Yesterday saw myself and my friend Sam making a last minute decision to fish Llandegfedd reservoir near Pontypool in South East Wales.

Arrived at the reservoir at around 7:30am, purchased tickets tackled up and arranged our gear neatly in the boat…then it all went wrong!

Nightmare #1…

Now, my nautical skills aren’t the best, and with me in the pilot’s seat, I managed to ground the boat 10 ft from the main jetty. Slightly embarrassing!

After Sam got out and shoved the boat back where it belonged in the water, I then had to re-dock the damn boat in order to pick Sam back up, and then we were off…again!

The morning was more or less a write off. No surface activity, and neither myself nor Sam was able to coax a trout into the boat, even though we tried more or less the entire contents of our fly boxes!

Nightmare #2…

After an hour of ‘casting’, my brand new ‘all singing all dancing’ Orvis Western2 snapped! So I now have a four-piece rod instead of a three-piece! I hope the lovely people at Orvis are nice to me when I phone up tomorrow!

Luckily, I had taken a spare rod in the boat, so, fishing continued.

Now, I’m not one to moan, or mope about, (although if this had happened to my river rod I would have been reduced to tears!) but the good feelings I had quickly diminished after a rainbow trout of at least 6lb broke me after 5 minutes of fighting!

Not only did I now have a sore arm due to the ‘rainbow fight’, but I was also getting pissed off.

Through the day though, Sam and I managed 4 and 3 trout respectively, and the fishing really seemed to come alive in the afternoon. The only thing interesting the trout were nasty orange fritz things, but nevertheless, a fun day out! Of sorts!

So, with yesterday out of the way, my arse is now a little sore (excuse my bluntness). Because I don’t really do a lot of boat fishing, I’m not going to fork out £150 for a boat seat…but sitting on a plank of wood all day does take its toll!

I never knew fishing could be so stressful! Luckily though, today saw me down on the Taff to relax!

And God, do I love that river. The sound of the water trickling over the rocks, the birds singing and the beautiful sound of a few rises saw me de-stressed after a minute, and a big smile slapped across my face!

I noticed a few rises to what looked like olives, so on with an olive klinkhammer, a couple of casts to a rise and bang! My first brownie to a dry fly of the season! A beauty of around 3/4lb was brought to hand and then released.

Unfortunately, this was the only fish of the afternoon; but with the clocks now set forward, and hopefully a little warmer weather coming our way, I’ll be in the river most days of the week after work.

A good weekend, but a shattering one!

Now then; where’s that Orvis telephone number. ”Hi, I seem to have broken one of your rods”…

…doing a hell of a lot of fishing!

Yes that’s right; I’m not out partying this weekend, so there’re no excuses for hangovers! Only fishing!

So, where to start?

I know I’m going to jinx myself by saying this, but, so far the weather is looking good! Really good!

The Taff is definitely in for a bashing tomorrow, and I plan to get a full day in. Then it’s off up to the Upper Neuadd reservoir on Sunday.

I had an amazing season on the Neuadd last year, catching predominantly wild brown trout (the way brown trout are supposed to be ).

So, Taff tomorrow, here I come!

Tally Ho!!!

A month or so ago I purchased a DVD which I HIGHLY recommend!

Normally, I am a user of the ‘across and down’ method of fishing, although, hearing a lot of talk of the way the flies drift around at the end of the cast, I wanted to learn a technique which better impersonates the drift of my nymphs.

A trawl on-line to see if there were any good DVD’s on the market, and one such DVD kept showing up – Essential Skills with Oliver Edwards: Wet Fly Fishing on Rivers.

This DVD goes into a lot of detail on the various methods and techniques of fishing a team of wet flies such as Down and Across, Square Across, The Escalator, and Upstream techniques, as well as showing you how to tie a few very effective patterns.

Having watched this DVD on and off during the closed season, I got the first chance of testing the techniques on Saturday, and they worked with huge success!!

Drag was becoming less of a problem for my flies, and I was fishing a hell of a lot more confidently! I highly recommend this DVD for anyone out there looking to improve (or even brush-up) on their techniques.

Oh, and also (for those of you who have noticed ), you’ll see that I’ve given the site a little updating for the start of this season by changing the look and feel. Hope you like it!

After last Monday’s failed attempt at the first trip to the Taff this season, I was a little more encouraged on Saturday after the few days of dry weather.

Tackling up by the car at around 2pm I was presented with a lovely dry day, a few clouds in the sky, and moderately warm. Perfect.

So, on with the waders and a short walk to the water’s edge. A quick survey of the water showed no fly life, and no rises were witnessed over a few minutes. On with a team of nymphs, and I started working my way up stream.

Noticing a few likely lies, a cast to the far bank and under an over hanging tree, I was able to coax a lovely fit brownie of around the 1lb mark to my net. This went for a gold-head pheasant tail nymph on the point.

After removing the hook, the fish was released, and a quick cast back to where the fish was taken saw me into a slightly larger fish! Again, taken on the gold-head PTN.

After working my way upstream, and after missing one take, I decided to walk further upstream and let that run rest.

So, arriving at one of the pools, a few casts to the far bank which looked very fishy, and I was into a small trout of around 6 inches or so, although very lively!

By 5pm I had landed 5 fish, all on the PTN, which after 5 fish was rather mangled!

A very productive afternoon! Can’t remember an afternoon so much fun!

With Saturday and Sunday’s ‘Constant-All-Day-Ridiculous-Rain-Mode’ I expected the Taff to be in total anarchy today…and…I was spot on.

Now the Taff can rise and fall ridiculously quick, so I was kind of hoping that if I popped down after lunch today, and after a full dry morning, she’d ATLEAST have dropped a few inches and cleared just enough in order for me to wet a line.

With this presumption, I was less spot-on (nevertheless, still determined).

Having the day off work the morning saw a nice lie-in take place. After which, a few flies were made, a cup of tea drunk, Trout & Salmon read, you know, the general bumming around the house. And I don’t get to do it very often, so it was most enjoyable.

Arrived at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate River (sorry; The Taff) at around 12:30pm, and at my favourite Aberfan beat to find very VERY strong currents, and a very swollen and coloured river.

With this said, I did manage to find a few spots (although not the best) that looked fishable. JUST fishable! But this is my first visit back to my favourite river in 5 months, so I will NOT be beaten!

…but I was. Not a bite. It started lashing it down at around 3pm, and I nearly got swept away by the white-water-rapid-style river. A bit silly really…please note – do not try to wade in a river after you’ve seen a tennis ball float by doing around 30mph! Noted.

Teams of heavy bugs and nymphs were the main Porto call, and no rises were visible. So, in the fast dirty water, the bugs were the way to go. However, still no luck.

All-in-all, I was glad to just be back on the river. And with last year’s drawn-out summer, which saw the Taff very low for most of the season, it’s good to see the rain.

So, another Monday off next week, let’s hope the weather improves.

If not, I’ll be staying at home with a cuppa and Diagnosis Murder!