Well, the Bank Holiday has been brilliant in terms of fishing (I managed to get loads done!), but alas, now it’s all over!

So again, here I find myself, sitting at my desk, trying to get the cogs grinding and myself back into ‘work-mode’.

Usk Reservoir on Sunday though! And hopefully a spot on the river in the week….who know’s, I may even pop down there twice!

…right, I’m off, IT Meeting calls…

For this post, I’ll be including all my fishing trips over the Bank Holiday weekend as they happen…and as the missus is away, I’m gonna console myself by getting in as much fishing as possible!

Monday 28th August – Secret Location

Well, I’m knackered!

Fishing for two days does take it out of you, and no! I’m not a light-weight!

Up at 6:30am this morning to meet up with Bill from the Fly Fishing Forums at a new water I’ve not fished before.

Bill’s been raving about this water for ages, and he’s spot on!

An awesome water, the fish are as wild as they come as the place isn’t stocked, and it’s in the middle of nowhere…although we could still here a few cars as they passed going about their Bank Holiday trips.

After hand-shakes and a bit of chatting, the walk to the water commenced.

Now, I don’t think of myself as unfit…but Christ! The walk was a little taxing!

Fishing commenced around 8:45am, and with Bill’s words of wisdom “Pop a Bibbio on the dropper”, I was into my first fish of 7inches on my first cast!

Using the same setup (Coch-y-Bonddu on point, Bibbio on the dropper) I was into a similar fish after another 30 minutes.

After this, the catch rate seemed to drop until around 11:00am, where I had 4 fish in as many minutes (2 to the Bibbio, 2 to the Coch-y-Bonddu). One of the fish was my biggest of the day

At this point, I felt bad, as Bill was yet to land one of the wee wild brownies.

In the end, he did have two, hanging off a steep slope, both fish were quite deep, and one of them was the biggest of the day

After around 1pm, the fishing was dead! Hardly any rises, missed around 3-4 takes, but all-in-all an awesome day!

Cheers Bill!

So…The Bank Holiday’s over, fishing’s got me knackered, and it’s time for bed

Sunday 27th August – Upper Neuadd

The Fishing today was very similar to Friday…although the conditions were less fisher friendly…sunny, warm, etc.

Arrived at the reservoir at 2:00pm with a nightmare of a hangover (yes, I went out last night!). I expected the fishing to be off at this point, but didn’t realise it would be as hard as it was!

On arriving I had the WHOLE reservoir to myself which was nice! Thought I’d have a bit of fun and use my Sage 5wt for a couple of hours, and boy, did I notice what a difference there is! You really need the power of an 8wt when the wind builds up! Had the line back in my face at one point when the weather got a bit windy!

Around 5:00pm, after not even a rise nevermind a missed pull, it was back to the car for a bite to eat (and more paracetamol!), rod change, then back to the water after a little chat with two guys that turned up to fish into the evening.

Weather was still a little sunny, so I popped on the intermediate line, a gold head damsel which always seems to work for me, and fished it quite deep.

This seemed to work, and so I managed two lovely brownies. One taken on the GH Damsel, another on a small GH phesant tail nymph.

And that was it…two fish in 7 hours! I did miss a couple of lightning quick takes, but that was it.

I’m writing this at 10:30pm and I’m absolutley bloody knackered! I don’t recommend fishing with a hangover! And I have to this all over again tomorrow, except tomorrow, I’ll be up at 6:30am! Ah well! I love it!

Pen-Y-Fan

Pen-Y-Fan again

Brownie No1 – GH Olive Damsel

Brownie No2 – GH Phesant Tail Nymph

North Bank

Tomorrow I’ll be visiting a truely wild reservoir, and also one that I’ve been sworn to keep secret! I’ll be meeting up with another Fly Fishing Forums member who fishes it quite regularly, and I’ve only heard good things! Can’t wait!

Friday 25th August – Upper Neuadd

Popped up to the Upper Neuadd on Friday night for the first bit of Bank Holiday fishing, but this time I was accompanied by Sam and Mark from the Fly Fishing Forums.

Fishing was a world apart from Tuesday when I went last, a lot harder, although the conditions were perfect.

Mark was the first one of us to hook into and land a fish, Sam was next…..my fishing was looking bad at this point!

Fish seemed to start feeding at around 8:00pm – 8:30pm, and this was when I hooked (foul that is!) a brownie of around the 1lb mark.

We all missed a good couple of pulls, but the fishing tonight was a lot harder!

I’m going back up on Sunday for a longer session as I need practice for Monday! I’ll be meeting up with another Fly Forums member for a spot of real wilderness wild-brown fishing!

Only managed to get Sam’s two fish from Friday:

His first….

His second…swine!

