Thanks to a mixture of rain and snow over the last month, and also my right foot deciding it was going to try and tear all of its ligaments last month, fishing has been a strange and distant memory. On every occasion since Christmas where I’ve felt a fishing trip may be possible, the heavens have remind me just who’s boss, or I’ll attempt to put too much weight on my foot and end up on the floor, wincing in pain like a little sissy girl. Needless to say, January 2010 has been hopeless.

I was determined to fish over this past weekend, and I didn’t care if I had to endure more rain than Noah, it was happening. So screw you foot, and screw you bad weather!

The mighty Bill had arranged a small shindig on the upper river Wye, and at one of my favourite spots on the river. The river Wye at this upland location sees it’s freestone waters tumble between truly huge boulders, over slab stone, and below gigantic sheer cliff faces. This is the upper Wye, and the environment here offers the angler quite a harsh terrain, but it’s worth the hard work. Images of a hobbling, limping old man came to mind the night before as I began to contemplate navigating the harsher-than-normal banks/riverbed with a still-bruised foot.

On opening the door on Saturday morning, however, I was presented with a Christmas postcard scene, white, snowy, and very cold. Great. The previous night’s ’sneaky’ snowfall and frost meant that a lot of the roads had closed, and as such, Bill, Mostyn, and the English visitors Bill had arranged to meet up with were all unable to make it. Word from the Merthyr Contingent sounded like they were going to wait and head up when it got a little warmer…looked like I was just going to brave it alone for a while.

After purchasing a ticket, I headed a little further north and to the usual parking spot (which was covered in snow on this occasion) and walked to the river to see what the conditions were like before tackling up. As any other visitor to this section of river will tell you, it’s a beautiful and hidden gem.

An hour later and I’d been fishing hard, and without any fish, but it was more a case of finding a shoal than it being a day of catching grayling after grayling. Conditions were perfect, and an image of what a winters day fishing for grayling should be; blue skies, snow covered banks, leaves crunching underfoot, icey cold waters, and annoyingly, frozen rod rings.

Nymphing was the method of the day, but due to the (generally) low and very clear water conditions, fishing at distance was required, and specifically, in the high sticking format.

At around 11:00am I was greeted by the fantastic sight of nearly 20 canoes paddling downstream. Even though the Wye & Usk Foundation’s sign just upstream at the first launch spot clearly stated “You may not canoe at any time when the water level at Rhadyr is below the red line”…yes, you’ve guessed it, the water was levels were below said line, approximately 1′ below the red line in fact. Sure, during the Welsh Assembly’s ‘Inquiry into access to inland waters’ Evidence Sessions there has been so-called ’scientific evidence’ submitted that ‘factually’ stated that fish are not disturbed by canoes; strange then, from my years on the water, how an angler/walker/CANOEIST can screw the fishing in a huge section of river. My rant’s over now, but they shouldn’t have been there.

Anyway, back to the fishing.

Eventually, I did hit into a fish, albeit a trout (a rather beautiful 16″s of out-of-season trout), but a trout nonetheless; and not a grayling.

Moving consistently up stream, I eventually bumped into Phil and Mark who had, true to their word, made it to the Wye as the conditions had warmed up, and the roads had re-opened. We fished and chatted together for the next hour and a bit, until deciding to pack it in for the day.

Back at the car, and after having shared a coffee with Phil and Mark, I realised how much I’d missed the fishing during January…and how many flies I’d tied during my forced abstinence. The one fish I’d caught during the day, and the sites seen, however, more than made up for it (well, nearly). But there will be more fishing to come…eventually. We just have to hope that the snow-which-has-now-turned-rain clears soon.

See you all soon.

A few more images from the day…

Grannom

Sparkle Chironomid

Another weekend where I’m unable to get to the river. The foot is now nearly healed, however, due to the snow melt and after some heavy rain a few evenings ago, the river is in full spate. So, what to do…it’s time for a few midges.

I saw Modern Midges (by Rick Takahashi & Jerry Hubka, Headwater Books, ISBN: 1934753009) first advertised at 2009’s BFFI, and to be honest, had only heard murmurs throughout the internet’s small fly enthusiasts. It was only when Andy over at Small Fly Funk mentioned it further during an email conversation, and after he’d written a fantastic review, did I really sit up and take notice.

