How to tie a Mayfly Nymph

It’s about time the Mayfly started to put in an appearance on the surrounding south Wales rivers – And there’s nothing worse than being caught out without any ammo! It’s completely obvious when the fish are feeding on the adult from the surface… large head and rail rises at the back ends of the pools mixed with a few splashy over excited fish with eyes bigger than their body. Earlier on in the day you do have the chance of picking up some bonus fish on nymphs as the fly start to become more active . Look for silty, sandy bottoms in slack water. That’s where the mayfly nymph reside and become prone to trout activity.

The above fly is a simple tie but gives a great representative of a nymph, emerger or even shuck tied in the right colours. Give it a go over the next couple of weeks. It’s also a great fly all year round on smallwaters!

Check out more fly tying tips on this page

Its been a busy month!

It’s been a busy month here at Ronfishing HQ, the first proper fly fishing competition of the year took place on Chew Valley lake where we as a team managed to take first place in the AWAI South Wales heat. With a the full team managing to net 48 fish, that’s 8 per angler. The fishing on Chew was said to be exceptional in the weeks leading up to the comp, but just a week before the winds blew up and almost ceased fishing completely! Our practice day was blow out of the water, so with only previous weeks fishing information to go on, all anglers could do is head out and hope to come across a few, and keep their fingers and toes crossed that the fish they knew of didn’t move!

Matthew Griffiths managed to take his 8 fish by 12:15, followed by myself at 12:50. Most fish seemed to be caught using sinking fly lines and brightly coloured flies.

Some of my most exciting fishing however has come on the rivers, with large fly hatches and hungry fish making this a lot easier than it usually is! Over the last month or so me and Terry Bromwell: TaffDiaries, have been wandering aimlessly up and down the Taff looking for some monster trout. Around the opening season date some large fish tend to show up in the middle reaches of the river, giving us river anglers a chance to get a couple of shots at something special.

This year has been exceptional for these fish with myself netting five fish over 4lbs in weight! This year has been phenomenal, I nor Terry has ever seen so many large fish in the rivers. It’s safe to say that now the first proper flood has gone through they have dispersed, having not seen one for over three weeks now.

Below are a few pictures of the ones we’ve been getting, hope you enjoy!

The Airflo Story

The Airflo Story, follow Richard Wothers on an in factory and on the water tour of how fly lines are designed and manufactured here at Airflo.

Killer Shrimp

With the intention of doing more fishing on the midlands lakes this year I thought it was about time I got the Grafham Killer Shrimp out of the way… Below is one of my early attempts at a shrimp pattern. The foam back creates a great, full segmented effect and gives the fly some buoyancy, great for when you need the flies either close to the surface or close to the bottom.

Excuse the thread breakage at the beginning!

Quick Ties and Deadly Flies – Totaly Flyfisher Article

TFF April Issue – Out now!

Just a heads up that I have a fly article in the April issue of Total Flyfisher – Showing some of my favourite river flies which take no more than four minutes to tie! If you manage to pick one up, please let me know what you think, it would be much appreciated

Blagdon Water Opening Day

Blagdon is another water which I used to spend a lot of time fishing as a kid, the Thorn fly fishing club would arrange two or three trips a year and heading over the Seven Bridge was always a great occasion. It usually mean Chew, Blagdon or Draycote! All of which I am very fond of.

We  had opening day boats booked for a few weeks and each day the Blagdon grew closer.. Fond memories of setting out from the jetty, with only the sound of the battery powered motor and the waves lapping against the side of the boat came flooding back. Heaven. This was Terry’s second time on a boat, the first just last weekend at Draycote Water. So I was hoping to show him a couple of different techniques from what he had learnt at Dryacote. Upon arrival we were greeted with murky water with visibility down to a couple of feet. Big, changing winds and heavy rain a couple of days before slightly coloured some of the areas around the lake. Almost the full fleet of boats were out before we got there… just after 9 am – These Bristol boys are keen!

It was obvious where most anglers thought the head of fish where as we could see the last boat to leave the jetty heading down past the Green lawn seemingly onto rainbow point and bells bush, an area also littered with bank anglers. As a tip off we headed over to the North bank, just where the line of trees enter the water. Out first drift looked promising but controlling the boat proved impossible! We were dragging to the point each time, giving a large but deadly curve in our fly lines. The problem is, I hate fishing like this as you loose all control and don’t feel the slight takes you would with a tight or straight line. It was time to re-arrange the drogue so we could drift square to the wind. Once I got the angle it was down to business.

