple of sublime days out on lathe magnificent lake, all one thousand one hundred acres of her !!!! …… blissful days!!! Much needed as well, after a tour of Northern Ireland !!! Fantastic food, great real ales, and superb fishing at the top end by the Rhiwagor inlet….. just the best !!!!! A total wind down ….. Which reminds me, the clocks ticking, I need a day up there this season……
I’ve explored up in the Cambrian mountains too, hard tabbing and tricky underfoot. In fact it’s totally calorie zapping stuff, but so worth the effort, two feeder streams in particular are fun, in fact really fun, with some stunningly marked trout in them too. Only six or seven inch brownies, but wow, those spots !!! Worthy of the effort you put in, similar to a lot of the mountain llyns, which by the way aren’t free fishing, they’re on the Rhayader and Elan Valley Angling ASSOC. Permits. Who can complain though, these day tickets are a tenner, hardly breaking the bank, and in fact as jaw dropping as it sounds, in some places, that’ll just about buy you two coffees !!!!! A season permit is even better value, you can fish everyday, if you want…. Which is nearly what I do, especially in the season, either out on my own, or with clients !!!!Weeeeeeeeeeell , why not, life’s too short, and in the winter time, it’s shooting then, so in essence, the best of both worlds !!!!!
So, we have rivers that are racing through at the moment, I had a look on the NRW RIVER LEVELS, with some really peaking yesterday, one example being the Ithon, she normally sits at a sedate 0.099m but yesterday she was pushing through at a ripping 0.237m just after midnight….. Healthy for the stream I think, particularly in July…. To be honest, these wild streams drop back pretty quickly in fairness, and in no time they’re safe and fishable again. Give most of the tributaries another 24 hours and they’ll have settled down nicely . For the time being, I’m giving Claerwen a bash tommorrow, seems like an age since I fished this old girl !!! A good trek up the Northerly dust track and work the one particular shore I know is pretty productive …. Looking forward to that, and then, hopefully Tuesday, weather permitting, I’m back on a wild streams…. Where, who knows, I have a selection of sixty beats to choose from. Maybe one of the tribs over in the Usk catchment, just for a change. Choices choices hey, wild Wales, we are truly lucky… Then, the back end of next week, two client days in the Elenydd, lovely stuff. Ohhh don’t forget folks , fingers crossed for the footie …… Maybe England will pull it out of the bag, we shall see!!! Enjoy your angling guys ‘n’ gals, and stay safe out there !!!! Tight Lines ….. 🎣🎣🐟😉
