Beautiful salmon for a lucky few on the Welsh Dee

Heavy rain during the last weekend of September flooded the Welsh Dee, with the river level peaking at 1.7m (Manley Hall gauge) on the 1^st of October. 

Welsh Dee fishing report – 3^rd October

By the 3^rd of October, the river level had fallen to 1.2m and started to clear. Therefore, I ventured out with Tim to try and find a beautiful salmon or two.

Our first port of call was Sludgy Pool because in high water the inside bend offers a resting place for salmon, which have run the fast water from the Cottage Pool.

I fished the pool with the salmon fly, a Cascade (1.5” copper tube) on a 15ft sink-tip line but drew a blank.

Next, Tim fished the pool with a red & gold flying-C and caught a sea trout in the tail of the pool.

I’d seen a flash of a grayling while fishing the head of the pool. This was enough to tempt me to fish the pool with a team of Czech nymphs (point: size 10 pink bomb; middle dropper: size 14 pink squirmy; top dropper: size 14 pheasant tail nymph 2.8mm gold TB)

On my first cast into the fast water at the head of the pool the line shot sideways and I lifted into a grayling, which had taken the pink squirmy. Fishing downriver towards produced two more grayling and a couple of salmon par.

In the slacker water the stopped and when I lifted the rod it bent round into a bigger fish that made a B-line for the fast water. Carefully I got it under control and guided a grayling safely to the net. It too had fallen for the pink squirmy.

Fishing to the tail of the pool produced three grayling. Two of which fell for the pink squirmy while the other took the PTN.

At 1 pm we went back to the car for lunch and drove upriver to fish Dee Farm.

From the head of Dee Farm, I fished down to the tail of the pool with the salmon fly but only caught a greedy grayling on a Willie Gun (size 10D).

Tim fished up through the pool with a red flying-C but only had two brownies snatch at it.

When the light started to fail, we went home dejected by the lack of salmon. My only consolation being some sport Czech nymphing for grayling.

Welsh Dee fishing report – 5^th October

On Saturday I was back fishing the Welsh Dee with renewed enthusiasm because on Friday my friend Jeff had caught a beautiful salmon (13lbs) above Horseshoe Falls on a spinner. In addition, Alan had caught several sea trout on the upper beat, the best one weighing ca. 4lbs.

Clearly, a few fish had started to run

Since Thursday the river level had continued to fall and clear but at 1.1m there was a limited choice of pools that were fishable with the fly.

Beautiful salmon fly

After lunch, I moved downriver to fish Duncan’s Pool from the left bank. Fishing the pool a couple of times with the fly drew a blank. Furthermore, there was no evidence of salmon moving into the pool.

In the desperation to avoid a blank day, I switched to Czech nymphing for grayling (point: size 12, red collar black nymph; middle dropper: size 12, pheasant tail nymph 2.8mm TB; top dropper: size 14, Hare’s ear 2mm copper TB).

Surprisingly, I fished to the end of the pool without a single take. Therefore, I changed the middle dropper for a pink squirmy.

After a couple of casts, the line tightened into a fish, which turned out to be a grayling that had a pink squirmy in its mouth.

That did the trick…

A few drifts later, the line shot sideways and the rod bend into something energetic. Eventually, I got things under control and guided a beautiful sea trout into the net, which had taken a liking for the pink squirmy.

Fishing on produced another grayling and brown trout on the squirmy. Then I lost a bigger fish in the fast water, which felt like another sea trout.

Pleased with the sport on the Czech nymphs I gave the salmon fly one last run through the pool…

However, there wasn’t even a sniff at the fly. 

Welsh Dee fishing report – 7^th October

On Sunday, it was great to hear that Tim caught his first Welsh Dee salmon fishing above Horseshoe Falls with red flying-C, which was followed by a sea trout. Finally, all his hard work following my advice paid off.

In addition, Alan had caught a few more sea trout fishing the upper beat with the spinner on the high water. 

I wasn’t going to fish on Monday, but these reports tempted me out fishing with Alan. 

We fished Dee Farm for a few hours but neither the fly or spinner produced anything but the odd brown trout.

After Alan left, I went downriver and fished the glide above Horseshoe Falls until 7 pm, which turned out to be a waste of time because I didn’t anything for my efforts. 

Welsh Dee fishing report – 10^th October

On Wednesday, Alan emailed me to say he’d finally caught his first salmon (ca. 8lbs) of 2019, which was followed by a second one (10lbs) and then lost another one.

