Back on the Churnet with the Sheffield

Managed to get out on to the river for the first time in a while yesterday. I wanted to explore a new stretch of the Churnet at Alton on the Fenton and District ticket. I opted for the lower tree lined beat with Pugin's Alton Castle overlooking the lovely, the Rhineland of Staffordshire.

The Fenton and District ticket is amazing value at £38 per year and as well as this cracking stretch of river they also have loads of other waters for both game and coarse anglers including the Dove, the Trent and an array of carp pools.

It was also the first time I'd been out with my new reel, the Okuma Sheffield which I've been wanting to try for a while and I wasn't disappointed. I was able to control my float perfectly and even though the reel would begin to spin immediately after the cast, and continued to spin forever, I never got into one tangle which happened to me all too often with my old centrepin.

I trickled a few maggots in to the riffle in front of me and set my first drift. Bites were immediate and every cast saw me land or bump off a grayling. The Churnet is absolutely stuffed with grayling these days. When I started fishing in the 70s the river ran all the colours of the rainbow due to pollution from the now vanished dye works upstream in Leek. The clean water suits the grayling and they are back in abundance, along with a run of their relatives the salmon after a campaign of parr stocking by the Environment Agency.

We are so lucky in this part of the United Kingdom to have so much fishing available to us at very reasonable prices. This ticket is amazing value. A beautiful river full of fish in breathtaking scenery and still not another angler in sight.

Slainte

David

My Last Trip on the Wye until April......

I had quite a pleasant surprise yesterday on speaking with Mr Pointon. I had been under the impression that fishing on the Haddon Estate Wye for Grayling finished on the 1st of January when in fact the last day is the 6th so I managed to sneak in an extra morning's fishing. I checked the weather and all looked quite well for this time of year. I was up bright and early only to find that it had been snowing so wondered whether my extra trip would go ahead after all. Nonetheless I packed up the car filled one jeans pocket with pork pies the other with Quality Street, and made my way up the Buxton Road. All was not well as I drove over the tops, the road was covered in snow and I was sliding everywhere. I'd texted Jan the keeper early in the morning to see if it had snowed over Bakewell way and he'd replied that it hadn't, so I plodded on hoping that the weather hadn't changed.

As I got closer to Bakewell the weather improved vastly and as I parked up near to Caudwell's Mill I noticed that the air temperature was a good couple of degrees warmer than at home in Leek too. I got tackled up and made sure I'd got a few extra layers of clothes on. I hadn't fished since the beginning of December probably the longest I've gone without fishing in the last three years so I was hoping that a dip in confidence wouldn't affect things too much.

The going was tough. I visited all my dead cert spots and for a good couple of hours I didn't have a bite. What made it worse was that on bumping into Jan on the river bank he assured me that the river was fishing it's head off just a couple of days ago.....

I eventually managed a few small grayling but thought it might be time to head back up towards town, near to the pumping station to try some faster, shallower waters. I was soon into one or two fish, the best of which being the one in the pic above that came to a tiny pink shrimp on my top dropper...a beauty...

Farewell wonderful Wye....I look forward to fishing for the troots with the dry later on in the spring...

Slainte

David

Windy, Wet yet Wonderful Wiver Wye with JC

I get to meet up a couple of times a year with Johnny Colemans, usually, I tend to get called away from the fishing session early, or it's raining cats and dogs...the latter was the order of the day last Tuesday, along with a good gust of wind too....not nearly enough bad weather to put these two eager anglers off so it was an early meet up at the car park and on to the river by 10am.

I hadn't fished this stretch for a couple of weeks and it is amazing how long it can take to get your eye back in after being away for a wee whiley. I was getting dozens of takes....pretty furious ones too...but struggled to hook in to many of these angry Grayling. I reckon I managed to land a fish for every 6 takes I missed.

