Not much to report today. Got down to the river in Troedyrhiw, which I’ve been meaning to fish for a little while at 9am-ish, and what started as a slow day, ended as one!

After searching up and down a few runs and pools in the morning, I managed to miss two fish, although they were lightning quick!

A short break, tactic change, and the afternoon saw me searching a new lower pool where I managed to land this 1lb-ish beauty!

Spotted a deep area next to a wall with a good flow current on top which would of held any surface food items. As predicted, the lie held a brownie which was taken on one of my special Phesant Tail Nymphs fished down and across.

When releasing it, I held it for a few seconds (the trout lazily enjoying the curent flowing around it), then it was gone from my hand in a shot, unharmed and, hopefully, happy to chomp down one of my flies at a later date.

It was at this point that, what must have been half the population of Troedyrhiw (complete with dogs!!!) decided to jump into the river no further than 50 feet below me…

…time to call it a day I think!

This said, I will definitely be visiting this area of the Taff again asap! As I think you’ll agree from my previous post and the below photo, it looks stunning!

Awesome day, although my back’s now hurting again!

As a good friend of mine is emigrating to Australia on Saturday, a lot of drinks were consumed last night in order to give him a good send off!

Because of which, and mainly due to a very bad hangover, fishing was put on hold today!

Took the day off so I could recover and drop my friend home, on the way home I made a detour into Aberfan/Troedyrhiw (roughly 5 miles from the area of river I usually fish) to check out a new section of the river.

Dodging the dog walkers and the odd old man with a walking stick the stretch of water is simply stunning! As I took a few photos I was silently kicking myself for not taking my rod! (I need to get me a travel rod that I can keep in the car to prevent such mishaps in the future!)

I noticed a few decent sized trout rising, and also a little fly activity. Fish were mainly rising at the far bank under a few over hanging trees.

Anyway, check out the below photos; hopefully I’ll have a few fish to report on after the weekend!

Wish me luck!

Popped onto the Taff this evening at 6pm, and at last! Cool temperatures, a bit of rain! Although I did get a good drenching!

Took me a little while longer than normal to walk to the first stretch where I wanted to fish as the bushes have grown incredibly fast! I think I need to start taking a machete!

Not many rises, but there were at least A FEW! This makes a massive change to all my fishing in the last couple of weeks, just glad the temperature’s dropped a little.

Fished one beat with no luck. Tried a few dries cast to where I thought the fish would be at the far bank. A few over hanging bushes and tress, but with no results.

The lower section where I like to fish is a large pool, although only 3ft deep in some of the deeper places.

Fished a small invicta upstream and caught this lovely brownie. Well, I think it was; there have been a few discussions on the Fly Fishing Forums about this.

Same fish but in “Super Extreme Close-Up Macro” mode:

After the one brownie I didn’t manage to catch any more, although I noticed it was starting to get very dark. Funny how you first realise this when you can’t actually tie a fly onto your leader!

Anyway, an awesome night, I just hope the weather holds as I really want to try a new beat 4 or 5 miles down river on Thursday (day off work ).

God, how good is fishing!?

Fancied a little change on Saturday so visited Cantref Reservoir, one of my local still waters, with my good mate Sam.

Cantref is a truly beautiful water, and one of my favourites.

As I drove the last two outings to Cantref, Sam offered to drive this time, so off we drove the 7 miles or so up into the Brecon Beacons. Was picked up at 7:00am, day tickets were purchased and we were parked and tackling up by 7:45am.

From the car I took the below photo, although, unfortunately, you can’t see the ten or so rises clearly!!! I was chomping at the bit!

Wind was fairly low, which was good for casting, and there was also a little ripple on the water.

BUT! I think it was the hottest day of the year! There did seem to be a few intermittent fish rising throughout the day, however, were not going anyway near my flies.

At times my hands would touch the water, and, as expected was actually warm to the touch.

Because of which, I started to fish a team of nymphs as deep as I could. Around 11:00am I had one knock on a small Damsel nymph, which I missed!

Around 2pm I was experimenting with a few dries when a rainbow surfaced and tried to drown my offering of a claret hopper, however, no attempt was made to eat it. Ah well, surely the rest of the day would get better…

…WRONG!

Sam managed one rainbow around 1.5lb – 2lb (to my disgust! ), which was the only catch of the day, and we both missed a few more knocks. How I didn’t get a photo of Sam and his fish I’ll never know! Although, you know what it’s like, someone lands a fish, the normal questions like “What you catch it on!?” are passed about, you quickly tie on the same pattern (if you have it!), and you’re off with more concentration than a World War II Russian sniper!

All in all an awesome and beautiful day out in beautiful surroundings. I did manage to burn my arms and neck! So you could say I did catch one thing! The sun!

Us Britt’s moan when we haven’t got it, but from a fishing point of view, I can’t wait for this bloody sun to bugger off!

Here you can just make out Sam in the water:

Taff tomorrow, and the weather’s looking grey!!! Come on!!!

Down at the Taff again tonight, no rises, anywhere, no sign of ANY fish of ANY kind!

Got down to the Taff around 6:00pm again, fished mainly nymphs this evening as dry’s were having no effect. This said though, the hatch this evening was so big it looked as if a mist had descended upon the river along some stretches! The fish, however, were not interested. It was nearly 30°c at one point though.

Fished roughly 2 miles of river with no results, so tomorrow I fancy giving either Junction Pool (where the Taf Fawr and Taf Fechan meet to become the River Taff) or the Taf Fechan a try.

It’s amazing how much I’ve learnt in just two months! When I first visited the Taf Fechan in April it was my first time ever to fish a river and I had pretty much no idea of what to expect. Just two months later I feel 100% more confident! Let’s hope the knowledge and experience grow!

One thing I’m starting to get annoyed about on the town stretch of the river is the litter. How people can disregard their rubbish into the Taff I’ll have no idea! This sort of thing used to be common around 200 years ago, around the same time the valley coal pits were pumping their rubbish into the rivers. This killed off more or less the whole river. Only in the past ten years or so through the help of the Merthyr Tydfil Angling Association and the Environment Agency are we starting to see the rivers return.

There will always be people that spoil it though!

Anyone for a free bike??