Simons Alyn Reports

[Simon]

5th March
I had been making orders for my Furled leaders all morning and I needed a break. A quick trip to the Alyn with the Tenkara rod. With a short time to fish I decided to fish at Llay bridge, an easy place as you can park right on the river with easy access to the water via some steps. I set up with my Hi Vis leader; 4ft of tippet with a GRHE on the point. I entered the river via the steps and cast upstream from there. Third cast the leader stopped and the rod bent in half, fish on. A good fight followed leading to a fine Grayling around 2lb in weight. At last I got to try the underwater camera with a fish, shame the water was very murky! The fish was released and within another 3 or 4 casts another Grayling came to the net. I carried on fishing with another 2 fish allowing me to catch them. After ½ hour it was time to return home to the Furling board. Have a look at the film of the sub surface fight with the Grayling.

Simon.

[Simon]

I had been fishing with Pedros on the lowers section of the Alyn, this time it was my turn to introduce him to my club waters. After gaining permission for he to have a taster we arrived and started fishing around 1300hrs. The weather was very crisp and very sunny, with no wind. I had a lot of water to show in 3hrs so not much time to really concentrate on each pool. Peter seemed very impressed with the way the water had been managed by the club, I left peter to have a short fish myself and found myself hooked into a nice Grayling on an upstream fished nymph. Peter had hooked and lost a few fish. Having to walk my dog put an end to a great afternoon with Peter deciding to apply to join the club. Please take a look at my latest well edited video from our Sunday afternoon trip.



Simon.

[karl2010]

Nice size fish for the Alyn, should get better coverage when the water clears up.

Karl.

[Simon]

At last a weekday away from work in London. Sonia left to go to the health club giving me the opportunity to get onto the river much earlier than normal for me. At last there was no frost last night with the temp only getting down to 6c. Today was cloudy but breezy, as with this time of year the water is still very cold. A different section of the river today, fishing it for the first time this season, last year this section was very productive, has it improved over the closed season? Checking on the river you could see that there was little chance of any surface activity. So again set up with my Hi Vis leader and 5ft tippet with one dropper 12in from the point. Two size 20 GRHEs with a bead were attached ready for battle.
First cast of the day into one of last years favourite pools, having to adjust my casting to allow for the longer rod. Third cast the leader shot off to the right, and the rod bent as only a Tenkara can! Playing the fish to the net, a Grayling of 34cm. Nothing else in the run so off to the next. A fallen tree right across the bottom of the next pool limited the water that could be fished, gave the rod a flick and the nymphs landed in the right spot, follow the leader back, it stops lift into another Grayling this time only 30cm. Moved another 100mts upstream to another good run last year, Cover the water in a fan pattern leaving the run where I expect to hook up till the last cast. Another Grayling hits the nymph, this time a large fish comes nearly into the net but a final shake of its head and it snaps the dropper.
Off to the last pool / run of the morning, I start at the end of the run making my way up flicking the nymphs ahead of me. This pool turns out to be the best of the morning, by the time I get the the head of the pool I have caught 6 more Grayling all over 30cm! What have I learnt today? Tenkara can and seems to out fish a small conventional rod on small rivers; very small nymphs produce larger numbers of fish! Using a tenkara rod with a downstream wind can be challenging as the leader tends to bow like a sail; remember to check that the underwater camera has fully charged batteries, I took some great film only to find that the camera had recorded nothing! I even managed to get home before Sonia had returned from the club. A good morning had by all.

Simon.

[Simon]

At last I managed to get out and use the Tenkara rod after many weeks off! Sonia and I fished the Alyn in Worms Wood for 2hrs yesterday pm. The weather was cool with many insects hatching but no fish taking them. I stuck with a 2 nymph set-up covering runs that normal provide good fish, nothing! Sonia upstream of me started tempting the fish to take a LDO CDC dry, they are looking up. I changed to a LDO and moved upstream into the Wood. In a fast run there was an odd rises. Sitting in the fast water to keep a low profile I hooked a brown around ½ pound, on the far bank was a foam covered eddie with a fish rising. Using the Tenkara to hold all the furled leader clear of the middle flow, the fish grabbed the dry, a fine fish over 1.5lb. This fish could only be reached and caught with a Tenkara rod! Another fish was tempted later. A good afternoons fishing, although Sonia beat me by catching 5.