Grayling fishing at Rhagatt Hall – a great day out on the Welsh Dee

This year, Tim had joined Wirral Game Angling club to continue his pursuit of the elusive Welsh Dee salmon. He was successful in his quest; catching two lovely Welsh Dee salmon. One from junction beat with the Alwen and the other from the glide above Horseshoe Falls.

Now, with the salmon season closed, he wanted to have a go at fly fishing for grayling. Therefore, invited me to go grayling fishing at Rhagatt Hall on the Welsh Dee at Carrog.

The recent dry and cold weather had allowed the river level to drop to a good height for grayling fishing (0.63m Corwen gauge).

A blanket of cloud rolled in on Monday evening and averted a frosty start to Tuesday.  However, in the cold north-westerly it felt much colder than the 3^oC showing on the car thermometer when we pulled into the lower car park at 10 am. 

We walk upriver to fish the Railway Pool (upper limit of the beat), in the hope that the sun would have started to warm things up. 

The Railway Pool – grayling fishing at Rhagatt Hall

Unfortunately, the Railway Pool was still in the shade and there was no sign of any emerging fly life.

Tim wasn’t keen on Czech nymphing, so I set his rod up for wet fly fishing with a size 14, black hopper on a fluorocarbon leader. The black hopper is a great allrounder and the plan was to fish this until there were signs of a fly hatch.

I was keen for Tim to catch a grayling, so I showed him where to start fishing through the pool. Near the head of the pool, Tim missed a pluck at the fly and towards the tail of the pool he caught a small grayling.

I set up my 10ft 3wt rod to fish a team of Czech nymphs spaced 3ft apart on 4lb copolymer (point: size 12, pink collared PTN with 3.5mm TB, middle dropper: size 14, orange tag PTN with a 3mm silver TB, top dropper: size 16, quill nymph with a 2mm TB).

While Tim was fishing through the pool, I started Czech nymphing in the shallow riffle at the head of the pool, but it wasn’t until I reached the drop-off zone that I had felt the first take…

the rod it bent round and a grayling that took off downriver

Take care not to lose it, I guided the lovely grayling to the net, which had taken the silver TB PTN.

Fishing on through the drop-off zone, the PTN with a silver tungsten bead tempted another two beautiful grayling.

I continued fishing the pool and this produced another eight smaller grayling, mostly, on the silver TB PTN.

When I returned to the head of the pool, I noticed a few flies emerging and two rising fish.

Tim had been fishing in that area but hadn’t had any luck with the black hopper. Therefore, it was time to see if a change of fly would produce better results.

I switched the black hopper for a pearl-ribbed March Brown spider.

Then Tim targetted the fish rising close to the far bank. After covering it a couple of times…

BANG… the fish swirl and his line tightened

Carefully, Tim played his first decent grayling to the net…

On fishing down the pool, he had another couple of takes but both grayling threw the hook. 

We’d started to feel the cold and, with the sun still behind the hillside, we headed off downriver to fish a sunnier spot.

Fly fishing the Bench Pool

At the bench pool, we met a couple of anglers, Chris and Ian. They’d caught a few grayling on float fished worms, the best grayling was about 2lb.  After our chat, they moved upriver to fish Railway Pool.

Tim and I fished through the Bench Pool but neither of us had a single take.

Disappointed, we headed downriver to fish the Signal Pool.  

Fly fishing the Singal Pool

At the head of the island, I started fishing the fast run into the Signal Pool with the Czech nymphs.  I’d only made a couple of casts when the line stopped and on lifting the rod it bent round into a grayling that took off into the main flow.

After a short struggle, I guided into the netted. Again the hit had taken the silver PTN. Fishing on as far as I could wade produced another grayling, but this time the TB quill nymph was its downfall.

While I’d been fishing the run by the island, Tim was fishing the body of the pool below the island where he’d caught an OOS brown trout on the pearl-ribbed March brown spider.

I fished down through the run that time had covered with the wet flies and picked up my final grayling of the day on the silver TB PTN.  

Cold, and with light fading we called an end to our fishing expedition.  We’d had a great day and Tim had caught his first grayling on the fly…

The challenge now is to help him catch a bigger grayling on the fly.

For more on winter grayling fly fishing you will find the following post interesting

• Winter fly fishing for grayling: Great tips for beginners

Tight lines, Andrew