Wylye & Monnow Weekend

[tigermoth]

Its a tough old life sometimes - couldn't think of anything interesting to do last weekend, so Sewinman & I took a bit of time out to fish the rivers Wylye and Monnow.

Saturday on the Wylye, grey skies but dry (for the most part) and warm, perfect conditions. Started the day nymphing - myself on GRHE under an indicator & SM on Elk Hair Caddis with PTN below. Despite being told by the "locals" that there wasn't anything moving, SM quickly relieved the first pool of call of four or five superb brownies - the best of which was 2.5lb if it was an ounce - "Got one!!" was beginning to sound like the worst kind of broken record

A beautiful stretch of prime, un-manicured chalkstream stuffed full of trout and grayling - some willing to please others opting to tease :DFishing was great all day long and our enjoyment was no duobt doubled by constant reminders from the locals that there was nothing moving. Took over two dozen fish between us and lost plenty more. On the dry, I enjoyed success with some of Phil Holdings lovely Grannom patterns - three smash takes broke me on three pound tippet! - my own fault for not having anything heavier I guess. Anyhow - after a super day we headed back to Tigermoth Towers, there to prepare ourselves for the challenges of the River Monnow. Preparation was greatly assisted by several bottles of red and half a bottle of malt

Sunday at Garway, The Monnow gurgling clear and fresh, though no real sustained rise. A bright, clear, warm day saw us catch fish steadily throughout - mixed bag of lovely grayling and brownies. SM left off where he finished on the Wylye and hit a superb 1.5lb grayling first cast, followed two casts later by a 2.5lb torpedo shaped beauty. Just after lunch, SM's rod was on fire - and not for the first time I imagine - I had the desperate experience of fishing a large pool next to him - he took the left current, I the right. He was yanking fish out left right and centre - all large, gorgeously conditioned fish - whilst I watched on, trying my best not to feel jealous. "no that's fine, you carry on......"

17 grayling between us, ave size 1.5lb or so and 8 lovely trout averaging 12/13". Ahhhhhh,....... ust a brilliant weekends fishing. Some piccies will be in the Photo Section for those interested.

[Sewinbasher]

C'mon Tigermoth - where's the pics!!!

[tigermoth]

Patience SB!! Having difficulty uploading them - my secretary has just removed my memory stick - mid-upload

[Sewinbasher]

Nasty!!

[barny]

Looking forward to the picures!!

'my secretary has just removed my memory stick - mid-upload ' I bet that smarts!!

[Sewinman]

Well Tigermoth has done a good job of summarising the two days but I thought I should just chip-in with a few memories of my own.

One thing that sticks in my mind was a local guy saying to Tiger “Ahh, I see your son is showing us how it is done”. Tiger is in his early forties and I am 26! We had a good chuckle at that over a few beers at lunch. I also had a laugh when a few suicidal trout tried to eat a Chernobyl ant I had tied on for fun – what would Halford have thought!

The Monnow was superb, reminding me of some rivers in Montana/Idaho. Tiger spent a good hour being tormented by an almost inaccessible trout. It was a large one sitting just behind a fallen tree – making it an extremely tight avenue to cast into. I watched as Tiger carefully approached to casting distance and managed to drop the dry right on his nose – bang! He was on and off in seconds, managing to bend the hook. It was a great sequence of events and impressive fishing. He began to rise again an hour or two later but only his little brother came to play. I think this fish will take on some kind of obsessive significance until finally tempted!

Also a joy to see the kingfisher and water vole.

I will upload a few pics tonight. Top fishing and great company.

[Cranefly]

sewinman said:

Well Tigermoth has done a good job of summarising the two days but I thought I should just chip-in with a few memories of my own.

Tiger spent a good hour being tormented by an almost inaccessible trout. It was a large one sitting just behind a fallen tree – making it an extremely tight avenue to cast into. I watched as Tiger carefully approached to casting distance and managed to drop the dry right on his nose – bang! He was on and off in seconds, managing to bend the hook. It was a great sequence of events and impressive fishing.

He told me that you said it was an impossible lie to cast to and that it was his first cast and on!!!!!?

[spy1]

Bugsy Bugsy where are you, look what we are faced with at the end of the month, can we cope, I promise not to ask in Chirk 'Are we nearly there' Sat Nav says its 196 miles...... great result chaps, just great.

Spy1

[Cothi]

Sounds and looks as if it was a historic fishing weekend. Love the look of that Monnow.

Lucky boys.

[tigermoth]

cranefly said:

He told me that you said it was an impossible lie to cast to and that it was his first cast and on!!!!!?

Cheers for exposing my shallowness CF Ok! Ok! So "Impossible" sounded smore impressive than "relatively straightforward" (Sorry for embellishing the tale Morgan!) ;D ;D - as for "on", re-read your pm CF, I did say the fly was back in my hand in a split second - felt the fishes weight - to me that's "on" ;D

The hour or so was spent observing, watching, and with trembling fingers, trying to change my rig over from nymph to dry. This fish was rising so regularly - it was as if it was was blowing me kisses and flirting:

"Come on TM, you know you want me!!"

"hang on a minute, just keep lying there blowing me kisses, I'll be with you in just two shakes, if only I can get these d**n flies sorted!"

I've always found it difficult to get my flies sorted during moments like that

[Sewinman]

Well it can't have been impossible otherwise you would not have done it. I would say it was extremely hard - a bit like one of those games where you have to thread a loop over bent wire and it buzzes if touched.

Not only was it tormenting him as he changed lines but also when we walked back past on the way home - sploosh - home-time was suspended for 30 mins.

p.s. thanks to Cothi for our tickets on the saturday.

[Cranefly]

Sewinman,

Very interested to hear that you saw a water vole. Are you certain it was on the Monnow, or did you mean that it was on the Wylye? Sorry to doubt but water voles have not been seen on the Monnow for years. We think an otter ate the last one!

The River Monnow Project is, at the moment eradicating mink on the Dore and, once done, going to release water voles, as an adjunct to the main Project. If you sure it might be possible to extend the mink monitoring and trapping down stream to take this/these vole(s) into account.

Tigermoth,

Stop protesting, I believe you, honest.

[Sewinman]

Sorry to mis-lead - water vole on Wylye. Kingfisher on Monnow. How are you getting rid of mink? I heard that one can use floating traps?

[Cranefly]

You were too fast for my edit of my post. Thanks for clearing that up.

We are using the GCT raft traps to monitor and trap. GCT are sure that we will acheive a 100% eradication and then the use of them afterwards to monitor for further mink visits will mean that we do not have to visit traps every day.

[Sewinman]

I wondered whether the rafts get washed away in spate conditions? Maybe you go and collect them before the river rises.