|
Post by dbl on Apr 17, 2015 17:42:54 GMT
Nice work and pics, Simon. The 'ducts look spectacular. I fished on what is apparently the top beat after the work party last Sunday. I had been helping to clear it up so I had walked along its length pruning branches where I thought I might get hung up. There was a cold wind blowing most of the time and the skies remained grey until the late afternoon. I flogged up above the bridge (100 yards) and down (about 300 yards) to no avail! There was a fish occasionally rising in the ("wooden"?) bridge pool, but I couldn't get to it. I tried a mixture of SKs and weighted flies on the deeper pockets of the beat but I saw nothing else. There are a number of places that should be productive, but perhaps it is too early? Finally the sun broke through and I returned to the bridge pool briefly on my way to my car, and, of course, a small trout (about 6") took the SK in the tail of the pool as I rather lazily let it drift down. Where it was earlier, I have no idea! I do still think this should be a very enjoyable beat later on. It was some surprisingly deep, if narrow, runs with adjacent eddies and a number of scours near large boulders in the riffles. The bridge pool is very deep, but is also very popular...
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Apr 20, 2015 19:57:19 GMT
The river has dropped a lot now (EA: The river level at Brynkinalt: 0.30 metres at midnight), so I thought I'd explore the lower beats. I started on the bank with one I know, the pools above Pont y Blew, from which I eventually took then released one small trout (about 6"). I then worked down to the bridge under the trees. Blanked and a 12' T rod was definitely too long. However, my main interest was exploring the section between the two lower bridges. Google Earth and scouting from the road shows quite extensive areas where at least one bank is fairly clear. With the river at this height wading becomes easy and the wooded sections quite pleasant as the trees are often arching well above. There is a lot of debris and trailing branches in the pools and irritating low branches that could easily be cleared also blight them, but good pools occur at regular intervals on the many bends. I only managed to work up a few hundred yards from the bottom bridge, now using the small Esoteric T rod with just 8' of level line, but it is very beautiful and secluded. Because the river floods the banks in the winter, in places cutting across the meanders, it is quite wild with flood debris littering the ground and piled between the trees. Anyway, from pools and runs, I took 3 more small WBT, one parr and lost one slightly larger fish. A lovely, though challenging, spot.
|
|
|
Post by Simon on Apr 25, 2015 15:49:26 GMT
22nd April 2.5hrs fishing starting around 1230. Wednesday after found me again on the river this time fishing the upper section, not sure of the name of the stretch but there is a lay-by you can park in and cross the river. I found the fishing here a lot easier as there a 4 or 5 good pools with very little wading required. The weather was sunny and warm with a crystal clear low water. Another couple of members had fished the morning with no luck, as they were leaving I made my way to the lower end just above the bridge. Crossing the river I fished the corner pool first with a small caddis nymph catching a 6in brown, then I noticed a small rise out of the corner of my eye. A quick change to a small olive KH and a quick flick to cover the fish resulted in me missing a good fish, it’s the curse of that crystal clear water. I saw the mouth open and lifted a bit too early! Moving upstream covering the deep pools as I went resulted in another two trout, one 6in and the other 8in. Simon. 25th April 1.5hrs fishing starting at 1130. Took Sonia today as my guest onto the same section letting her fish the field, I fished downstream of the bridge. I found the river hard to fish as there were fewer deeper pools along with the very slippery rocks, they are deadly!!! I only manages 3 small trout all about 4in. Sonia managed to catch 2 trout one on a dry in the first pool above the bridge whie the next was on a small black nymph. Simon.
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Apr 25, 2015 17:35:08 GMT
Thanks Simon, I have to be away from the Ceiriog for a few weeks. I think your poetic video will get a lot of wistful playing! PS. Wombourne(?) kayakers came up on the video list at the end, shooting down the stream in a winter spate. What a contrast!
