Being a competitive yachtsman amongst other things, Jeremy wasn’t concerned when I explained that the river had risen considerably overnight. Nor was he concerned when I said that we might get more rain later in the day. He was only interested in preparing for his impending retirement by learning how to fly fish.

 

The sudden lift in the river prompted me to introduce him to the delights of the double nymph first. He liked it a lot and after missing a couple of takes early on, he was soon into a very good fish. This turned out to be his first ever Grayling and it was caught using a new method. The bar was set high! A few more smaller Grayling followed but Jeremy was visibly (and vocally) disappointed by their size in comparison to the first one.

 

We switched to dry fly and after a casting tune up, we targeted a couple of very good Trout that were sitting in some very challenging water. Sadly we were not successful.

 

By the time we had moved down to the more even paced water, Jeremy was on top of the casting and was soon pulling out a Grayling on virtually every cast…but still no Trout.
Being a true competitor, Jeremy was now focussed on catching a Wild Brown Trout to complete the fly fishing experience so we moved again.

The fish we had seen before had stopped feeding, probably as a result of the predicted afternoon downpour and we were forced to retire… Troutless.

 

Crestfallen and dejected, we trudged back to the car having only caught several large Grayling using two different methods in very difficult conditions and in the beautiful Welsh countryside … and no Trout!