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

Deadly Duo Does for the Dovedale Ladies

Only 7 weeks to go boys....until the 2010 Trout season and this angler cannot wait. Armed to the teeth with a new range of fly rods to suit all waters and conditions, I'm itching to be back on the dry fly, and judging by yesterday's fishing, I won't have to wait too long.

Fellow blogger, Matt Carr and I met at the bridge at Ellastone at 9.30am, intending to spend a few hours there. I was a little blurry eyed after a late night, having hosted a whisky tasting in Coventry the night before. I was looking to pleasure fish. We got into the fast water at the top of the DRAC stretch, but it was to high for me, and although we were getting the odd take, I asked Matt if he wouldn't mind if we headed off to Dovedale. He didn't, so we did.

Conditions at Dovedale were as I had expected them to be, so rarely does it disappoint. I'd say about 1/2 foot up and carrying a slight milky tinge. Pretty good conditions.

I noticed that there were more fish moving about than there has been in the last few weeks and the dippers were hard at work, leaping from overhanging branches and returning a few seconds later with their prey.

I started to catch fish in the slow pool up above what I call "Island Pool", above the pool with the smaller Island pool, "Wee Island Pool", above "Nursery Pool". I'm pretty sure LADFFA lads will know what the hell I'm talking about..but still, I feel a map coming on, anyone with suggestions of pool or particular stretch names, please supply by leaving a comment.

I'd decided to fish using the duo setup a la Fly Forums Mr Fishcake, surely the Jedi of that practice, and sure enough, in combination with my trusty, and quickly becoming favourite, Streamflex 6ft 6" 3wt, I was taking fish, and a few nice ones at that. My only disappointment was that I hooked into a lunker of a Grayling above Ilam Rock, saw the fish, but dropped it, missing the chance of an amazing end to a good days fishing. I also had a trout slashing at my indicator fly....maybe another sign that the season is not far away!

We had fished all the way up to Ilam Rock but fishing was harder up in the mid sections of the LADFFA stretch, but that said, It was good to catch up with Matt and a pleasure to be strolling along in these beautiful surroundings.

David