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Jun 8, 2015 13:34:10 GMT
On Monday, May 25th, I visited the river and decided to explore the stretch above Castle Mill bridge for the first time. Well, I worked up it to no effect and could see very little rising, and those small fish. A later encounter with the bailiff may have given one reason why the attractive pool by the fallen trees was unproductive. Apparently a family of otters has moved in! Slightly higher up, I hooked but lost a smallish WBT in an eddy on the edge of a run. Anyway, some honour was salvaged on the wooden bridge pool in the late afternoon. Two stocked fish. However, the first one, foul hooked, was returned. The second, a blue spot, was taken. That responded to a dry (a Klinkhamer). The day was dry, but the temperature and clouds stayed down. BTW, this fish had no caddis in its stomach, the gut contained the remains of small nymphs, unidentifiable by me!
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Jun 8, 2015 13:35:53 GMT
I fished the area above Pont-y-Blew area late on Sunday morning. Starting under the bridge with a sekasa kebari(SK), I captured one small WBT and missed another. I then moved up to the pool above the bridge and fished through that and the pool above blanking. I was sure there were fish in the pool, but it is deep, so I switched to a duo with a weighted nymph below a sighter. I allowed 2' of line but I think even more might have been better. After a few passes through the deep tail, the sighter disappeared and after a brief tussle a well conditioned brownie was on the bank. It was 9" in length, but had no blue spot. I tried the same tactic, unsuccessfully, in the very small pool just below the island. I then returned to the main pool for a last swim through, changing the point fly to a rather lurid green caddis. After a couple of passes the sighter again bobbed under and I struck into a larger fish which kept down at first. On the bank, I measured another well conditioned brownie at 12". Again no blue spot, but Roger's suggestion about last year's stocking moving down following clearance work at Brynkinelt, might be an explanation for these riches. I have taken small grayling in the head of this pool in the past, but there were no signs of them on my drifts through with the duo.
In the late afternoon, I moved up to the aqueduct stretch and fished through that with an SK with poor results, namely about 3 small trout. The usually productive pool near the bottom was almost barren of visible activity, and I eventually gave up on it.
I finished the evening on the Chippings Corner stretch. Again there was almost no visible activity. I did pick up about 8 small fish, some of which were remotely unhooked! A couple of these were on a dry fly, the rest on a SK, mostly in a brief flurry of activity, that just as suddenly ended.
The river gauge started at about 0.39 and the day was mostly clear and quite bright with a light breeze. However, it remained surprisingly cool despite the June sun
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Jun 14, 2015 23:27:52 GMT
I fished down from Castle Mill today. I tried first at Simon's "cave". It looked promising but only gave up a small trout. I even went down to above the weir, but in all only pulled out 2 more fingerlings. I struck lucky as I came back up, as I was wading. Towards the bottom of the field there is a narrow run hard under the south bank. I had bypassed it on the way down. Here at last there were rises going on. My first wet fly didn't get a reaction so I switched to a little Ishigaki style kebari: black thread, an upright ginger hackle with the tip pointing out the back as whisks. Greased, it floats well, but also works as a wet fly. This immediately scored a 9" trout (no spot), then as it drifted under in the middle of the run, a plump 11" trout grabbed it(no spot). Both were returned, though I hesitated over the second fish! I lost the fly on a snag shortly after but as I tied it the day before, was rather pleased with my work. It is simple,cheap and quick to tie. Unfortunately, the weather was miserable. No rain, but lots of grey cloud, and a sharp downstream breeze most of the time, that had a pronounced chilling effect. Some hatches. I think I saw a Yellow Sally, anyway it was bright yellow and flying around in front of me. I followed the earlier session below Castle Mill, with a brief evening raid on Chippings Corner. I had planned to go up further, but as the clouds got more dense and a drizzle began to make the day even more dreary, I cut it short. There were quite a few, mostly small, rising fish in this stretch, but they spooked easily. It was galling to see the rises disappear, then restart after I had moved some way further up! However, I put on an easily spotted parachute fly and drifted through the top of the bend. Very snaggy, but a larger fish was rising hard against the bank. After a few passes through, I had almost given up, but as the fly pulled under and started to drift out into the slack eddy on my bank, a sharp tug surprised me on the retrieve and I was rather cheered up (it really was a miserable day for June) to land a beautiful darkly marked brown trout about 12" long and plump too. Unfortunately, it did appear to have an earlier injury to its head, which had lost it some scales, but as it seemed otherwise fine, I popped it back. This one had a blue spot!