In the meantime, Terry set-up using an Airflo Sweep fly line which sinks 3 inches per second on the belly and two at the front, flies were a black and green lure on the point and an orange blob on the dropper. I think stocky bashing must come second nature to him! I decided to drop to a standard Di 5, a new water which hasn’t been fished for some time, the fish need to be found so the two different lines fishing at different depths would hopefully search out where the fish are holding up. After two drifts across the end of the north bank nothing really happened other than a follow close to the shore. We looked to the left where a bunch of bank anglers were fishing and within seconds there was a splash outside of the guy in the middle and his mate who was fishing below ran up the net the fish. He dispatched the fish and slipped it into an already bulging bass bag, I said to Terry it was time to move. As we motored across the sun broke and the heat was instant. I turned the boat to see the same angler into another fish, assuming he was on a heavy sinking line because of the angle of the strike and judging by the yellow running line it looked as if it was an Airflo 40+ or similar.

I stopped the boat around 100 yards from the shore where the bank anglers where fishing, hoping it would give the drogue time to set and give us a little more time to see what was going on. The wind in this particular corner of the dam was squally, turning the boat in circles and generally making the fishing difficult, so I pulled us along the bank a few yards to catch the wind perfectly. Within seconds of our first cast hitting the water our lines simultaneously tightened up, Terry stripping and me use the Roly-Poly. Each fish had the blob just stuck in it’s scissors. Both peas in the pod, but very fit and strong fighting fish.

We got closer to the shore and watched the bank boys get a couple more fish, it was good to show Terry how the shoal moves along the contours of the bank. Watching the guy furthers away into a fish, then the next, then the closest angler netting one as the shoal moved passed. The sequence would continue in reverse order as the fish moved back down the bank until the anglers eventually pushed them out into our fishing zone.

Within an hour the fish had pushed too far out for the bank anglers to reach, even with shooting heads they were struggling the distance needed into a fairly strong, and growing head wind. We were now anchored up some 80 yards from the shore, the fish were in such a tight band that drifting over them would give just one decent cast over the area until we had to move to make way for the bankies. I positioned the boat in around 30ft of water, trying to get our casts into 20/15ft and let the flies sink along the contour and lift through the deeper water, hopefully changing the angle where the fish were laying.

It was instant success, within five or six casts I’d landed three fish and Terry had a couple of pulls. It was becoming apparent the Di5 was out fishing the Di3 almost instantly. I passed Terry a Di5 sweep so he could fish his flies in the same zone. After he got used to the weight difference between the 3 and the 5, his casting improved and was almost hitting the backing knot on most casts!

It wasn’t long before his rod buckled over and was into a hard fighting fish.

The change of line was a saviour for Terry as all through the day when we hit a patch of fish, it was more or less fish for fish, and at the end, he managed to take 5 fish to me 2! The sweep path of the fly line meant that the flies were falling and being retrieved on a ‘U’ shape path, that change of angle at the deepest point and later on in the day that’s the point where every fish took. I was struggling to replicate this with a standard Di5, but it was great to see and re-assuring that when you have the correct fly line on in certain situations, there is nothing you can do to mimic it. Check out this post here on how to keep your flies in the zone using the Airflo range of fly lines.

As they day grew older the wind picked up and the rain set it, after a massive hail storm at around 3pm we decided to call it a day and head back to south Wales. We managed over 50 fish to the boat and our 16 fish weighed over 44lb 5oz. With the best 8 fish bag going 26lb 1Ooz. Rod average for opening weekend was just over 5, a brilliant early season average! This weekend sees the opening of Chew Valley lake, we’ve a boat booked for Sunday so will let you know how we get on!

The fly that done the most damage

Opening weekend at Draycote

Draycote Water is one of my most favourite lakes to fish, when I was younger we used to venture to Draycote a couple of times a year with the Thorn fly fishing club, but since then I haven’t really spent the time on there. I had a great day with Lloyd back in 2011 – You may be interested in this blog post - and I mentioned to Terry that there was a spare space going on one of the boats. Being mainly a river angler with the odd jaunt to the small-waters, Terry jumped at the idea of a days boat fishing, even if he was out of his comfort zone.

I picked him up at 5:30am and we made our way along the M4 corridor towards the M5 where we’d more or less get taken straight into Coventry. 150 miles later we arrived at The Green Man Pub, Dunchurch for breakfast. A fine breakfast to settle the stomach for a long day on the boat. Ring up and book your place if you need somewhere for breakfast.

