Flying every where!

Stunning upper River Taff

Evening peeps....

Smashing weekend this week. I met up with my good mate the Mat the 'Brummie'....we decided we'd get together and do some fly fishing on the river as Mat had been asking me for some time about showing him some river techniques and a bit on safe wading in the river etc.

I booked us onto a section of Merthyr Tydfil Anglings river Taff just below the Brecon Beacons. We arrived at the Taff Fachen around 10am on Sunday, after negotiating the incredible tight mountain roads down to the river and eventually finding a parking spot!

The river looked absolutely beautiful but exceedingly low and clear....we set up a couple of short 6/7 foot rods and some lightweight wfd 3 lines. I got Mathew sorted with a couple of Nymphs and showed him the ropes with a couple of exploratory casts into the narrow pool upstream. He jumped in and then took over and after getting to grips with being up to his waste or more in his chest waders.

Mathew up to his waist in it!

The weather was a little on and off but despite some rain to start off, things improved and it turned decidedly muggy as the morning progressed. The upper Fachen was tough going and despite the stunning water and surroundings, we struggled to buy a take. We opted to head down towards the center of Merthyr and some of the bigger pools of the main river Taff.

Not good!

Town center fishing was a little more interesting! The bridge supports of the main town bridge were clearly home to many homeless people and some serious drug use had clearly been going on under there. It was rather grotty to say the least but we had a mission to complete so ignored it and had a go at a couple of nice browns that were rising in a pool below the carnage.

We spent a good 2 hours trading places through the 'delightful' town pools but again we really struggled to get a bite. I had a take from a nice brown on a mayfly but it was short lived and spat the fly before I could strike. On the way back to the van I put my foot down on a round boulder, it rolled and my foot go smashed against a very sharp rock. A sudden sharp pain swept through my foot and right ankle. Not good! It seemed I may have broken something but I still had some fish to catch!

Well done Mathew boy!

Feeling a bit peeved, we decided to head further down stream to our Cardiff club section for a dabble. This was pretty as poor as well. The water was really high, dark grey and generally shitty! After an hour of flogging a dead horse in torrential rain we decided to call it a day at 5.15pm.

On the way home Mat suggested we go to one of our club lakes for an hour in search of a carp or two on the fly....This sounded a great idea to me as it's something i'd never tried before in 35 years of angling. We arrived at the lakes and found it devoid of people! A quick wander around to a swim Mat knew well and after 10 mins of baiting the swim with chum mixers we got a few nice fish up on the top.

My first double figure carp on the Fly!

Mat was first to get a take and after an epic battle on his 7 weight fly rod, he landed a cracking 13lb plus mirror. He had a second one of around 6lbs before I finally hooked my first ever carp on the fly. A measly 2lb mirror had scuppered my ideas of a double for my first one! A few minutes later I was again away after a ballistic take off the top. This one had other ideas about coming in though and took me for a merry swim around over the next 5 minutes. Eventually I sunk the net under a superb mirror about the same size as Mat's one. The action became frantic over the next hour and we had huge giggles landing 8 carp including 3 doubles on chum deer hair flies.