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Jun 21, 2015 0:11:31 GMT
Yesterday (Saturday 20th June, I had about 40 minutes to spare on a journey north so I chose Chippings Corner as the easiest place to fish! I was surprised to find no one about on a fine, though slightly gusty, evening, so I fished up the stretch in the clear water. Nothing much happened until I reached the top of the stretch, were I had seen an occasional splashy rise, when a little green sakasa kebari with a red silk eye, newly tied on to bite into the faster water, was seized in the narrow rapid flow by a good fish that set off down into the deeper water below. I applied side strain, the soft rod bent into a nice curve and I felt I had solidly hooked the fish when the line and fly suddenly came back to me and I saw the fish dart into the shelter of the far bank.
So I cast again a few times, but it was time to go and I knew it couldn't happen again there so procrastination was not an option. It was only as I wound up the line that I glanced at the hook and realised that the bottom half was now missing. That was why the fish came free! Well, it was a new fly, I had tied it, but there was a precedent. The fly was tied on a Japanese eyeless hook, I not sure which brand, and I have had one fail before in a similar manner. It may have been a coincidence, but will I use those hooks again? Probably not!
Good fish though, and probably still there. It was about the size of the brownie I returned last time, so it may even have bitten twice!
|
|
|
Post by orangeotter on Jun 26, 2015 12:11:58 GMT
Had a lovely 11" wild fish from just below Pontfaen bridge yesterday, plus one slightly smaller from well above the Chippings. Plus of course countless juveniles. All to the killer GRHE SK. Very hot oppressive day, minimal flylife and few risers. Felt that I should have taken more from some of those lovely deep pools but seemed empty, although I'm sure they're not. Only 0.21 on the gauge but still very fishable.
dbl: I'm surprised that you broke a hook, trust it wasn't one of Daniels which have never let me down.
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Jun 29, 2015 1:04:52 GMT
Frustrated in my original intention of fishing the field below Wooden Bridge by the discovery of the car of a fellow member already parked there, I moved down to Herber Bridge and tried to fish the first bend up from the north bank. My little pale SK didn't achieve response until a brief contact with a fair fish in the fast water at the top of the bend. Another angler was in possession of the bend above so I moved up the the pool above Chippings. There I changed to a little dark palmered dry fly, well greased, and crept up (sort of) to the rock at the bottom end of the pool. A small brown was my reward for this effort. A couple more small fish came to hand as I moved up the middle of the pool, but it was again in the fast water near the top that my luck improved. First a good wild fish about 8"long and then a large brown that turned out to be a stocked blue spot 12" long. This last I took home for the table. It was quite dark in colour and looked rather lean for its size. The stomach contents included some small caddis. After a brief lunch I drove back up to the now vacant Wooden Bridge and fished up the short runs one by one with my little dry. It was very productive. Every run produced at least one hand sized fish and maybe another couple of fingerlings, some of which shook loose. In two runs I landed and then returned a takeable fish. One may have been wild, the other was a blue spot. Although much smaller than the first one, at about 9", this one was paler in colour, and seemed much fitter, really working the current during the encounter. In a personal record, I actually got through the whole day without losing a fly. Usually, I lose at least two! This was particularly satisfying because, to get these fish, I often had to fish tight under the bank and near obstructions or under low canopies. Not that I didn't get hung up, but by good fortune and a short line, I was able to retrieve the fly.