Arriving at the lake at just after 9 we were greeted by Craig and the team of rangers, we paid for our boat and tackled up our fishing gear whilst sat at the jetty. I talked Terry through a few of the usual searching methods, we know it wasn’t going to be that tough with 8000 recently introduced stockies, but he was armed with the knowledge and the correct fly lines. He decided to set up with an Airflo Di 3 Sweep on his favourite enigma EMG rod, something he’s become very fond of the last couple of trips on the small-water! I decided to drop a little deeper than Terry, opting for the Di5 Forty Plus and more or less the same cast. We had the vision of searching for older fish later on in the day but wanted to get a couple of fish in the boat…

As I threw the drogue out to set the boat, Terry’s flies were already airborne and were hurtling towards the horizon. Before I could pick up my rod to make my first cast of the day he’d already struck into his first fish! He mentioned he’d counted to 10 seconds and half way through the retrieve the line locked up, a typical pulling take! In no time the fish was near the boat and you could see the look of enjoyment on Terry’s face. As it broke the surface I could see it wasn’t a stocky after all, but a fully finned, overwintered rainbow which looks as if it should have come from the top of the North at Rutland! Minus the cormorant mark of course…

It wasn’t long before he had another in the boat – I think he has a special knack for this fishing lark – And before long he had the net posed ready for action. The first two fish fell to the black and green blob on the point. Something I had readily tied on in anticipation. This time, the fish was not as beautiful as the first, but a worthy trout none the least.

It wasn’t long before my line started to go tight too, fortunately, otherwise I’d be on the bad end of a stuffing! Just as Terry slipped that fish back, I was awaiting the net to land my first fish of the session. A nice, clean stocked fish which put up a great account for itself. The trout had congregated around the ‘kink’ half way along the dam wall, outside the jetty. A quiet piece of water just on the inside of the corner. Each cast for the next 10 minutes I either took fish or bumped them, managing to put another 7 in the boat in just as many casts. Each were ‘peas in a pod’, averaging around 2.4lbs.

The Di 5 seemed to be out-fishing the Sweep 3, so I mentioned to Terry that he could leave the line sink to around 20 seconds rather than the 10 he was letting, by the end of the drift Terry took another four fish. Bringing his total back to 6… A great first drift, especially for a first time boat angler. As I started the engine and turned to return for another drift, we were greeted with an abundance of boats which seemed to pop up from nowhere, so I decided to take a look at the top end of Tofts Shallows, hopefully for some buzzer feeders, but mainly anything that came along!

The drift I chose was free from boats with just the one boat anchored in the far corner. Again, as I set the boat, Terry launched a line out and managed to hook another fish, fairly close to the surface. At that time I opted to swap from the Di5 to a 3ft Airflo Mini tip and a team of four buzzers. Terry landed the fish and was astound to the amount of insects, still alive in it’s mouth. A great time to go on the buzzers?

I strung together a cast of 4 glues, spaced fairly evenly apart at around 4 feet intervals. On the first cast Terry asked how he would fish this method, I explained in short hand, throw about half the line as it’s easier to control, give the flies a couple of seconds under slack line so they fall that little bit quicker and tighten up with a slow figure of eight. Keeping the line straight and under control throughout the whole retrieve. And then the deadly ‘lift’ at the end of course. It was so textbook, just as I mentioned lifting the rod at the end to pull the buzzers slowly to the surface, the rod buckled over and I struck into the first fish on the buzzers. Taking the point fly, a bright orange buzzer tied on a Kamasan B110 and glued a few times, the fly had weight and colour to attract fish, a great fly for stocked fish when they want it slow.

Later on that drift I couldn’t seem to get much going, but Terry took a couple more fish on the di3 Sweep again fairly high in the water. I thought the fish couldn’t be that deep for him to be taking them mid cast, it can’t be much more than 5/6ft down in the calm water and 20 second drop. I decided to change the make-up of the cast, taking the heavy fly off the point and positioning it on the 3rd dropper down with a slim blob on the point. I hoped the heavy buzzer would pull the blob down deeper but also not so deep as the cast before. With a 3ft mini tip fly line I was hoping to position my flies all within around 6-10ft mark, fairly close to the bottom in this shallow water. In no time I was rewarded with another feisty stocky, and it was from there on the fishing got good, the weather warmed up a little and we put at least 50 fish in the boat!

The highlight of my day, however, was getting a chase of over 15 yards from a decent rainbow. After spotting a fish rise close to the shore and lengthening my usual cast to around 30 yards in length, I was lucky enough to tempt the fish into casing the blob on the first pull… As I kept pulling the line eventually locked up and all hell broke loose when the fish below decided to run me to my backing. A recently introduced fish again, but one of the best fights we had all day. Weighing in at over 7lb.

Terry however, managed to take ALL the better fish of the day – im sure its beginners luck – netting five perfect overwintered fish throughout the day. Some of them were immense, great fighters and beautiful fish. What other way would you want to start your boat fishing career, Terry?