It was good to catch up with Johnny..he clearly needed a fix of the river after such a busy time at work with new jobs and at home with new children. He said he'd be happy just to be near the river to chill out a little. I knew that was code for he'd like to land a few ladies though....

We moved around a few favourite swims and had a good few fish between us, nothing huge but fantastic sport just the same....

Cheers for a great day JC....

Woody

Looking for the Lunking Ladies on the Wye

I was desperate to get out fishing again this week as I'm away in Scotland and then London with work for a good couple of weeks quite soon. Earlier in the week, Jan, one of the river keepers, very kindly showed me around one or two spots on this lovely Derbyshire river. I remember swearing every few yards or so as I came across fishy looking swims over and over again. Other anglers reading this will know exactly what I mean about Tourettes syndrome setting in as you round a bend and find a deep glide, or a fast riffle dropping into a deep trench, or rippled moving water that has fish written all over it. If you'd have heard me a couple of days ago, when first visiting this stretch of river, you'd have thought I'd turned into Glen Pointon, or worse still Roger Mellie (the man on the telly).

I put up a pic on the previous post of my first decent sized grayling of October on this particular river. Having seen the pic, one or two readers have given me a pound and a half for it...any advance on that? I'll certainly be wanting more than that for the lovely fish I caught early this afternoon which is shown in the two pics on this post.

I started out fairly early today. I got the car packed up even before the kids were up and ready for school. It was a cool and completely overcast morning and I thought it looked almost perfect for grayling fishing. There was a spot of rain in the air and at first, I had a job to get organised and my OCD started to kick in when I realised that, because of the low air temperature and the threat of rain, I may have to wear a coat. Those that have fished with me know how my head goes if everything isn't just how it ought to be....

And so I made my way down the river, trying desperately to remember all of the spots that I'd fished a few days ago and where Jan had pointed out features, swims and runs to me. Once again I was completely taken aback by the beauty of the place, the river and the whole valley really. It reminds me so much of Pitlochry in the Highlands, you're never far away from a dipping dipper, a fleeting kingfisher or the eerie scream of a buzzard above the trees. There's many a spot that wouldn't be out of place in a Turner. The banks are a pleasure to fish, yes it can be a challenge to the angler to get the right cast in without wading, but all the more rewarding when the take comes and a fish ends up in the net. I've found that, even with my 10ft 4wt Streamflex, it's nearly always possible to make that cast whenever, and wherever you want to.

I was taking fish all the way down the stretch and once at the end, I sat down and tucked into my lunch and took in the surroundings once more. I had a leisurely stroll back and had a particular spot in mind. I'd fished it in the morning and dropped a couple of fish but was sure that it was holding a good few more. I'd got an hour before I was to leave in time for the school run so I had enough time to get a few casts in before heading off back to the car. I was dropping fish again and was getting a little frustrating and started to think about my last cast. This time I'd cast just that little bit further, and nearer to an overhanging branch. No sooner had the drift began than the tip of the line shot away and a good fish was on. I new it was a decent fish immediately and I was desperate not to drop this one as I knew it would be a perfect end to the day.

After a decent scrap, this lovely fish came to the net. It had taken the point fly which I was surprised by given that almost all of the others had taken the dropper.

Another superb day's fishing on the Wye. I'm hoping the grayling just keep getting bigger and bigger....

David

A Few Fine Autumnal Hours on the Wye with Pointon....

Enjoyed a few hours on the Wye with Glen yesterday. I called round to Pointon Palace at around 2pm to find him collapsed in his living room with piles of paper all over the floor along with an upturned child's size desk and chairs. A used, and unemptied potty sat in the corner and it basically looked very much as if he'd been burgled by angry toddlers. Amongst the debris and empty Benson & Hedges packs was one Tarquin Pointon who I'd clearly woken up when I knocked on the door. He swore at me in his strongest Liverpudlian accent, asked me what time of day it was, I think, swore at me again and slowly began to get his act together to eventually leave the house and get off to do some fishing....

