Twas with an air of excitement that I parked up at Tim’s place who has moved to Wales from the sunnier climes of Cape Town in South Africa … we have been buddies on Facebook for some time, and before now had discussed fly fishing and tactics over a few cool pints of Rev James at The Crown in Rhayader…. Over in Cape Town, Tim did guide and has competed in the fly fishing world before, so a very accomplished and interesting chappy and he has written a most absorbing book too on “Guide Flies”….. We mused over tactics and techniques during the course of the evening ….. six bells was almost too early but alas it was nice to have a good look at the lower beat of club water …….a section I hadn’t been too before ….. As usual I was like a kid at Christmas …. Some lovely water, and Tim, having fished this beat a couple of times already with great success using a Klink and Dink or duo as it is sometimes called ……which basically is a nymph suspended with a length of tippet underneath a dry fly, should the nymph be taken at any stage it will register with the dry fly indicating and either stopping in the flow, or quickly going under water !!!! And obviously if the dry fly is taken, then that will be visible to the alert angler !!!!!
I enjoyed fishing an eighteen Para Greenwells , and later on also a rusty klinkhammer …. I opted to stay on just a single dry fly, which proved to be pretty successful to be honest …. Feisty Wye brownies hammering my dry in the faster water …. Satisfyingly fun striking and playing a fit Wye fish ….. two of the ten I brought to the net were pokey fish , nothing huge, perhaps fourteen inches, but fun …… Tim did stay with the klink and dink method, which was effective in the early stages of the evening and picked up fish …… Three separate locations we fished during the three hour session we were there ….. time seemed to fly …as it does, but here, there was certainly an air of calm ……. A blissful location …….
With a rather niggling upstream wind it seemed an age before the fish really got going … previously Tim did mention that the pool tail outs were particularly buzzing with fish …. Tonight the pokey wind had put them down I think …. Time ticked on, as it does…… we picked up fish and actually Tim did land and quickly release three cracking “out of season” grayling ……. It’s a good beat for the lady of the stream, but she’ll be dealt with during the colder months of Winter, when euronymphing Will really be the most effective tool in the box to target these elegant game fish …….
Half nine came …. the wind had lost its puff and it had turned into a free for all on spent spinners, with also plenty of mayfly still about, although they were becoming casualties as the odd gust ended their party abruptly , as they were caught in the grasp of the evening river, their journey was quickly brought to an end in a splashy rise from the resident “eagle eyed” brown trout …… we caught more fish, and had twenty minutes really hectic sport ….. just good old fashioned fun with the simplest of kit, a long tapered leader, fine tippet and a tiny parachute dry …… superb fun ….. exactly what it’s all about ….. and although I’m an afficianado of small streams and mountain llyns, it’s been a while since I’ve dwelled and wet a line on the Wye, she was fun and serene and to be honest she didn’t let us down at all …… I’m kind of used to skulking and keyhole casting under trees on small secretive tributaries, but this was open, on a bigger scale and I hadn’t fished her since the middle of last year ….. I’ll be back very soon ….. a sublime evening with Tim being full of character, and a vibrant, passionate fly fisher who has made himself very much at home here, well certainly on the Wye …… good to see !!! A fantastic evening , we mooched back to the car at about tenish, still discussing tactics and techniques….. a sporting and varied fun few hours on one of the finest rivers in Wales, what more could you ask for…… happy days 🎣🎣🎣🏴🏴🏴
