Winter Grayling on the Welsh Dee River

I am not long home from my third trip to fish the fabulous River Dee in Llangollen and Cowen this Winter. I have had some cracking sport on this venue over the last number of years and if you were thinking of going fishing next winter to pass the closed months this fabulous river will worth considering. It was way back in 2000 when I first wet a fly on the River Dee, I had the pleasure of staying with Gwilym Hughes in Cowen and he was the person that first introduced me into up stream nymphing. Gwilym traveled that same year to the World Championships in Sweden with the Irish team and after his mentoring for those two weeks I was well and truly hooked on nymphing for Trout and Grayling, a lot of the way I fish today is grounded in the approaches and thinking that Gyilym passed on to me over this period.

The first trip this year was a wash out, this is always a risk, and we ended up having only a few hours fishing; but we did still managed some good fish. The second was for the Hanak European Grayling Festival which we did really well in and the river fished fantastic as it always dose in good conditions. For the latest trip, the river was spot on again but the cold breeze would make changing nymphs or setting up very difficult so extra caution was spent on not getting into tangles, no harm to practice this way.  Though the run of fish was not quite as large as we have experienced in December but still a good sporting size on average .

We normally do a two day trip flying at 6am from Dublin to Manchester with Ryanair, we book the car with Avis and its a one hour drive to the hotel which is The Hand Hotel in Llangollen at 9 am.  After some breakfast we pick up our permits in the local hardware located just around the corner from our accommodation and we are on the river for 10.30 am.
We began the first day on the Golf Course beat just out side the town, one we know quite well and has always produced good numbers for us; today was no different and we had a lot of quality fish to our nets. We stayed around this location for the majority of the day as there is an abundance of water to explore, and the days this time of year are short so fishing till 4pm is usually all the cold you can stick.

After a bite to eat and a few beers by the fire in the hotel we headed to bed and looked forward to our second day. This time we traveled down to Cowen and got our day tickets in the local newsagents, just in the square of the town for a very reasonable 20 pounds, Crogen 2 beat was our destination. Togged out we set off up the river and it wasn't long before we were in the pods of Graying catching them in good numbers and sizes.
Our preferred method for the Grayling on the Dee is down stream nymphing, using a heavy weighted nymph on the point and follow it with two either shrimps, orange and pink we find best,  or as it was for this session two Gammuras nymphs and as soon as the nymphs swing around and begin to lift off the bottom the fish will attack. We found this time on occasions once the nymphs lifted off the bottom and when there was no take if you just allow your flies to drop back down again you will get the hook up on the second lift. The method needs some adjusting during the different months of the winter as we have discovered the Grayling in December seem to sit closer to the angler that in January which means you have to discover the distance they are in front of you in order to put your nymphs in the zone.

After we finished the second day we packed up the rental car and set off for Manchester airport to fly back home leaving at 10pm and I would normally be back in my house around 12.45, depending on where you live. On average the trip out side the evening meal and a few beers will cost around 150 euros for the flights, car, permits, and hotel, this is traveling mid week of course I am sure the weekend will have higher rates. 

A regret I have is that over the last 17 years sense I first visited this river it has only been in the last few seasons that I have gone back, when it should of been a regular occurrence over the winter months. But I plan to make here a few times every winter to come, it is a cheap, easy and well worth it trip. I am alos relishing the chance to lead our the T.A.F.I National team here in 2018 as their captain in the Fips Mouche World Fly Fishing Championships, one I will be hoping we will have a say in.  
I would recommend this venue to any angler that is looking for something a bit different for the winter months rather than the rainbow lakes.

If you would like any information in relation to fishing the Dee you can look up the two fore mentioned clubs who have really good websites where you can get all in information needed in relation to fishing, permits, beats and water levels. Also if you need any info on the traveling aspect please feel free to drop me a line and ill help you out as best as I can.
I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog and feel free to drop me a line here with any questions you may have. 

Down River Dry Fly on the San Poland

I haven't been blogging for a while with a lot of flies to be tied, work commitments and my girlfriend moving in it has been a crazy few months. However thankfully things getting back to normal now and I can share with you all the experiences good and bad, along with  tricks I have picked up over this time, it has been an eventful few months with plenty ups and downs.

To begin somewhere, I was in Poland recently on a four day trip with some angling buddies fishing the beautiful River San in the Lesko region. 
To get here you can fly from Dublin to Rzeszow  Wednesdays and Sundays then you would have a two hour drive to a town called Lesko which the river San flows past. Permits are reasonable enough at around 15 euro per day and accommodation is for around 30 euro with dinner and breakfast included. The whole trip would cost in the region of 500 euros including flights, car hire, hotel ect. This is not a bad price for three and a half good days fishing on one of the top rivers in Europe in my book.

