Well we had some pretty wild weather in North Wales over the weekend as storm Ciara struck. The river levels rose rapidly and is 4 or 5 times higher than its normal height. This isn't helped by bunded banks to keep the river off of the flood plains. But I'm not getting into that old chestnut again, it just raises my blood pressure and nobody in the Welsh Government cares.
Today the temperature has dropped about 10 degrees and for a short time there was an impressive blizzard.
This isn't uncommon weather at this time of year but the outcome is that I can't go fishing as the rivers are too high and it's closed season on lakes. Still, there's always the barbel fishing in Spain later this year to look forward to.

I spent a great day with Karl and James yesterday. In spite of a howling gale and heavy rain the intrepid anglers set out to fish a couple of upland lakes for indigenous wild brown trout. Both guys caught a couple of wonderful examples.  These beautifully marked fish are typical of the region .

I buy much of my fly tying materials and equipment from James who's growing business provides a great range of fly tying goodies. Check it out here The Fly Tying Company 

Another grayling released to fight another day

The grayling fishing in Snowdonia is stunning and as good as you'll find anywhere. The smile on this clients face says it all! (sorry video failed to load)

The weather today started warm, sunny and calm and visibility through the water was perfect with polarised glasses on. I started off on the afon (river) Tryweryn watching a small shoal of grayling ignore every fly I put across, over, under and in front of them. Dries, wets and nymphs in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours were either ignored or followed and rejected. Finally the wind picked up and the ensuing ripple prevented me from seeing my prey. In the ripple a solitary sedge was taken from the surface, a chance! After tying on a G&H sedge a cracking grayling took it on my second cast, success I'd got my first fish of the day.
In the afternoon I decided to try the Dee. There were occasional rise forms indicating that fish were feeding in spite of the low water (we really do need some rain). I decided on a two fly cast with a tungsten nymph on the point and a waterhen bloa on a short dropper. Within a few minutes a sea trout took off from the water vertically having taken the dropper and was not happy about it!  I on the other hand I went home happy after a challenging but enjoyable day.

Not only has the weather been amazing, hot and dry with a pleasant breezy but it's been really busy.

Sunday at the Bala country fair was crazy. I was giving casting lessons all day and there was no let up. People were queuing up! It was brilliant. I went home totally dehydrated and exhausted, but I love doing game fairs
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Monday, another scorching day and back to Bala for the day giving fishing and casting lessons on the afon Tryweryn. Fortunately water had been released into the river raising the levels. It was a real treat to be stood waist deep in cold water, bliss!

Tuesday, a little cooler and overcast today.The local rivers are struggling at the moment and in need of some serious rain to get the fish moving again. I was out guiding in the morning for a couple of guys. Having shown Steve and Bill a few likely hot spots I left them having brought three fish to the net successfully. I had a call later that evening from Steve who wanted to know where he could get some more of the flies I'd suggested as they'd had such a good day that the fish had hammered their stocks (13 or 14 fish between them)
I arranged to meet them this morning to replenish their supplies and give them a few of my hand tied 'Oshboshinator' flies. These are tied to my own recipe and work really well on the Dee but I've not used them anywhere else yet. I'll be keen to get some feedback.

The rest of the week is equally as busy with casting lessons.

I must make time to go fishing next week!

I've not posted for a while, I've been a little busy.
The fishing over the last few weeks has been good, very good in fact. Last week (Friday) one of the local rivers was teeming with fish, more rise forms than you could shake a wading staff at.
Today on the Dee it was windy and cool and the fishing stuttered before it got going. In the morning I had a few snatches at dries and nymphs but no solid takes.The afternoon was a very different story, the wind dropped, the temperature rose and the fish became more active. Even though there were lots of olives coming off the water there were few rising fish.
Nymphs definitely won out over dries and 4 grayling and a brownie was brought to the net in quick succession.
A good end to the day.

Here is a selection of early season dries and emergers that have been working well on rivers and mountain lakes of Snowdonia

Yesterday was a cold wet and very windy day, a few fish were in evidence but not many.
Today was a much more pleasant affair, warm, bright and a gently ripple on the water.
A small hatch of sedge was bringing the fish to the surface providing a couple of hours of great sport, with brown CDC sedge and CDC highriders proving irresistible.

Well the weather has finally turned and feels much more Autumnal. Today was a mix of warm sun, cold Northerly wind, cloud and cool temperatures. Wading was quite pleasant during the sunny spells but the recent rain had reduced the water temperature and as the afternoon progressed it got decidedly chilly. For all of this there was an amazing hatch a caddis (sedge) flies on the river and the fish were rising to them.
After a tussle with this feisty brownie he was set free to fight another day

Bank holiday Monday and the weather is stunning. Hot, dry and a slight breeze. Perfect for hiking up to a mountain lake for a spot of fishing. These are some of the stunningly coloured and hard fighting little fish. Take a look at the size of their tails and the beautifully marked fins.
Click on a photo for slideshow 

Willem, a visitor to North Wales from Belgium, was delighted with his morning out in search of wild brown trout. After a wet, cold and windy start to the day the weather broke, temperatures rose and a few fish started to rise to the sporadic sedge hatch.  Willem soon started bringing these spirited mini torpedos to the net. This was the first of Willem's treasure trove, a silver sedge proved irresistible to this stunning red speckled bar of gold.
Well done Willem.