Visited the Upper Neuadd again today, and thank God, without the laughable idiocy of Sunday!

Reached the car park at just gone 6:00pm to find I had the reservoir all to myself!

Worked my way around the East bank, nearly sinking into the soft marshy ground here and there, until I ended up fishing the same spot I fished on Sunday evening (North bank). And it didn’t surprise me to find trout feeding in exactly the same spots.

I managed to land a lovely wee brownie of around 6 inches or so at the same spot as Sunday, and I would not be surprised if I was told that it was the same fish! As was Sunday, the fish was taken on a GH olive damsel pattern.

A few casts later I noticed a fairly nice rise which I immediately cast to, this saw me into my second fish of around the 1lb mark. This one taken on a GH PTN with a peacock thorax.

Things then went quiet for a little while, a few rises here and there. I managed to hook and lose another brownie, which I have to say was a very good size! Around the 2lb mark if I was to guess (honest!).

All the fish caught so far were taken no further than 10ft from the bank.

Darkness started to fall around 8:30pm, and with all the mist, started to seem quite eerie! I wouldn’t like to be on my own up there, even WITH a torch…..did someone say Blair Witch Project!?

Luckily though, by this point, there was another angler on the West bank fishing…..did he just cackle? Nah, sure it was the sheep….

You know what it’s like though; even though you have trouble seeing your fly line, you just HAVE to have one more cast! But, I’m glad I did!

I had a size 14 GH PTN with an orange hare’s ear thorax on the point which was hungrily chomped down by a lovely 2lb brown trout! And what a fighter!

Unfortunately, upon landing the fish, it was hooked very deeply in the throat, and I was unable to easily remove the hook, so, for the 1st time in two seasons, I had to kill a brown trout. It won’t go to waste though…I see a nice meal being made this week….

Got back to the car by 9pm, blackness all about, a little chat to the other angler, then home.

I think a daytrip rather then a ‘rushed two hours after work’ is on the cards for Sunday!

A little misty?

The smaller area on the North bank

My second fish, taken 6ft from the bank

North bank looking down to the dam

The 2lb Big Boy!

As the Taff is screwed for a while, I decided to have a go at a new location for a change.

The Upper Neuadd is overlooked by the peak of Pen-Y-Fan, the highest summit in the Brecon Beacons, and is a wild brown trout fishery. If you were facing away from the dam and told you were in Scotland there would be no question that this could be a Highland lloch.

So, as the Taff is under the weather at the moment (an understatement!), what better fishing is there to be done than a good spot of wild brownie fishing?

Arrived at the main gate at 6:00pm-ish yesterday evening, spent 5 minutes trying to unlock the damn thing, parked the car, then realised I’d parked at the Lower Neuadd, not the Upper Neuadd which is a mile further up the road (sorry, 1 metre wide path).

So, after realising this (I’d tackled up and had waders on), it was back in the car (yes, with my waders on!) to finally come to the car park of the Upper Neuadd. Guess I should have looked first!

Anyway, arrived at the water (finally!) at 6:45pm. The water levels at the moment are very low, although it makes you realise just how big the reservoir would actually be were it full.

Second cast saw me into a 6inch long brownie taken on a GH Olive Damsel. Fifth cast saw me into a much larger fish of around the 1lb 6oz mark, again taken on the damsel. Both returned.

Around 8:30pm however, the feeding stopped. Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. No response to anything I could offer, and I could see a couple of scratched heads around the bank too.

When 8:45pm came, I realised I couldn’t see the knot I was trying to tie, even though I could hear fish rising around me. A torch is needed! So, it was a walk back to the car, a chat to one of the regulars, and then I was homeward bound.

As the reservoir is in the “Middle of Nowhere”, you have to drive for 20 minutes before you see a streetlight. So it was around one of these dark corners while driving home that I swear I passed a wolf…..slightly worying!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get many good photo’s, none of the fish anyway, as I tried to get them back in the water quickly. Will be going up for a session again tomorrow, so I’ll put some on then.

All-in-all, a beautiful stillwater.

Haven’t been fishing for nearly a week now due to the lovely pollution problem from Sunday.

The Environment Agency have given the all clear that the water is safe and back to normal, however, the fish that WERE in the river aren’t mentioned.

I know that the fish from Pontsticill reservoir to 3km downstream are practically all dead. The Taf Fechan stretch (which the MTAA have worked so hard to turn into a wild brown trout fishery) is dead.

What makes things worse is the fact that experts have stated that it could take up to 8 years to get the river back to the same state before the pollution was introduced.

The MTAA have had a right kick in the teeth, and are utterly devastated.

Tonight I may take a wander down the lower Taff to see what damage there is, hopefully, the majority of the mess will have been diluted by this point.

Fingers Crossed.