Monday 24 September 2012

Grayling, grayling and some trout

With the river levels in the upper reaches of the river being so,low due to lack of rain in the past few weeks myself and a friend Lee decided to get an exchange ticket which our club has with the Glamorgan Anglers  on the lower reaches of the river Taff.  We were both using our 10ft 3# rods with French leaders fishing a team of nymphs as the water on the lower reaches are very deep, slow and fast.  After a 1 mile walk down river we came to where we were going to start off fishing.  A large bridge with a deep, long and fast run underneath it.  I started fishing at the bottom of the run whist Lee fished the top half as there was plenty of room for the two of us.  I knew the run was pretty deep so opted for a 3ml ptn with a silver tungsten head for the point fly and a 2ml ptn on the dropper so that the nymphs were fishing two different depths.  I started fishing the slack water just in case there were any fish lying off the main current and within 3 casts my indicator shot under and i was into my first fish.  A quick thump and bump shaking its head and it was off down river.  However i could handle the fish and not let it take too much line as it wasn't too big a fish.  I quickly eased it out of the faster water it had run into to tire the fish out and within a minute the fish was safely in the net.  A nice 1 1/4lb trout to start the day off nicely 
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After the commotion which that little trout made i didn't get one knock in the slack water afterwards except for the bottom   So i decided to switch directly into the main current itself and work my way a little bit up river.  My first cast into the main current and my indicator shot under however nothing on the end of the line. Now that i know that there was fish there i placed my flies there a few more times before my indicator shot under.  However this time i could feel something on the end of the line and it wasn't the bottom.  I was into a fish and it was fighting quite hard.  A nice 1 1/2lb grayling.
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Around 10 casts later i was into another 4 grayling around 1 lb.  After catching these fish i called Lee down to where i was as he wasn't having much luck in the upper part of the pool and he was more than happy to have a go.  However as Lee was making his way down the pool quietly so that he didn't spook off any fish in the process another angler walked from one side of the river to the other splashing and making a commotion in the pool which we are fishing and spooked the whole pool and we didn't have  another knock or fish in the pool.   As myself and Le made our way into the next runs the first thing we noticed was canoeists in the next two runs so we skipped them two and marched on up river (but not before Lee had a few words with them first ) and came to a deep , long and fast pool which just screamed out big trout and grayling so we both stuck to our heavy nymphs.  Myself and Lee placed our flies in every square in of the run and not a single nudge or even an attempt for any fish to attack our flies until i came to the top of the run with a tree over hanging the main flow.  I placed my flies above the tree in the main flow and let the nymphs work the depths underneath and my indicator shot under but as i struck i could see the fish turn on its side and shot away   So i stood back and stayed still for a few minutes just in case i spooked any more fish whilst striking into the previous fish.  After a few minutes of standing still bord senseless i noticed a little rise in the fast water which i missed the fish in next to the tree.  However i only seen it rise once even though there were quite a few BWO's and brook dunns coming down river.  I placed my flies back up above the tree in the main current and let them come down river working different depths of the water.  As my flies came to the point where i seen the fish rise my indicator slid under slowly so i struck.  At first I knew that i was into a fish as i could feel it moving  and thought that it was another nice grayling as i hadn't seen the fish.  So i put a little more pressure on the fish and all of a sudden as i put pressure on the fish it started shaking its head very violently and sped off down river with nothing that i could do but hold on.  At this stage the fish had still stayed down deep and hadn't shown itself so my automatic  thought was that it was a small salmon/grilse as all it wanted to do is go down river shaking its head.  However Lee helped me land the fish and whilst playing the fish in calm water it rolled on its side and Lee said its a big trout I was gob smacked   Not long later it was safely in the net and weighted in at 2 1/2lb.  But we had a theory to why it fought so hard and that is that it had a tail like a shovel  
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After catching that fish myself and Lee worked our way through some more runs shallow and deep with just the one decent fish which Lee caught weighing 2lb aswel as some small grayling and salmon parr until we came to yet another very long, deep run around 200 yards long which was wade able out to around half way.  We both knew that there was enough room for the both of us so Lee decided to change from heavy nymphs to klink&dink and fish the bottom half of the run whilst i stuck to my nymphs except for the exception of me changing my nymph size from a 3ml to a 3.3ml to get down a little deeper.  I knew that it was going to be a good run as when i was switching to my heavier nymph Lee had already caught two grayling   My first few casts were in the slack water just off the main current but not a touch so opted straight for the faster water.  My first cast in the main current and i was straight into a fish but it sadly came off.  Another cast and another fish.  A 1 lb grayling    This carried for 2 hours whilst working up and down the run twice catching grayling up to 1 3/4lb   Before we knew it it was time to pack up as the light was starting to fade slowly over the mountains.  However i will definatly be heading down there in the winter season looking for shoaled up grayling and trying out some more new water 

Lee fighting a 2lb trout
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Some of the pools 

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Some more fish 
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Video of canoeists ruining some very good runs and disturbing the bottom of the river.