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Aug 4, 2015 16:57:00 GMT
What a strange summer it has been. Recently, it has rained at least a little nearly every day, it has largely been overcast, the wind has often been quite cold, and yet the Ceiriog is almost a trickle as if we had been basking in a heatwave! 0.15 metres at Brynkinelt has been the steady level for the past few days, which translates to a river that is often only ankle deep across its width in these upper reaches. Somewhat hampered by a downstream breeze, usually light but sometimes gusty, I fished a smallish palmered dry on a short line attached to the ESO baby zoom which brought up quite a few, though some were refusals, some missed and some slipped off the barbless hook. (The pattern does not have a name, unless by astonishing coincidence, not does it deserve one, so I shall simply call it "my kebari"). However, I managed to retain for capture and return about 3 7" + sized fish and about 5 or 6 smaller fish. It was a slog, but quietly enjoyable as I inched along the shallow stream. I fished up the lower field first, then I decided to push up above the wooden bridge until I ran out of steam. What was constantly surprising was the tiny scours which gave good lies to the small trout. Each pocket was worth trying, if you could spot it and hit it, and it was in these, rather than the skinny runs, that I found most of the fish. Of course, I must have spooked many in the narrow runs and shrunken pools, but the fun was in the unexpected. In other places the fish were lurking hard against the banks where the current ran in under tangled roots and the challenge was to get the fly to travel down the edge without dropping it into the tangles.
(First posted in the CFF forum but edited)
|
|
|
Post by adric on Aug 4, 2015 19:05:46 GMT
It is the same with the streams around Hereford. Absolutely low and very difficult to fish despite the rain and small rises on the main river.
Richard
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Aug 17, 2015 0:07:46 GMT
After an abortive start at Pont y Blew, where I was frustrated by the arrival of a gaggle of mountain bikers who encamped by the best pool, I moved down to rivers meet. After a virtual blank with a dry (one nice fish took but shook loose immediately), I switched to a weighted nymph (although I dislike using them on the Iwana) in the corner pool, and on the first cast the indicator popped under and I landed a lively WBT of about 8" in length. Unfortunately, this luck did not hold, but, on switching to a killer bug, the indicator again went down and this time a nice grayling, a bit larger than the trout and more dogged in fight, came to the net. The pool went quiet after this and I moved down to fish the end of the river, but this time a large dog was retrieving a large stick repeatedly for its owner by leaping from the bank, so I was not surprised when nothing moved! Following this, I moved around the corner, and fished up the lower part of Coed yr Allt on the Dee with the weighted nymph. Several other CADAC members encountered had had lean pickings, but I thought there was a chance of a grayling, and finally managed to hook one near the top of the lower beat, though I had to manipulate the nymph to excite interest. This was a little larger still and took full advantage of the heavy water there, but it finally came to hand. Fishing deep, I lost 2 nymphs to snags! BTW, the ground near the river is very hard and it will take a lot of rain to start moving water through the soil into the streams
|
|
|
Post by dbl on Aug 31, 2015 12:04:51 GMT
On a very grey day I fished up the field towards the wooden bridge on Beat 1. Saw almost no action until a good fish swirled at the dry fly (a palmered kebari with a yellow silk eye inspired by My Best Streams) in a narrow run about 1/2 way up. It revealed itself as a blue spot stockie, which I killed for the frying pan. It was 14" long, but rather lean, though its stomach was full and its fins were in good shape. The river is again crystal clear. Tackle: Iwana on short handle (9'6")with approx same length of line.
|
|
|
Post by Simon on Sept 6, 2015 17:36:32 GMT
5th September For the first time since Sonia’s accident her physio has said that see can restart fishing, but no wading, yet! So off the Chippings field, parking on the bridge for access into the field, wellies only. Fishing a single nymph under an indicator, Sonia started at the second bend. A bit rusty from no fishing for over 4 months, but it became easier with a bit of practice. 2 brown trout were caught at the top of the corner, one 6in the other about 8in, both wild fish. Even in wellies Sonia was starting to suffer, slippery rocks making her leg muscles work overtime. Moving to the run above the lay-by helped with practising side casting with the long Tenkara rod under the trees. 3 more trout came to hand in this run with the larger one posing for the photo after Sonia dropped the other 2 after unhooking them! This short fishing session reinvigorated Sonia’s love of being on a river, any river! It’s going to take a week for her legs to recover. For some reason the short video is a bit out of focus, better keep practising. If you don’t have a short Tenkara rod, don’t worry I always use a 13ft T rod on this river with no problems. Simon.
|
|