Things must be on the up for 'The Vital Spark'  because the first thing I noticed was that the space on the drive that is usually occupied by the knackered old VW van was now occupied by a snazzy looking Porsche Cayenne.....and so, this turned out to be our choice of transport for the day. I half expected to find a tray or two of Ferrero Rocher and a bottle or two of Asti Spumante on the back seat to accompany our arrrfternun fa*king tea.

And so, it was on to the river with a couple of hours of day light to spare and Pointon was straight into the Grayling. The fish were hammering the dry fly and great sport was had for the rest of the day. The rivers in Derbyshire and Staffordshire have benefited from the much needed rainfall that we've had in the last couple of weeks and now that the warmer weather has returned, the fly life has gone bonkers with the many hatches that are coming off during the day. On the last day of the season I had one of those mental days at Dovedale where hungry fish are rising everywhere and nailing every fly that they can in preparation for the winter to come. Many of the bigger brownies came out to play, each taking olive patterns and sedges.

The pic below shows Glen's biggest fish of the afternoon session. I don't know why he has got the expression on his face but he went down hill after that, he gets tired in the early evening, and so It was time to get him back in to the Porsche and back to the sheltered accommodation.

On the way back, Glen and I agreed that we'd had a fine afternoon and that we'd enjoyed travelling in style in the Porsche....but, at the end of the day..it was no LDV.....

Woody

Fine Grayling Sport at Eaton Dovedale Farm

Had a trip out to Eaton Dovedale last night after Brian tipped me off that he'd had a great day's fishing there a couple of days ago.

The Dove upstream has struggled of late with the water levels being so low. Also, whilst day time temperatures have increased since the weekend, night time temperatures are much cooler, and so, when I was deciding where to spend my evening's fishing, I opted not to go to Dovedale as I knew that temperatures would drop quite quickly as the sun dropped behind the valley tops. And so, It was off to the Dove at Eaton Dovedale where the flood plain is wide and where I'd have the benefit of the warmth of the sun for just that little while longer, and hopefully, there would be a few rises.

I called in at Ellastone on the way and had a quick look over the bridge. First thing that was evident was the herd of stirks that had given chase to Brian a couple of weeks ago, and second was that there were quite a few rises along the margins of the Dove. I decided to leave it for today and stick to my original plan....that way I'd avoid an encounter with the playful stirks!

And so I tackled up at the car park at Eaton Dovedale and kept a look out for a rise or two. Most of the fish that were showing seemed to be tiny but there were a couple of more promising rises under the far bank so I walked down stream a little, quietly got into the river and slowly made my way up towards them. The most noticeable rise was of the head, tail, fin variety and so, having tied on rather large, Griffiths Gnat that I had liberated from an unsuspecting angler on the Wye on Monday, and made a cast to it. Initially, I didn't feel too confident about attracting a take as recently, I stupidly made the decision to try a different type of mud for my tippet, moving away from my usual choice from Orvis. This newly purchased mud refuses to sink my tippet, no matter how much time I spend smoothing it along my tippet, and no matter how much of the damn stuff I choose to apply. (Email me if you would like to know the brand of this mud that could easily be substituted for Gink!).

Anyway, back to the head, fin, tail rising fish. I cast about 3 feet in front of it, and within a second or two there was a splash, and the fish was on...a good sized Grayling to my surprise. I'm sure that this was the fish that was rising. Do Grayling rise like that or did it just happen to be sitting beside a rising trout before it walloped my Griffiths Gnat?

I took another Grayling and a Salmon parr, and all went quiet...well...on the fishing front that is...I could soon hear an old van rattling it's way down the lane, accompanied by the sound of "Wwwooodddyyy!", shattering the still evening air. "Wwwooodddddyyyy!". A white van sat on the bridge, it's 3 occupants overlooking the river. "Glen Pointon Electrical Contractors" emblazoned on the side in a broad potteries accent. "Wwwwoooddddyyyy!"