You do however arrive at the hotel quite late on the Wednesday night, around 11 or 12, so after a quick beer we hit the hay to be fresh for the fishing in the morning. After breakfast we took a quick pit stop in a nearby town at a tackle shop called "TopFly", well worth checking out if you are near by for their fly collections. At the first glance of the river it was very obvious that the levels were similar  to our home waters and extremely low; however we didn't find this to much of a problem as this meant we could wade to any location of the river and also the big plus was that the fish were freely rising through out the entire day.

After setting up two rods one on the dries and the other on nymphs I headed down stream and found a nice section of running water and began to nymph the pockets, with poor enough results. The river is heavily fished and when you look up or down the river you will see a lot of anglers wading the vast river, this can be a bit off putting at the start but it dose not take you long to get used to it and see it wont inflict on your catches if you are doing the right thing. I didn't pick up to many of the renowned sizable Graylings through-out the morning catching mostly brown trout, some nice ones at that. Over the rest of the day we did manage to find the Ladies and it was productive enough but we knew we were missing something and the fish were not coming freely as the normally are.
Day two started with a bit of a sore head from a few beers the night before and we were a bit slower getting tackled up but we were still fishing by 10am. Approaching the river differently this morning payed off right from the start, instead of walking down stream to fish up the river we started at the car and fished down stream with small slight dries on fine tippet, 7x. 


Using a 12 foot 5x or 6x tapered leader with 6 foot of 7x or 8x tippet we stood facing down stream and casting at two or ten o clock allowing the dry to float down stream ahead of the tippet and leader. The fly is the first thing the fish sees and if they are spooky Grayling then this method will catch them. With the gentlest of takes it dose take some concentration to keep your eyes on the small dries and the subtle rises in order to connect with the fish as you do have to be fast enough. It was very enjoyable fishing especially when you lift into the fish and it tears off down stream.

Day three went much the same as the day before and there was cracking fishing to be had. One other aspect that was important to catching these fish was there is no need to move or wade at any pace, once you find a fishy glide or pocket. The Grayling just keep coming and if you move down river to fast you would pass by dozens and dozens of quality fish, this can take some reminding as you see rising fish further down stream. This was another enjoyable trip and finished up with a few beers in the hotel with a good laugh reliving the fishing from the last three days. This is a method that I will be working on next spring and summer in our Irish waters for sure and I know these fine dries do work very well here at home.

These fishing breaks can be easily put together and are a must for the developing angler or a fisher-person that just loves the sport of catching fish in stunning surroundings. If you would like anymore information on this kind of fishing trip please feel free to contact me and ill do my best to point you in the right direction. 

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and can take something from it to enhance your angling. If you have any questions on the blog or any of the posts you can contact me here or on my details to the right. If you would like any of the flies on this blog tied or your own dressings do not hesitate to give me a shout and ill tie them for you promptly. Thanks for reading.

Quaility streets

Getting ready for a trip to Slovenia the year before last I was trying to match some shrimp nymphs that I had seen which were supposed to be working quite well out there for the Grayling. I spent some time trying to match the back on the nymphs that I had seen with no luck using the back materials I already had. Until one day eating a sweet I discovered the perfect back material for my shrimps it was the wrapping to a quality street.

This plastic coating was perfect for what I was looking for and it was in lots of interesting colours also. After stocking up on wrappers I hit the vice and sense then I have used this backing for many of my nymphs with great success. Here is a step by step of the tying of a quality street shrimp.

Firstly using a grub hook to your size a b100 or a partridge YK4A tie on some flat lead on its edge in two sections to form the shape of the nymph.

Then take some fine flat lead and wrap the body in the same, tie off the thread as normal and coat the under body in superglue and allow to set fully. 

Using a bull clip take your sweet wrapper and pinch the required width for your back and cut off by sliding a sharp blade along the bull clip. The wrapper can be any colour you wish to match the body.

Tie in some orange partridge as a tail and trap down your backing and some brown mono to act as the rib. Then create a dubbing brush with your thread and spin some dubbing I use three shades of orange spetra dubbing here.
Wind up the dubbing brush and tie of at the head, then brush down all the dubbing using a tooth brush with the bristles cut short.

Pull the wrapper over the back of the fly and secure it in, follow this by ribbing the nymph tightly with even spaces to create the segmented look on the shrimp. only once you have ribbed the fly should you cut away the waste wrapping.

