Another really hectic few days, and I must say, some unpleasant weather in the proverbial mix too !!! We’ve had hoofing winds, rain all day, and of course the all too familiar signs of Autumn. Loads and loads of berries this year !!!! Will it be a hard winter??? That’s what they say don’t they, lots of fruit and berries, and standby for a harsh winter !!! Well I hope not, heating bills are dear enough as it is, and, thanks to our “oh so proactive and caring Government”, let’s spare a thought for the elderly folks this winter ….. A Kindly tub of decent venison stew, donated to an elderly neighbour, helping out filling a hot water bottle, or making a brew doesn’t hurt, that’s my motto anyway !!! And most of all, sometimes just a chat is as warming as it is kind ….
The angling in between juggling clients, and moving their river days, has been fun. The Elan Valley has been on fire on my last two occasions. It does involve a lot of scrambling in many locations, so I would say, and have said to some clients that it’s very dodgy under foot, with loose shale, rocks etc etc. Client care comes first, especially when it comes to getting an injury miles from anywhere ,!!!! Which, with this callsign doesn’t happen because a decent full on risk assessment is done by myself, and if I deem a particular fishing venue not suitable at the time, there’s always another day, when one of the other big wild waters, or mountain llyns are on the cards ….. Safety first folks, ALWAYS !!!!
Actually, as I’m writing this, it raining again here in sunny Rhayader !!! Yesterday, and Saturday were two very good days fishing. The Saturday, I was on a local wild stream, with fantastic sport in the dank drizzly conditions, and yesterday, pulling wets through a huge North Westerly wave on Caban Coch reservoir. Superb fun, with almost rod wrenching hits to my wet flies brought back sharpish in the well formed wind lanes. Fabulous sport, with stunning, well plump, Elan Valley brownies thumping at the end of the line. Remember folks, catch and release is best practise here, and in fact with all “wild brownies”. They are very precious and, with the predation more and more by fish eating birds, like cormorants and goosanders, it’s important to keep our stocks healthy. I remember years ago when the upper Irfon back in the Nineties was alive with brownies, but they got annihilated by the dam cormorants…. Go up and fish the Upper Irfon now, and you’d be lucky to even see a trout, let alone catch one !!!! Folks did report that cormorants have been seen on catch reports on the Fishing Passport, but what can be done, very little !!!! I won’t say any more on this subject, other than proactive action is needed, if you see regular cormorants on a river beat, deter them at all costs…. The amount of fish they eat in a day is incredible ………
I sneaked in a lovely session on a wild stream, as I mentioned earlier, and, I felt quite smug about it. We had had rain on and off all last week, so I watched the online NRW river levels, and the gauge came down to a respectable 0.104m ….. perfect !!! I was off, and although a drizzly morning, olives were on the go, with fish happy to take my dry fly offering. A lovely four hour session wading upstream. Just superb, and that night, rain all night, with a river gauge reading of 0.378 m the next day !!!!!! So glad I managed to squeeeeeeeze in that session. Will we get a break in the weather ? I do hope so, the river season is quickly dwindling away. That said, I do love the back end, big reservoir fishing, superb fun. I’ve said it before folks, Tis fly only in the Elan Valley, and, you MUST BE IN POSSESSION OF A DAY PERMIT, AND A VALID NRW/ EA ROD LICENCE !!!!!!! Here endeth the lesson …. But, if you don’t have these, Tis an expensive lesson, in fact it would be a very very expensive lesson !!!!!!!!
SO, tis nice to get my “big water legs” on the go again. My fishing is kind of a wild brown trout sandwich, with early season on Claerwen, Nantymoch and the big Elan Valley reservoirs , then May to September, wading up the wild streams and feeder streams, whilst completing this Moreish butty, with the last three weeks of my trouting season, back on the big reservoirs again, which takes me right up to closing day, the 17th October !!!! A sublime sandwich most definitely, and all you stalwart river anglers who say “ohhhhh big wild waters are boring” !!!! Well, as an wild angler, that does both, trust me, when the cochybonddu hatch is on, and your arm is aching, cause you’re catching so many fish on the dries, or, your wet flies are getting slammed in a Westerly wave….. Then come back to me and comment with your thoughts !!!!!
I’ll wrap up this blog now, with thoughts of a day up at Nantymoch tommorrow, then a client day for an agile angler, who doesn’t mind a days scrambling, combined with the fishing, in the Elan Valley on Thursday. So that really wraps it up guys ‘n’ gals, enjoy your “river” if you can, and , if it’s washed out, don’t be too disheartened, live dangerously, go and fish a mountain Llyn or reservoir , get out of your comfort zone from dredging tungsten nymphs, you won’t be disappointed !!!! Till next time , stay safe, watch these rivers, they’re up and down like a yoyo ….. wade safely and know your limits…. Ohhhh, and don’t do anything I’d do, catch you soooooooooooooon !!!!! 😉😉😉🎣🎣🎣🎣🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🏴
