Sunday 19th August 2017 - August floods

It took a while to turn around my sea-trout season. A visit from my friend Arjan from the Netherlands got me out fishing last week. He came to fish for hill trout but the river looked so good that we stuck with the upper reaches of the Dyfi for a few days. We caught nothing spectacular, but I did start to pick up the odd two- or three-pounder on the fly. I usually frequent the lower river, so it was an eye-opener for me to see how much wonderful fly-water there is further upstream. On Arjan's last day we had some fun with Clywedog rainbows before finishing the week with an evening on a hill lake where we caught some some proper trout. I have had a few short sessions just above the tide and I am starting to find lots of small sewin, as well as frequent close encounters with otters. Bethan and Dewi have been here for most of August and we enjoyed one overnight trip to the Lleyn Peninsula. Despite the tourist hordes we found a few quiet coves, and in one of them Dewi tried his hand with a rod. It took him just a few minutes to master the fixed-spool reel, casting a soft-plastic bait on a jig, and on about his fifth cast he found something pulling the other way. Taid failed to catch a fish but was well satisfied with the result. We are getting fresh dirty floods almost daily - the river needs to drop before the fly is of much use, and of course the early sea-trout are now far upstream and getting pretty stale. Time to try for a salmon!