The weather has been pretty pants down here in Wales since we arrived, with a lot of rain Friday and Saturday bringing the River Dee up to around a metre on the gauge initially then on Saturday turning it chocolate brown.
The River Dee- very coloured and high taken from the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
It was no surprise then when Hywel called Sunday to say there was no chance we would be out on the Dee, Monday but that the Severn, some 40 miles to the south was looking OK.
This wasn’t a problem as I like to try different places anyway though to the fly angler, the Severn isn’t somewhere that immediately stands out.
Caersws Bound
James and I left at 8:20 to meet with Hywel at Caersws (Pronounced as best I can tell- “Care-Soos”) thinking this would get us there easily for the 09:30 rendezvous.
The drive down was painfully slow and frustrating with heavy trucks, JCB’s and roadwork’s, all compounded with increasingly heavy rain. We reached Newtown and were already late, so called ahead- only 4 miles- no more than 10 mins away. 20 Mins later we eventually arrived having negotiated the traffic light gridlock nightmare of Newtown.
The river looked great though the rain was incessant and that penetrating heavy drizzle that drenches you.
Thankfully it eased and most of the morning was not too bad though a downstream wind was a bit difficult. Hywel took James down to a nice looking run and started on dry fly and nymph NZ style, while I set up a French leader and three heavy-ish bugs a tried a faster deeper run below.
Early riser
Before I was even set up James had risen and missed 2 or 3 fish!
It wasn’t long when I started to get some action myself. As the bugs swung round and up on my French Leader and I started to lift I thought I spotted a swirl- or was it just the water vortexing round some rocks? I put the fly in there again, nothing, then once more, this time a take, and a lovely wee summer Grayling of about 25 cms was landed on a pheasant tail nymph.
Success for the young crew
As I carried on down this run I had several more swirls sort of “on the hang” (if there is such a concept when short line nymphing) just before I lifted off and all it seemed, to the PTN. A second fish was hooked, a small Brown Trout again on the PTN. I was spotting a few rises and felt a dry set up might be better so popped up to see how James and Hywel were doing. James had had a couple of fish and Hywel a few too just by way of demo to James! James though was beaming from ear to ear having landed his first fish on the trip and his first ever Grayling. They were rising them on the Dry but hooking them on the nymphs.
In to the Grayling on dries
It seemed to take me ages to change over but I went back and fished the same run on a bushy Klinkhammer with a PTN tied below.
I rose a lot of fish to the PTN as it lifted at the end of the dead drift but I managed to hook 3 fish down the run and round the corner all on the downstream dry, all nice wee Grayling.
A quality Severn Grayling on the downstream dry fly in the rain
I decided to fish the slower water round the bend and rose a few before I got a solid take. It did not seem a lot bigger from the rise than any previous fish but then as I played it into the slacker water I realised this was a seriously good sized fish of about a pound and a half or so. Probably my third best ever Grayling. I was chuffed to net it. Unhooked and showing it to Hywel and James some distance away I managed to unceremoniously let it slip through my fingers and it was away!
More success for James
Just then James caught his 4th on the French Leader this time.
We decided to relocate but the move proved problematic as the water upstream was a brown green soup and the rain was persistent, maybe we were going to be blown out.
We went back to the original location and decided to fish near a bridge this time.
Lucky 7
James and Hywel fished near the bridge while I went down stream, the wading was easy and I was soon into my 7th Grayling on a dry. The rain was horrible and after fishing a fair way down with little action I went back to have a break at the bridge. James had lost a nice brown but not landed any more- but he was enjoying the lessons with Hywel and having fun. The rain meanwhile was incessant now and we were well soaking, but happy.
Hywel Morgan with James on the Severn
While I was sitting I seen a fish rise over by some trees and decided to have a go again over there once I was rested. I waded out a little upstream of my previous entry where it was fairly shallow ( knee deep) and followed down to near the tree but the water was getting deeper here and I could not get near where the fish had risen. I was waist deep- about as deep as I wanted to venture so decided to head back towards the bank and try finding some shallower water to approach from.
Maybe not so lucky!
My wading stick which was comfortably above water suddenly wasn’t and in fact I could feel I was getting deeper way faster than was wise. Suddenly I could feel the buoyancy of my vest and jacket felt like it was lifting me and I could not get any purchase on the gravel bottom- oh no! I was off! My feet lifted and I lost all traction- I was suddenly half swimming with the river drenching the previously dry bits. Almost as soon as it had started I was over the shallow water which could not have been more than 10 feet away and I regained my footing- but too late- I was “drookit”, waders filled with water (though the wading belt was a great help) but worse than my dented pride, my iphone and sons camera inside my “waterproof pouch “ in my waders were both drowned. Duh.
It was near enough the end of the day anyway but I felt a right numb nuts. Thanks though to Hywel for showing us a new location and in particular seeing that James had a great and memorable day. We had a great time, 11 fish between us and a lot of memories.