Andy’s review will do a far better job than I’m able to provide, so I’ll leave it to the small-fly master to lead the way, however, what I will say, is that Modern Midges offers the small fly tier a huge knowledge-base and reference styled book. Via outstanding step-by-steps, a truly incredible amount of detailed patterns, and via tying instructions and a little theory, this book is a winner. If you’re into the small stuff (and along with Ed Engle’s pinoeering small fly books) Modern Midges is another invaluable resource.

The step-by-steps in Modern Midges are detailed and precise, just like the standard of both tying and writing.

The scope and range of patterns, as well as their tying instructions and ingredients is incredible.

Anyway, back to the tying…where was I? Ah yes…midge clusters.

Mating midges attach themselves to each other during their ‘action’ stage and form a mess of tiny bodies and fragile wings.

Double Badger (variant)

 
A great pattern to use when fish are sipping this form of midgey mess is the Griffith’s Gnat, however, a more delicate pattern can be seen in the form of the Double Badger. I don’t, unfortunately, have any badger hackles small enough to tie the pattern in size #24, however, medium dun should work just fine…

Sparkle Midges

 
I’ve been tying and fishing this pattern since last August, and it’s a fantastic pattern to fish on the slower glides where suspicious trout like to lay. Small tippet can be a royal pain in the ass sometimes, but on these slower waters the idea goes that the thinner the tippet, the less drag you’ll experience. I’m not too sure HOW much of a difference this makes of course, but we anglers are known to act a little obsessed or crazy at time.

I tie this pattern in two styles. The first option is to tie the fly as the mighty Paul Procter ties it; with a tail of Micro Flash and a small amount of hackle wound around the center of the body. The second option is to tie the fly on a curved hook (so that the body lies in the surface) and with the Micro Flash tied in as wings and in the standard format, i.e – just behind the eye.

Options #1: Sparkle Midge as per Paul Procter’s method, with Micro Flash tied in as a tail.

Options #2: Sparkle Midge on curved hook with Micro Flash as wing.

 
Give these patterns a try, they’re great for sipping or slightly wisened fish.

Happy midging campers!

For those of you who are missing summer evenings with generous hatches, rising fish, an inkling of dry fly action, and where it’s warm enough for you to actually go fishing in a t-shirt instead of multiple layers of damn thermals, here’s a video from Horse & Country TV. If you ignore the annoying narrative, the video isn’t so bad…

More Saturday-fly-tying and a little more time repopulating one of my favourite trout patterns in preparation for the up and coming trout season; ladies and gentlemen, I give you a truly undisputed heavy-weight fast water pattern, the CDC & Elk.

Next to the Klinkhamer, this pattern seems to be unsinkable on the streams, even in their faster waters, and because of which, this pattern remains one of my firm favourites. So easy to tie, and only consisting of two ingredients, my fly box is stuffed full of them.

CDC & Elks, oh I love them so!

As I’ve mentioned, it’s two ingredients of CDC and Elk (although every fly tier I’ve ever discussed this pattern with (including myself) use deer hair as an alternative to it’s coarser cousin, the elk) present this fly with an almost unsinkable dexterity, a capability required for fishing the small freestone, and tumbling streams I call home. Because of these faster waters, buoyancy is paramount, and the CDC & Elk does this effortlessly straight from the box, and without any addition of floatant. I once heard this pattern described as ‘A lazy man’s dry fly’, and I’d agree slightly.

Eventually, this pattern will become water logged, but I find this tends to be the case due to the fact that it tends to attract so many fish! A quick pinch between amadou, or a dusting of a product such as Frog’s Fanny, and the fly is back in action (although, with that said, the CDC & Elk still manages to pull fish up even when waterlogged and fished in the surface-film or just below it).

As you can see from the below image, the light, extremely floatable body is crammed full of highly mobile CDC fibres and, paired with a pronounced head and deer hair wing, makes for an almost unsinkable, and extremely detailed copy of an adult caddis; a meal which any trout would find hard to ignore…or at least any trout I know.

CDC & Elk

The results…