Fishing Midland Fly Fishers beat of the Welsh Dee
I have access to fish Midland Fly fishers beat of the Welsh Dee near Glyndyfrdwy, through Llangollen-Maelor exchange ticket scheme. Despite this, I rarely fish this beautiful beat, which is reported to hold some good brown trout and grayling.
This year, I plan to correct this oversight by spending more time fishing this beat. Hopefully, this will help me achieve my target of catching a trophy Welsh Dee brown trout and/or later in the season a trophy grayling.
Saturday was forecast to be a warm, sunny day and when I pulled into the coral parking by the river at 9 am it was already starting to warm up nicely (ca. 14°C). A new club member, Colin, arrived shortly afterwards; who I was going to give some guidance to help him catch is first Welsh Dee trout or grayling. After a quick chat, I set up a couple of rods so that I could seamlessly switch between Czech nymphing and dry-fly fishing.
Initial tackle set-up
We walked down to fish the first pool that has a deep hole towards the far bank. The water was crystal clear and there was no evidence of any flies emerging. Therefore, started fishing through the pool with a team of Czech nymphs (point: size 12, pink collared pheasant tail nymph with a 3.5mm tungsten bead, middle dropper: size 14, brown nymph with 2mm tungsten bead; top dropper: size 16, Hare’s Ear with a copper tungsten bead).
Colin watched on, to see how I approached fishing the pool with the nymphs. Fishing the first third of the pool, surprising, didn’t produce any takes. After the drop-off zone the water deepened to > 6ft. Therefore, I added a piece of shot (AAA) 3” above the point fly to get the flies quickly down to the river bed.
Fishing on towards rock outcrop on the far bank produced the first take of the day. As I bent into the take a brown trout immediately produced a short aerobatic display. Once under control I guided the energetic trout to the net that had been fooled by the PTN. Fishing on to the end of the pool didn’t yield anymore takes.
Meanwhile, Colin fished the fast water at the head of the pool with the black hopper. This produced one take that he didn’t connect with.
Fishing the next pool up river
Next, we walked up river passed a long shallow glide to a fast section that contains a few large boulders, behind which the current had cut-out a couple of deep changes. I pointed out to Colin that these features produce good lies for fish.
Then showed him where to start fishing the wet fly, which he had changed for a size 12, red-tagged caddis fly with most of the red tag cut off.
While Colin was fishing down through the run, I waded across to fish down the other side of the boulders with the Czech nymphs. As I reached the other side, I turned around to see that Colin’s rod was bent over into his first Welsh Dee fish. Shortly, afterwards he safely landed and returned his first grayling (ca. ¾ lbs). Now with a big smile on his face, he continued fishing down through the run.
I started fishing the far side of the deep channel with the Czech nymphs and after a few casts missed a take. I noticed a few fish had started taking flies on the surface, thus I replaced the Czech nymphs with a team of wet flies spaced 3ft apart on 4lb fluorocarbon (point: size 16, black hopper; middle dropper: size 14 pearly butt Waterhen Bloa; top dropper: size 14, pearl-ribbed March Brown spider).
As my first cast swung to the dangle, the line tightened and the rod bend round as the fish darted into the fast water. Eventually, I got things under control and guided a nice grayling to the net that had fallen for the pearl ribbed March Brown spider.
Fishing on down into the shallow glide, the March brown spider produced two more grayling. After wading back to the right bank, I switched to fishing the dry fly – size 14, CDC Olive on 3lb copolymer tippet.
I started fishing up towards the head of the pool and after only a couple of casts into the foam line, a trout surfaced and snatched the Olive. Following a short struggle, a beautiful brown trout was netted and carefully released.
Colin had to leave early, pleased with his first grayling and a few useful fishing tips. After saying farewell, I continued fishing up to the head of the run with the CDC Olive. This produced a couple more grayling and a few missed takes. By mid-day I also had to head back home for a family event.
Overall, it had turned out to be a great mornings fishing with Colin on the short stretch of Midland Flyfishers water we covered. On the drive home I made a mental note to explore the rest of the beat during the next couple of months. In addition, I also will be planning a trip to see how the “Bling Spider” perform on the streamy sections of this beat.
Tight line until next time, Andrew
PS. Below are links to the post on previous fishing trips to Midland Fly Fishers beat of the Welsh Dee, which you might like