Before you finish the fly add in some more fibers of orange partridge to the head and tie off the fly. Once your head cement has set then brush down all the dubbing again and trim off to the required length under the nymph and last using a black marker gently put some molting on the back of the nymph to help create the natural look the the fly. 

It is very important to keep the tying of this fly slim in the profile which allows it to penetrate fast into the deep water and pockets, using the shuffling approach while wading this fly will catch a lot of fish for you and try it in many other colours too and sizes. 
I regularly use materials that I have found that is not sold as tying and they can range from crisp bags, onion bags wrappers for cheese what ever it is once it gives me desired look and dose not break down in the water is good enough for me and the fish I catch, so don't be afraid to keep your eyes open and find some good stuff in strange places and enjoy the sweets. 
I hope you enjoy reading this post and if you have any comments or questions on any of the patterens just drop me a line below, also you can sign in and follow us. Thanks for reading.

GRAYLING FESTIVAL WALES 2013

I recently joined two fellow angling friends to make up the team called March Browns and headed across the waters to fish the Grayling festival in Wales on the river Dee. I had been meaning to fish this competition for many years now and just never seemed to get around to it, so I was really looking forward to it when we managed to get a late entry place thanks to a team from Norway not being able to make the event. It was nice to be getting in some river fishing in December which is a first for me on rivers anyway.We set sail on Thursday mid afternoon on choppy seas and with a doggy forecast ahead we had our fingers crossed that we would get in some fishing over the weekend. Much to our delight the Dee valley had escaped the worst of the rain and the river was in perfect condition.

We settled into the Hand Hotel on the in Thursday night and on Friday morning meet with Mr Ken Bathers the main organizer for the competition who introduced us to Max our guide for the practice day. Once the introduction was over we set of rambling through the Welsh countryside to the section of river we were to fish for the day.

We fished the beat below section C under the viaduct till 4pm and had quite a good day after a slow start catching plenty of nice Grayling and a few good trout. Most fish came to larger nymphs such as hares ears and pheasant tails with small tags and copper beads, also picking up some fish on small Rats fished under a dry fly and some gold beaded wet flies in the slacker water.

27 teams from all over the UK and some from Europe made up a very talented field of fishermen the draw took place that night during the captains meeting and we fared ok not what we had hope for but ok, and so we prepared for the first day of the competition to come on Saturday morning, with a few good pints.

C9 was our first beat with Robbie doing Steward for the Polish Nymphs while my self and Dave struggled a bit and the winter Grayling fishing had proven to be a bit more tougher that we had thought but we picked up three good Grayling and the scored ok for the morning. Picking up our fish on peeping caddis and copper Hares ear nymphs in the deep runs with wading not to easy either, most anglers went for a swim through out the competition.

The afternoon we had a slightly better section with 4 fish coming for it and giving us 4 place points leaving us in 17 place for the first day which was not ideally were we would of liked being but was ok, with our poor catches. Compared to some of the other teams who were scoring good Grayling and quite a few of them too. There methods varied from ours and was proving to be more effective. Robbie had this nice Grayling for 46cm and this quality of fish were to be seen through out the competition. Again our fish came to large Hares ears in the deep water and quite a few brown trout were returned on this session also. 

For the third session I was off stewarding the Polish Nymph team on sector B and it was a pleasure to watch the bronze medal winners take out 11 Grayling on down stream nymphing , bunging and shuffling, methods we were obviously not using. There nymph patterns were not to unlike ours but the down stream approach was very effective in the slow ends of the pools where the Grayling were more plentiful. Also the Polish guys managed a fine small salmon, not the first or last to be caught in this competition and some nice trout through out there session.

Dave and Robbie fishing in the beat above the Polish managed four nice fish to hold our spot of 17th place for the tournament.  Out of 27 teams this finish will have to do for this year and we hope to improve on it in 2014, with some more experience of fishing for winter Grayling which I look forward to.

The tournament overall was a complete success and to all those involved in its organisation well done on a great job you even managed to keep the rain away and the river was in perfect condition. To the top three teams well done on some cracking catches and good angling; first place was England Dunkelds with 53 fish , second was Czech Fly Fishing with 56 fish and third was Polish Nymphs with 23 fish; the longest fish was 49 cm and a total of 612 Grayling caught. The sportsmanship and friendly atmosphere that is created in this beautiful part of Wales is well worth travelling to and we look forward to hunting Grayling once again In  November 2014 on the river Dee.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and if you have any comments or questions just drop me a line below, also if you would like to see whats coming next on this blog just sign in and follow me. Thanks for reading.