Wye Cream Always Rises To The Top

When stumbling upon this sign early morning I had to smile to myself, its great to know they actually mean it and I should have known right there I was in for a good day. It was my intention of locating likely spots for grayling in advance for next couple of months while also trying some new flies I'd put together. I got stuck into a nice grayling (below) on my second cast, making for a fantastic start to the day. Before long the day warmed up, so I hung my coat over a branch and indulged myself with some amazing fishing and still only my first chosen section, as expected really which is probably why I made the b-line for this area. After a couple of hours exploring I decided to move sections and returned to my car for a cuppa and a sandwich.

After moving a few miles I was fortunate enough to locate a pod of ladies all coming to the dryfly, Sturdy's Fancy, Olives and the bigger fish taking my Bradshaws Fan-C, my interpretation of the original pattern which proved effective yesterday. The autumn sunshine beat down as the Wye fished its socks off and its hard to imagine any angler fishing a better river anywhere, not 1oz short of sensational and completely magical.

There is no doubt this river is full of fantastic fish and large grayling are a plenty and inevitably a few Rainbows were caught and released double time, but the grayling definitely won the day.

Sleeves rolled up I managed to pick of some fine grayling from most pools I chose to fish and while playing a fine grayling which took my peeping caddis, I had a visit from the Dryfly Guru Richard Ward and his best mate Henry. Finding myself well hooked on the bottom with a willow preventing me moving downstream in an attempt to free the hook RW shouted "try upstream" at which point he took my rod and wondered off upstream. After a good distance he stopped, turned around flicked the hook free, pretty easily i might add, before walking back plonking the rod back in my hand "there you go" and there lies my lesson for today, at a point when I was going for a straight line snap, RW's experience got me going again, without losing my fly.

Walking back to my car in town I bumped into the likely lads Glen and Woody and after a brief chat I finished a memorable days fishing so satisfied I even resisted a few flicks in town. They say cream always rises to the top and the grayling yesterday showed no signs of staying down below, mind you this river really is the cream and I'm still pinching myself the day after.