Glen arrived with his girls. He'd promised to take them to see Wwwoodddyyyy catch a fish as they'd never seen one caught before, and so, the pressure was really on and the fish had stopped rising. So we decided to move upstream of the Derby Railway Angling Club stretch and fish the water upstream of the bridge which belongs to Leek and Moorlands Fishing Club. Very few people fish this lovely stretch of water and the banks are very overgrown but, once in the river, you can wade the whole stretch.

Pointon persuaded me to fish with nymphs and what a method this proved to be in the absence of any rises. I began wading slowly up the river running the nymphs through slowly and started to take fish after fish. Loads of Grayling of various sizes and the pick of the bunch, a lovely little Chub that was an absolute delight to catch. I was please to see the Chub as years ago I fished under the far bank here with a swim feeder full of maggots and corn on a size 16 and one day had 5 large Chub in as many minutes, one of my all time best angling moments, what beautiful fish and what a scrap they give.

Anyway, another fab short fishing session...with loads of fish...where to tonight Pointon?

WWwwwooodddyyyyy!!

There's Gould In Them There Hills.....

Ian Gould's first visit to the beautiful Wye in Bakewell and the tourist board marks the occasion with a specially commissioned balloon.




Bank holiday Monday the 30th August had been a long time coming. I'd booked onto Derbyshire's unbeatable river Wye along with Ian Gould of Errwood Fly Fishing Club. Ian enjoys reservoir fly fishing, and the occasional river fishing and really fancied landing a large Wye Grayling.

From the early hours of Saturday morning right up until lunch time, we'd had heavy downpours in Leek and I wondered what the weather would be like in the hills above us. Those very hills that supplied our destination with its waters. One or two anxious texts between Ian and I resulted in me piling the kids into the van to speed off towards Bakewell to check out the conditions. I needn't have bothered, the river looked perfect, and as long as we didn't have too much more rain, all would be fine as long as the wind dropped.

And so, at 10am Ian was collected from Buxton and we made our way towards Bakewell, very much looking forward to an incredibly large breakfast to see us through the day. I'd forgotten the fact that it was bank holiday and basically, every parking space in Bakewell was spoken for so we'd collect our tickets and start fishing early instead.

Ian had set himself a target early on. As long as he went home having caught 1 of each of the native, Grayling, Brown and Rainbow Trout, he would be a very happy man indeed, and he was soon off to a perfect start with this wee Rainbow.

What started as a chilly start, soon turned much warmer and I was glad that I hadn't bothered with my waders or jacket. There was loads of fly life and plenty of rises to be seen but during the day, it was smaller fish that we seemed to be attracting to our tiny flies. Griffiths Gnat and Grey Dusters seemed to do the job with the LTD putting in a rare, and certainly the first for me...wait for it...blank! Maybe it's time for a new LTD Pointon....the fish have seen it too many times! :-)

During the evening we made our way towards the town and enjoyed quite a few small Grayling to our tiny flies. The town centre had been incredibly busy during the day and unfortunately, the lunkers were not particularly hungry, in fact, they were that full they'd gone off to bed early. Despite this though, Ian managed a lovely, touching 3lb Brownie which was a classic end to the evening.

Ian and I had a great day, and Ian's aim of 1 of each of the native Grayling, Rainbow and Brown Trout was achieved. Come on Ian...get on the Wye on the 12th September!

Thanks to Richard W for spending time with us explaining the spinner fall and indeed providing us with a couple of his own patterns for the evening rise.

We finished up chatting with Dave and Jan besides the Wye in the town centre and I thought it was a good time to fetch out this week's mystery dram from the van......a lovely single cask, single grain whisky, 40 year old Invergordon, which was about the same colour as the sunset reflected on the river in the pic above...good health!

