Craig Bufton takes us on a day's fishing to his home water, the Wye
Following a break from fishing (which I’ve written about in my Fishtec blog), I pulled myself together and headed out to fish the River Wye in Builth Wells to try and tempt some grayling before the Close Season (I wasn’t very successful, managing only a pretty little OOS brownie), my attention switched towards early season brown trout fishing.
I recently came to an agreement with a local leisure park to fish their private beat of the River Irfon (which just happens to be my favourite river and it's in the village I moved to last year), I met up with the owner James and groundskeeper Kevin the week before I planned to fish to have a talk about the fishing, river access and just generally to set the world to rights. I don’t know about you, but I always enjoy fishing a new river. Working out what patterns work best, finding a good spot that holds big grayling or trout and even just finding that little somewhere to sit and watch the world go by. The fact I can put my waders on at home and walk there is a bonus!
I have been working over the winter to replenished my fly boxes. Admittedly, I had a little help from the ESF competition and a friend (Dan Popp) sending me some fantastic Klinkhammer patterns. Flies ready, I took a couple of days leave as the weather reports were looking favourable. With the river levels also looking good despite the winter we had, it seemed an opportunity not to be missed. It just so happened that my day's fishing fell on the last day of the grayling open season, giving me chance to fish for the Lady of the Stream as well as some hungry early-season browns.
The weekend before I fished, it rained heavily. With my fingers crossed and a near-constant refreshing of the NRW river levels page all looked good on Fishing Eve!! I woke early, as I always do when going fishing, did my early morning dad duties and headed down the river. I tackled up two rods: an optimistic Airflo Streamtec 7ft 5wt, Airflo Super-Dri line with 9ft tapered leader and a further 3ft of Airflo 3lb G3 fluorocarbon with one of Dan’s Olive Klinkhammers and a Greys GRXi+ 9ft 6w, Cortland floating line and a straight line 5ft fluorocarbon of 5lb G3 to throw an Olive Woolly Bugger.
It was bitterly cold despite the sun being out; I opted for the streamer to try and cover as much of the new water as possible. Having walked to the top end of the beat, I settled for a deep pool towards the far bank of the river, just off the main flow. I covered the pool a few times but only managed one half-hearted take of the fly before the line quickly went slack. I moved down river, 50 yards or so above some shallow rapids, where there is a deep channel and a couple of overhanging (slightly bare) trees. Again no luck! Has no one told the trout that it's Open Season?
After a coffee, and with no sign of anything coming to the top, I changed my cast on the 9ft rod. I set up a New Zealand Strike Indicator - what a fantastic product by the way, I’ve probably used every strike indicator/bung on the market but this tops the lot. So easy to use and remove from the cast. I’ve used it on the river with small nymphs and on stillwaters with weighted Cat's Whiskers, being able to adjust its size to suit conditions has resulted in a lot more fish for me personally. The fly I chose was one from the ESF competition – a brown Slim Line Shrimp pattern – I opted for a single fly as the occasional cross wind was making casting troublesome at times. No sooner had the fly hit the water and the strike indicator dipped under. Initially I thought my fly was too deep and had caught the bottom but lifting into it it was clear a grayling had taken on the drop. I was into my first proper fight on my new water and a good fight at that. A short while later and a grayling just shy on 1lb was in the net.
I fished this section of the river for about an hour and managed to tempt nine grayling to the net, all on the shrimp pattern – all released to fight another day. The biggest weighing in at 1lb 9oz – approx.16” long.
Satisfied with my day so far, I decided to walk to the bottom end of the beat (about one mile away) so I could have a good look at all the river. Having recced a couple of likely spots I stopped for lunch, a hearty fisherman’s lunch of a pork pie, chocolate; and coffee!
The bottom section of the beat felt a lot warmer; heavy tree lined banks gave shelter from the cold wind. I changed to a heavier red tag nymph as I fished some of the rapids, tempting another little grayling out. Slowly wading up river a couple of shucks passed me by in the slower water – on the slow bend a little further upstream I could see an intermittent rise so approached carefully. I drifted my olive Klinkhammer two or three times with no luck, having changed to a black Klinkhammer I had a little more interest. Then the brilliant sight of your fly disappearing in a gulp of water. I got excited, struck too soon and missed! The frustration! A few more drifts and a fish was finally on, my heart was pounding out of my chest, it never fails to excite me having a fish on the end of the line. A couple of runs and the fish showed itself: a brownie, my fist of the season. Or was it? No…..No sooner was I thinking about taking its picture did it partake in a little aerial action and disappeared back into its lie. With the cold wind picking up and putting quite a riffle on the water I opted back for the nymph..
With the red tag nymph still on, I caught two more grayling before deciding to call it a day with very little feeling left in my fingers. As I tackled down I chatted to Kevin about the day and we both vowed to head out as soon as the weather improves again.
All in all I had a great day on a new section of my favourite river. I netted some very nice fish and the scenery on my way down river was lovely. James and Kevin from the park were a pleasure to meet and more than happy to give me a run down of the river.
The park offers great facilities with static homes to rent and has a fantastic area for caravans and camping at the foot of the Eppynt Mountains. If you’re an avid fisherman and looking to visit the area, I highly recommend it. This private section of the Irfon is very lightly fished, often giving you the run of the river. Nearby there are many day tickets available from the Wye & Usk Foundation. My local club is only a five minute drive down the A483 where we offer day tickets to fish the lower stretches of the Irfon as well as the River Wye. As well as our recently redeveloped coarse fishery that is producing fantastic grown-on fish, you are really spoilt for choice in the area