Dry fly verses nymphing in Severn heaven

Well its been a while since ihave done a blog post but beleive me i have still been weting a line, i have had many a call asking me what i have been doing which is nice to know so many people read my blog..

2lb 6oz wezzers fish really

Work has gone through the roof and i have been hitting it hard, there is also another very good reason but i think Woody and JT will fill u in if you ask them!!
Well Grayling fishing on the San was a dream come true for me, and without sounding a cocky twat my dry flying has been risen to another level, to say it was hard to get a grayling on a dry was a understatement, i had to use hours of drag free, right fly, stealth, position, casting...you name it, it was done...Paul Procter went the week after us and the rain came down and brought on bwo hatches galore, overcast weather the lot... i felt a bit of a kick in the teeth but when i think back i reazllise it was the best for me personally as easy conditions like they had are not my thing.. i come back a dry fly expert!!

Wess, oasis pose!!

I arrived a Dovedale a few days after on my Issak Walton ticket and looked at a fish rising in a back eddie.... mmmm how the fish has done me over the months...i just selected a JT stripped quil emerger olive (dont know if he has put them in his range yet but get on the phone to him!!)
first cast walop!! a trout was hooked and flicked off...well i had spent 1 week hardcore fishing and at that moment i reaised i had got my casting spot on...
I fished around the river and took fish to the dry that i would always seem to mess up on....the San had taught me well...

Grayling fishing kicked in a there was a period where i went onto the holy Wye with Woody... dry fishing was superb, with Grayling coming to the stripped quill emerger...i was slightly gutted that lots of trout were still feeding heavy and i knew it was time for me to give my Wye a rest...my plan is to go back when it really gets cold and the fish pack in tight... putting a bug in there on early Grayling season is like fishing with maggots to those Rainbow trout...not for me....
The mad day came when top nympher Wess and myself went on the Dove full bugging style, we were spoit to the max when i took 3 Grayling over the 2lb mark and Wess taking a 2lb 6oz Gralying of superb quality!! At 46cm it was the fatest grayling i have seen... i hooked the same fish 1 min after it was realeased full on in the mouth!! this is mad and has happened to me before but all credit must go to Wess for finding the fish....
Well the day came of dreams for me when wess and myself went to the upper Severn, we met up early doors and had a 2hr drive over talking of all Grayling fishing we would be doing for the season...Wess is mad on the nymhing techinque and shows very well in his fishing, we both work on site together with Wess being a plumber and me a spark, most days are spent shouting abuse at each other or talking fishing!!!
We started fishing with a three bug setup on Wessers knew indicator setup which is a dream to fish, something i will blog if he lets me, we knew by low water levels it was going to be hard but fishing got underway as we started to take these famous Grayling, nothing big and not huge numbers but we were catching...the buzzing part of fishing this river is you just know there is a chance of a record breaking fish which gets the heart pumping...

Grayling on the dry!!! Does it get any better this time of year..no!!



A pounder hits the net on a jt stripped quil emerger!!

 In the afternoon we walked to the the top of the beat and a good hatch of LDO came off!! and my heart skipped a beat when i saw the typical Grayling rise that i know only too well, this to me is fly fishing heaven and at this time of year was a beautfiul site..bright cold day, leaves falling and fish rising!! sweeeeet
I ripped off the bug setup and selected a olive, totally ignored!!..i netted a natural and noticed my size was all wrong...going down to a size 20 and this did the trick..my san skills put me on top and i slautered the rising Grayling...one fish that was rising totally did my head in...a very good sized fish, it would rise every five mins but if i got within 20 yards away it would go down.. i waited and waited but it had me done...
Wess stayed with the bugs and did very well and we both had the banter of bug versus dry and both ended up with the same ammount of fish and were buzzin..the biggest fish that came to the dry was a 1lb 4oz and i was chuffed to bits!! was this my last dry of the season? i dont know but last year i saw a ldo hatch in late december on the Wye where the ladies went mad.. we will see..
We drove home buzzin.. a great day to remember..nice one Wess..