Slainte

David

The Wonderful Wye (Glen Pointon appears courtesy of Forrero Rocher and Cucumber Sandwiches With The Corners Cut Off)

Just a short post to say thanks to The Peacock Hotel for another absolutely wicked day on the wonderful river Wye. I say short because our host for the day, none other than Glen Pointon seems to have stolen my thunder on his blog as usual. So i've poached some of his pics from his photobucket site to get my own back.

It's good to see that he has settled in at The Peacock. When I arrived at 11.30am on Sunday Morning I thought that I had made it before the others because it was so quiet, in fact, I walked straight past Pointon, I couldn't see him, so well did he blend in to his new surroundings.

When I eventually spotted him, after being called over by Commo, I thought I was hallucinating. Sat there, quietly tying his flies for the day to come, sipping Twinnings English Breakfast tea from fine bone china, his little finger pointing towards the ceiling as he occasionally raised the cup, was none other than Pointon, Lord Rocher himself.

"Hi Woody", he says, "come and join us".

I think that those are the most words I've ever heard Glen say without him swearing. Look back at all the posts I have written on this blog over the last year or so that involve Glen. In almost every case, in the first paragraph there will be a mention of an unfeasibly large breakfast, not today....just the tea and a nice, wafer thin biscuit would suffice.

At just after 12 noon, Johnny arrived, and I'm sure he to was in a state of utter shock to see the "Stoke on Trent One" so at home in his new habitat.

We decided to make a move and it was down to Caudwell's Mill to go look for a few rising Grayling. Commo had a nice wee wild Rainbow Trout early on and Johnny managed a Grayling.

We walked upstream a little and found a few fish rising under a tree on the far bank and Commo and I were given the task of casting at them, under the watchful eyes of Johnny and Pointon, the latter, now away from the posh surroundings, slipping in to his Liverpudlian accent, and hurling abuse at us for casting too short, casting too far, casting into trees, and generally cocking it up...but a nice wee Grayling was managed eventually.

We had a drive up to town and Glen showed us around the river. We knew there wasn't really any point in fishing too hard for the 2 or 3 hours to come as there was very little happening. The fish were not moving, there were no hatches, and energy would need to be conserved for the inevitable burst of activity in the evening to come. So for a couple of very well spent hours, we took our time examining the pools and riffles for a later date.

At about 4pm, we were slowly walking along the riverside path in Scots Garden, and Glen went all weird again. He stopped and turned to us, dismantled 9ft 4wt Streamflex in one arm, Port Vale FC emblazoned on the other, and suggested that we might "return to the Peacock for arrrrftarnun tea".

Johnny, Commo and me just looked at one another. There was nothing to be said really so we motored back to where we started and made our way into the lounge where refreshments would be served, Pointon having arranged for them previously.

Five minutes later, in the lounge, sitting dangerously comfortably in our chairs, were were served with more English Breakfast Tea, but this time, it was accompanied with homemade crumpets and lashings of strawberry jam.........I know.

Later on we'd head to the town centre and witness huge fish rising everywhere. Johnny had 2 or 3 cracking wild Rainbows and I a personal best (wild) Rainbow of just under 4lb and a Grayling of just under 2. Both to Glen's LTD sedge.

A cracking day's fishing in the great company of Commo, Johnny C, and Glen. Thanks to the Peacock and the river keeping team...

Woody

John Tyzack Masterclass Re-unites Pointon and Peter "Pollock"

Sunday 28th March 2010. Glen Pointon and John Tyzack had got their heads together to organise the first JT Masterclass of the Trout Season. We'd had plenty of rain over the previous days but the river Dove had settled back into good conditions, slightly up with the slightest hint of colour. I was to join the boys for lunch at the boards and transport them back to their cars at Dovedale at the end of the day. And so, at about 12 noon, I found the lads in fine form, I could here the laughter, swearing and potteries slang not long after leaving the lovely little village of Milldale.

