This fishing report charts my fishing trips to the Welsh Dee to keep the readers abreast of how the river has been fishing. Hopefully, it will be helpful to anyone who is planning a fishing trip to the Welsh Dee.
To date, this year has been extremely wet in North Wales and the Welsh Dee has been in flood and unfishable for a lot of the time. However, during the occasional dry spells I managed to squeeze in three grayling fishing trips and catch some beautiful grayling, despite the high river levels.
So, let’s look at how the Welsh Dee has been fishing…
February Grayling Fishing Report
A fishing trip to fish Ty Mawr Country Park – 17th February
The weather forecast for the remainder of February wasn’t great for North Wales but a brief spell of dry weather helped the river level subside to a barely fishable level (1.1m Manley Hall gauge). Making it possible to squeeze in a last-minute fishing trip with Graham.
It’s been ages since I last fished the Welsh Dee where it passes through Ty Mawr Country Park at Newbridge. This beat is better fished when the river is closer to its summer level but there are a couple of places that can be fished in high water, which I wanted to show my mate Graham.
After showing him where to park, we followed the path alongside the viaduct down to the river.
The main part of the Cheery Tree Pool, immediately above the Viaduct, was unfishable because the water was racing through the pool.
We continued upriver to the next pool, Dyke Run, where the river turns 90o as it hits the large stone bluff on the far bank.
Grayling are often found lying in the slacker water below the large back eddy. So, that’s where we started fishing.
It was a mild (13oC) day but we hadn’t seen any flies hatching, so I opted to start by Euro nymphing using a team of three nymphs (point: #12 olive tungsten jig back; middle: #14 blood red squirmy; top: #16 hares ear nymph with 2.5mm copper TB).
I began by fishing the nymphs along the gravel bar formed by the back eddy and it wasn’t long before I caught a grayling on the squirmy worm, which was followed by a small wild brown trout.
Graham had chosen to fish the tail of the pool with a team of wet flies that produced one grayling on a March Brown spider.
After he’d finished, I fished the slacker sections of the tail with the nymphs and caught two lovely grayling that were lying close to the bushes on the near-bank. One grayling fell for the hare’s ear nymph and the other on the squirmy.
For the final hour, I took Graham upriver to show him the other places that are worth fishing when the river is closer to its summer level. We fished the margins of the Long Meadow Pool but without any success because the river was too high.
Welsh Dee Grayling Fishing Report – 13th February
A break in several days of wet weather allowed the river level to drop just enough (0.97m @ Manley Hall gauge) to squeeze in a mid-week grayling fishing trip at Llangollen.
I selected to fish at Duncans Pool because my previous fishing trip there at the beginning of February produced some beautiful grayling.
It was a mild day (12oC) but I didn’t see any flies hatching on my journey upriver. Therefore, I set up my 11ft #3 Vison Nymphmaniac rod to fish a team of nymphs (point: #12 Olive Tungsten Jig Back nymph; middle: #14 pink squirmy worm; top: #16 Hare’s Ear nymph with a 2mm copper TB).
The river level was higher than I’d expected and I could only nymph through the top section of the pool. Fishing upriver to the overhanging Chestnut tree produced three brown trout, a small sea trout and two small grayling on the pink squirmy worm.
In search of grayling, I went upriver to fish the Pipe Pool but the river was too high to fish the pool properly with the nymphing set-up. Therefore, I changed to fishing a team of wet flies on a floating line with a 7ft fast sinking tip (Point: #12 Black Pennell with a 2.5mm TB behind the hackle; middle: #12 Pheasant & Silver Grouse Spide; top: #14 Pearl-ribbed March Brown Spider).
To slow the swing of the wet flies it was necessary to fish them at a shallow downstream angle and add regular upstream mends. With that approach, I caught a nice grayling and brown trout that both fell for the weighted Black Pennell as it swung into the margin.
On my way back to the car, I caught another grayling and brown trout fishing the tail of Duncans Pool with the wet flies. Again, both fish were tempted by the Black Pennell.
Grayling Fishing Report – Llangollen 3rd February
After my last fishing trip in January, heavy rain flooded the Welsh Dee catchment and it took a week of relatively dry weather for the river to fall to a fishable height (0.96m @ Manley Hall). So, with more rain in the forecast, I ventured out for a spot of grayling fishing at Duncans Pool on the Welsh Dee near Llangollen.
It was an overcast day when I pulled into the car park by Llantysilio Church but the sun was forecast to break through the cloud in the afternoon.
On my journey upriver to Duncans Pool I didn’t see any flies hatching, so I set my 11ft 3# Nymphmanaic rod to fish a team of nymphs on a Euro nymphing leader setup (point: #12 PTN with a 4mm gold TB; middle: #14 quill nymph with a 3 mm silver TB; top: #18 copper beaded HE).
Starting about halfway up the pool I fished the nymphs methodically upriver to the shallow fast water near the overhanging Chestnut tree. Surprisingly, the nymphs didn’t produce any takes.
I switched the quill nymph on the middle dropper for a pink squirmy worm and fished the pool again. This change produced several lovely grayling that were tempted by the pink squirmy.
The high river level restricted fishing in the lower part of the pool from the bank. Fishing from the overgrown bank was difficult but I managed to catch a few more grayling on the squirmy and Hare’s Ear nymph.
After a brief appearance, the sun disappeared at about 3 pm and so did the takes. Pleased with the results of my efforts I called it a day and went home before the next band of rain rolled in.
January Grayling Fishing Report
Grayling fishing on Llangollen Upper Beat – 20th January
After a very wet start to the New Year, the river level finally dropped enough to fish the Top Pool, which often holds a good head of grayling in winter. Weather conditions weren’t great because a storm was rolling in and the wind had picked up to gusts of 20-25mph. However, we still made the trip because the forecasted heavy rain would make it unfishable for the next week or so.
During our walk to the Top Pool, we met another angler who’d been fishing the Fridge Pool with nymphs for a couple of hours without any luck in the blustery condition. Not a good sign.
We continued upriver hoping that we would be sheltered from the wind by the woodland on both sides of the river. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing downstream quite strongly at the top pool.
No flies were hatching, so felt the best approach was to fish a team of nymphs close to the riverbed. I set up my 11ft 3# Vision Nymphmaniac fly rod to fish a team of three flies (point: #12 Olive jig back nymph: middle: #14 Black PTN with a 3mm silver TB; top: #16 purple collar quill nymph with a 2.5mm silver TB).
After a slow start, we eventually found the grayling below the fast water at the head of the pool opposite the large tree on the far bank. We caught several grayling, most of which fell for the black pheasant tail nymph on the middle dropper.
Final Notes:
If you’ve found this Welsh Dee fishing report useful, it would be great to hear about any fishing trips you have made to the Welsh Dee. Also, if you like I could add them to this post, which I plan to keep updated throughout the year.
Tight lines, Andrew
Another great report..Thank You.
Hi Dave,
It’s great to hear you enjoyed it.
Tight lines, Andrew