River Wye

Another great day on the River Wye at Monseldale. It started great as Martin had a nice small brownie within the first 10 minutes. However the fish were not really on. There were Mayfly hatching most of the day but there were not that many fish rising. Most of the fish caught were on dry mayfly but they seemed to come on in short spells and the luck wasn't with me today as when they were on i was looking at flies, butterflies, birds, aquatic insects or appreciating the wonderful place - never mind a great place to be!

My last national to organise

This was my last National to organise as i handed over to Dave Mynors to take it up going forward and one i didn't particularly enjoy as the weather wasn't great, the fishing wasn't great and i seem to be doing it for others now not myself. Never the less the 24 anglers caught 38 fish in a cold wind when the fish had switched off the feed which meant it was an open match where the result would be decided by consistency of the team fishing which can't be a bad thing. Also rather than deciding the result by weight of everyone bagging up, this was down to numbers. The South team won on the day with 13 fish for 28lbs and Barclaycard 2nd with 7 fish for 19lbs 7. Simon Summers too the best individual bag with 4 fish for 11lbs 1 and in the prizes again was late entrant Mike Philpott with the bast fish a 3lbs 12 Rainbow. I managed a couple of excellent trout both over 3 lbs and also a cracking perch at least over 2 maybe more, fought great.

Geoff Bailey Trophy

It was the Barclays vs BOS Fly fishing match this week and the Scotts managed to win a great fought contest.

Practice day was a lovely day on the lake without the expected rain and midway through the afternoon they switched on and Mike and i had a few fish at Loch End. They didn't seem to want to take the naturals much although there were a few buzzer coming off and also, strangely what seemed to be small blue bottles, although i can only think that the water levels had come up.

Competition day was really enjoyable with Stevie Nichol and we settled into two boobies and a cormorant on a Slow Glass or Midge tip. There were loads of follows and rises and it was a great challenge for us to convert them. The gale force winds predicted seem to miss us slightly although it was high winds and gusty. The rain fell though all afternoon but we kept picking up fish to lift the spirits. Stevie fished well and beat me 10-8 but between us it was enough to win the best boat of the day and the Geoff Bailey Trophy.

The Sun

Phil and I headed back to the River this weekend and started on the Berwen beat. The levels had come down, there was clarity in the water and with a few fish rising well it was looking good. A few casts in i had a small Salmon parr to get going.

Phil soon got in his stride through.

..and was picking off the best of the Grayling with this one of about 12ozs.

Although i had my share as well

The second day we decided to try a new Beat for us The Sun Beat. We started on the meadows but a poor description as there were loads of trees lining the bank. Although once you got in the water it opened up and we had some great sport.

It was glorious weather with the sun shining no stop which made the hills and scenery look absolutely fabulous. Especially from the Sun at Trevor where we had a relaxing beer before heading home.

Big deer Hair fly

Had a lovely day on the River wye today watching trout taking lots of mayfly as they hatched and as they floated downstream. You just forget how big these flies are. It was Martins first time but he had 5 great fish that came to a big deer hair contraption. It was just big and bushy and what the fish wanted.

Seaumas and Phil had a few too. Phil made friends with the cows who stood in the river with him most of the day.

I managed 4 fish that all came to the Grey Woolf. They were taking happily in the morning but when the hatch got bigger i was left with lots of takes but no fish. My best was a lovely big headed slim brownie maybe a pound and a half but could be 2 and a half if he keeps eating those mayflies.

Draycote flat calm

This years Barclays National was on draycote again and the reports were that it wasn't fishing that week. On practice day there was a bright sunshine and a cold wind which kept the fish down. The surface of the water was littered with buzzer shucks so the fish my have had a good feed last night. John Clarke was my boat partner and we had a good day motoring around looking for the best spots. Toft shallows was doing well and it appeared that the better fish were held there. On competition day Paul Ravenscroft and i headed straight there and were surprised that not many boats had followed us. We started well and had 4 fish in the first hour. They were not as big as yesterday so we decided to go searching out in the middle one the shoals for some better fish. There was a little more cloud today but mostly flat calm. The fish however were moving but we struggled to find anything they wanted.

After a few hours of that we moved to near the boat dock were there were quite a few fish rising nearer the bank. paul found the method with a team of buzzers cast at a rising fishing, pulled then left static resulting in some vicious takes. My leader was a bit long and i was fishing a bit but after Paul had his limit i borrowed his rod and finished off. Good teamwork! They were only smaller fish though and the winning team was Clearing Services who had found the bigger fish on Hensborough Bank. Vernon Beak had 4 for 9.4 an Dave Rumball 4 for 9.2

Grayling on the Dee

A nice easy drive from Cheshire across to Llangollen this morning got me in a relaxed mood. As we started fishing though it seemed as though it was going to be tough with no fish rising. I managed to tempt this lovely Grayling on a black klink. As is usual it took out of the blue as i was watching 3 canoes come past politely on the far bank. I did think that they might have pushed the fish over to my side and was hoping a few more would come down.

Phil was having the best of the fishing though and persevered to land a few including this nice one.

There was still not much moving and the river was running high making wading difficult. I was struggling to get across to the middle where the better fish seemed to be so i decided to stay on the bank and keep moving along the beat. I changed to a ballon caddis as there were a few about being blown out of the bushes. I managed 4 small grayling from the currents off the reeds and bushes close to the edge. They were not big but very entertaining. After meeting a few for Phil i went back and as i knew what i was doing this time i managed 6 including a brownie on the last day of the season. A great finish to the year for me.