Glen had got in touch with our old friend Peter "Pollock". Peter had joined us on our trip to Islay in September 2009, where he'd treated us to his culinary delights and also showed us a thing or two about angling. We discovered early on that he was very good at rock fishing for Pollock...and so we thought we were quite original by giving him the affectionate nickname of "Pollock". Anyway, it was clear that they were over the moon about being reunited, Glen not being able to conceal his feelings!

Glen was ready to provide the humourous anecdotes while all enjoyed their coffee. The story of the day was "Pointon's Peephole" much to the merriment of rest of the group. Please contact Glen if you have any questions about it as I am not prepared to repeat it's contents here.

The Masterclass 

(From Left to right)

Ads Booth, Guy (Orvisfan), Peter Pollock, Pointon, Wesser, and Tyzack. Brian was elsewhere at the time.

I can't remember  taking this pic but the content is, nevertheless, quite funny. I think Pointon had been responsible for the first round of coffees and bacon. You only need to look at what he appears to be doing at the back of the pic, and Brian's body language, to understand that something hadn't been cooked properly! I think he may have been "looking for Hughy".

Pointon had other problems too. He'd managed to loose both his wading belt and his shoulder straps for his waders. Consequently, they were being held up by his gut alone. This, many remarked, gave him the appearance of a small child with a very full nappy.

During the morning session, Tyzack had been giving the lads group tuition and all were talking about the great amount of benefit they had gained from this. All were eager to put their new skills into practice and between them, they had managed a few fish. Brian, unfortunately, had an accident with his Sage rod, and so, we had a quick swap around of rods and I decided to confine my fishing for the day to an evening session at Dovedale.

The afternoon was enjoyed at quite a leasurely pace. John spent a while with each member of the group, guiding, advising and consolodating their learning from the morning sessions.

Brian showed us how to keep cool whilst angling under extreme pressure, whilst being watched closely by 5 or 6 fellow fisherman, one of which, quite literally, fishes for England.

Pointon, usually famed for looking at the fish and not the camera, looks at the camera and not at the fish.
Over the last 3 or 4 months, every other word he has spoken has been "Grayling". He even looks a bit odd holding a trout!

David

Conditions and Tree Work at Milldale

Had a couple of hours at Milldale this morning and it was great to be fishing in the sun for a change. At the top end of the LADFFA stretch there were no fish to be seen. The river was absolutely gin clear and I knew it was going to be another tough day's fishing at the back end of the Grayling season.

It was interesting to see the lads at work on the tree management. The work has opened up one or two new swims where previously a cast would have been extremely tricky. I was quite amazed at the amount of work that had been completed at the Milldale end of our stretch compared to what I saw a couple of days ago at Dovedale.

Conditions were incredibly difficult, in my experience, you need a little more colour in order to catch a few fish.

I did manage a couple of small fish but they were very hard to find. The only place that I saw fish was around Ilam rock and these were all trout that were frantically feeding. I paused for a bite to eat on the footbridge and tucked into a pork pie, I was amazed when a large trout smashed at a flake of pastry that I had accidentally dropped.

It was a joy to be fishing with my 6 foot glass rod and I think it will by my choice of rod for Dovedale and Milldale in the season to come.

Hard Day on The Severn Produces Pointon's PB

It had been 3 weeks since my last fishing outing, 3 weeks since one of my best fish producing sessions since I decided to take up fly fishing a couple of years ago. I was looking forward to getting out and Glen and I had arranged to meet up with John Tyzack and Roger Bryant for a return visit to the fantastic Upper Severn....and what a day of contrasts it would turn out to be.



I'd set my alarm for 6am with the responsibility of providing Mr Pointon with his alarm call. On the 5th call, I'd managed to awake him from his slumber and by 6.40am, he'd picked me up and the van was pointing towards Wales, well, sort of once Glen had negotiated a dubious detour around Stoke. After a huge breakfast (as ever) we arrived at the bridge pool on the river where we'd fared so well on our previous visit, the colour of the water being the first obvious difference, it was green.