I’d arranged to fish with Tim on Thursday, and I hoped that we would have some luck too.

Conditions were good; it was a mild overcast day and the river level had fallen to 0.85m, which opened up a few more pools for fly fishing.

In the morning we started at the Hollybush Pool and fished upriver to Dee Farm but we didn’t have any luck. I fished a red Ally’s shrimp (10D) on a floating line tipped with a 15ft intermediate polyleader.  While Tim fished with a red flying-C with a gold blade.

Next, we walked up to the Top Pool where Tim had not fished before. After explaining how to fish the bottom section of the pool with the spinner, I moved to fish the head of the pool with the fly.

I’d fished about halfway down when I heard a cry from Tim…

“Fish ON”

I got out and went to help him land the salmon, which a coloured cock fish.

After safely releasing it, I returned to fish the top section of the pool until it was time to get lunch.

For the final part of the day, we fished the lower beat but didn’t get anything on the fly or spinner.

Welsh Dee fishing report – 16^th October 

A weekend of rain pushed the Welsh Dee into flood again, with the level peaking at 1.4m Manley Hall. On Monday the river level started to fall and by Wednesday it had dropped to 0.97m.

With only two days left to catch a salmon, I ventured out with my son, George, to fish the beat above Horseshoe Falls. 

I decided to fish the left bank from the Pipe Pool down to Horseshoe Falls because this section in places can be fished with the fly when the river level is close to 1m. 

George, on the other hand, fished the right bank from the Hollybush to Dee Farm with the spinner.

Shortly after I’d arrived my phone rang, it was George…

He’d caught his first salmon of the year spinning the Hollybush Pool; a coloured cock fish of about 7lbs.

Shortly afterwards, he phoned again to say he’d lost a second fish in the same pool.

This news buoyed my spirits and I set about fly fishing Duncan’s Pool with a Cascade (size 10D) on a floating line tipped with a fast sinking 15ft polyleader. 

I fished the pool a couple of times but didn’t get any takes.

Next, I fished the Pipe Pool but was met with the same response.

Returning to Duncan’s pool, I spent the next couple of hours fishing it with a number of different flies but to no avail.

After his initial success, George didn’t connect with anything else.  Therefore, we went home.

Welsh Dee fishing report – 17^th October

Tim joined me for the final day of the Welsh Dee salmon fishing season. 

Overnight the river level dropped to 0.9m (Manley Hall), which opened up the Ddol Isaf beat for fly fishing. For the morning session we decided to fish this beat because compared to the upper beat, fewer people would have fished it recently.

I set up my Vision (14ft 9wt) fly rod to fish a floating line tipped with a medium-sinking 15ft polyleader and tied on a size 10D red Ally’s shrimp. Whereas, Tim stuck to spinning with a red flying-C.

The river was running clear and high but the flow was ideal for fly fishing in several places. Methodically, we fished all the beat with the fly and spinner but sadly drew a blank.

At 1 pm dark clouds rolled in and we retreated to the car and went upriver to Horseshoe Falls. During lunch, the heavens opened.

Halfway down the glide, a beautiful salmon jumped in front of me; the first I’d seen all season.  

Tim went fishing the lower section with the spinner, while I started fly fishing at the top, just below Duncan’s Pool.

A few casts later, I felt a pluck at the fly as it swung round to the dandle and a moment later a salmon jumped free….

I fished on until it was too deep to wade and then returned to the top of the run. Fishing the pool a second time didn’t yield any takes, despite seeing three more salmon jump as they moved through the pool.

The heavens opened up again, signalling the end of the days fishing and the end of the salmon season.

Fishing round-up:

At Llangollen, salmon fishing during 2019 has been very poor for all. A few salmon were caught on the spinner during the last couple of weeks of the season, but I haven’t heard of any being caught on the fly.

As for me, my 19 days of salmon fishing on the Welsh Dee have resulted in a single pluck at the fly on the last day of the season.

My only consultation was helping my friend, Tim, catch his first and second beautiful salmon on the Welsh Dee. 

Hopefully, I will have better luck on the fly in 2020.

Now it is time to focus on grayling fishing; at least there is plenty for Welsh Dee grayling to catch.

Tight line until next time, Andrew

If you are interested in fly fishing on the Welsh Dee there is some excellent Day Ticket water at Llangollen and Bangor-On-Dee.