There were no fish to be seen, and after a fruitless half hour, we decided to make our way upstream, having been given a little more info by local anglers as to where we might find a lunker lady or two.

The fishing was incredibly hard but Glen managed to find a good fish in some fast, shallow water.


This lovely Grayling of 2lb 4oz gave our well spoken angler friend a right scrap, and we shouted encouragement and abuse at him as he tried to land it. All of us green with envy at his success...Roger and I steadily closing in on him, desperate to poach his swim.

Within minutes though Glen had found the big Grayling's partner, and so he landed another, slightly smaller but beautiful fish of just under the 2lb mark.

Both John and Roger landed a few, smaller fish between them, but all agreed that the fishing was incredibly tough, especially me, given the fact that I was coming to terms with the fact that it was looking incredibly likely that today, I'd be on a dreaded blank.

Tyzack, determined as ever, skillfully endeavoured to reach the parts that other anglers cannot reach with fantastic technique, exploring rarely fished swims that must have held fish, but still, there were very few takes.


We spoke to a few of the local anglers about the tough conditions and the common theme seemed to be that freezing cold water had been released from Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, further upstream, and this had killed the fishing, the previous days angling also proving to be relatively tough.

We'd walked miles and taken very few fish, but it was great to be out with the lads and encouraging to see the first tell tale signs of spring being just around the corner, you could smell it in the air.

As ever, Pointon provided the laughter, reeling off, new, unrepeatable stories that had us all in tears. The fishing had tested us to the limit and we were even reduced to having a stone skimming competition, Pointon clearly embarrassed by the skill shown by myself and Tyzack, both of us producing skims of 10 bounces or more to his pathetic 2 or 3 bounces.

But...he caught a couple of lovely lunkers, and I blanked.

Well done Pointon....you ****

David

The Upper Severn, Angling Heaven

Our local rivers were out of sorts this weekend, well, most of them anyway. Glen and I did think of going up to Dovedale or Milldale but we knew that, these being the most likely to be producing fish, there would be a fair few other anglers about, and there are only so many pools holding Grayling there to got at.

And so we mulled it over...over and over, Dovedale or Milldale or somewhere new? Would it be too far to go? Would there be too many other anglers there? What would the river be like? Would the conditions be good? Would it be worth the 2 hour journey at each end of the day?

Within two minutes, and two casts of reaching the Upper Severn, near Caersws in Powys, that last question was answered when I landed my first Grayling, and a cracking fish it was too.

Glen had picked me up at around 6.30am, we stopped for Bacon and Sausage baps on the way, and by 9am, we'd purchased our day tickets from the Spar shop in Caersws, tackled up and were ready to make our first casts. It was a little daunting at first, wondering where to start on this large river. Glen had been given one or two tips by the Bailiff and he'd told us a likely spot to get one or two fish under our belts to give us a little confidence for the rest of the day.

On arriving at the first pool, we instantly started to spot fish, the water being crystal clear. We soon found that these visible fish would not be playing ball, as they paid no attention to our nymphs whatsoever, and so we moved a little further downstream.

Glen started to take fish on his point fly, a JT Flashback, on a 3 fly Czech Nymph rig. I was also taking fish on the JT Flashback but on a duo rig. Both methods fished well. Glen and I both had fish to 1lb 8oz and by the end of the day, we'd managed about 35 fish between us.

We really enjoyed fishing the Upper Severn and will definitely be returning to this beautiful spot. It's certainly up there with the best rivers that I have ever fished. The water was gin clear, the wading was relatively easy, the river bed being largely free from bolders, branches, roots and other obstacles. Best of all, the fishing was ace, even the small Grayling of about 3/4 lb put up a huge fight, which was great sport on our light tackle.


We may be taking the 7 seater Wine Shop van next time so anyone who fancies joining us, leave me a comment.


David