Corwen and District Angling Club

The river Dee in Wales is a beautiful river. The Corwen and District Angling Club has some fabulous water on the Dee. I've fishing these waters over the years in the Hank Grayling Festival. For the last couple of years I've been a member but not been able to come over and fish as much as I would like. This is an early season trip for me. Trout on the Isle of Man are still pretty sleepy and hidden away.  The Silverburn river being the notable exception. I wondered if the Dee would be just as challenging so early?

The Town waters had a couple of anglers on already but that was above the bridge. Below the bridge seemed to be do able. I was going to fish down the right hand bank giving me access to a few more options. Then I saw the bullocks in the field and though to myself "Oh B*llocks!" They can be a nightmare for being inquisitive so I thought it better to take the left bank instead.

I saw a coupe of rising fish so the option of dry flies seamed to be in order. It didn't take long to realise that catching fish was not going to be easy. In the end it was a gray duster with a red head that started drawing interest from fish, especially if it was skated over the surface and occasionally dapped.

It wasn't long after I had the interest to the skating fly that I had a fish on. Not a trout but a welcome fish. One of the very pretty Dee grayling. There was a trout about. It was in a back eddy behind an old tree stump. Despite getting it to rise to my fly 3 times I couldn't make it stick. It's probably still there taunting another angler.

This trip I really wanted to get onto the Alwen, a tributary of the Dee which has a number of large trout resident... allegedly.

I have to say it is a very beautiful bit of river in a pretty valley. My first foray was somewhat frustrating. I managed to get stuck into two good sized brownies for a few seconds before their twisting leaps caused a parting of the ways. Again it was dry flies doing the work. I had noted some very bright green nymphs and tied a nymph I hoped would do the trick.

A simple pattern on an Esoteric Tackle jig hook. Unfortunately supplied of these hooks are now limited as the factory closed. I have sourced some new hooks but I'm not quite ready to release them yet. The nymph got some attention from smaller fish but not the big brownie I was after.

I felt some time on Long Reach was needed to take stock of what was happening. Walking up I didn't see a rise. Bright sun, hardly a ripple. Every rock on the bottom was visible and no sign of any fish. I've seen this before here and know the fish are there really.

Using the full 12ft of my 4 in 1 nymph rod and the zero weight line I could happily change between dries and nymphs at will. The new UFO holders for leaders are better than I expected. I was able to keep the flies on the cast, tucking them into the compartments as I wound on the cast.

Flipping down the silicon skirt and all was secure.

No hooks to catch on. Even with the multi-fly nymph rigs they all went away cleanly and came back out without any tangles. Bonus! Especially when I had four of these little beauties in a plastic case. Neat and organised. Not like me at all!

A fish! It rose just to the right! A steady cast and fish on!

Not the biggest fish in the world but a trout all the same! Another blank saved. Of course it wasn't alone, there had to be friends in there somewhere. How to entice them to take. That was proving tricky.

You can usually rely on there to be a grayling around somewhere on Long Reach. This one was rising just behind a log. I was hoping it was a trout but no. Perhaps the answer was in the friend that had appeared on my arm.

A good inch in length, this was the first of quite a few adult male stoneflies that crawled up from the depths. I was really in the shallow waters now. I packed it up, hopped back in the car and headed back to finish off the Alwin with Tenkara tackle. 

After consulting the beat map, the previous evening, I realised I had started about half way up. I missed the lower section and the short stretch of the Ceirw. Time to fill in that blank. Absolutely stunning water! but where were the fish? I was casting to every pocked, riffle , hole and possible rocky home. To make matters worse my camera was showing an almost empty battery. Do I take picture of the river or wait for a fish picture? I decided to be positive and wait to take the fish picture.

At the junction with the Alwin is a great pool. Two fish on. Two sets of aerobatics and two fish off. The dry I was using wasn't tied on one of my hooks. It was a de-barbed fly. I'm going to have to ditch these in favour of flies tied on barbless hooks. Especially if they have a slightly curved point. I think they are much more "sticky" than any others.

I pressed on, but may waders had developed a leek in the "nethers" while on Long Reach. Truly uncomfortable, they never really warmed up. I moved a couple more fish but again, they were not for really committing to the take. Empty swirls left the fly bobbing. My Bob-it powder was certainly getting a workout and doing sterling work keeping the flies high and dry.

The Ceirw and Alwin will need another concerted visit. My Strooan rod was perfect with it's multiple length options for fishing this water. I'll going to have to poke the factory very hard to get the new back delivered soon.

Last day and I checked out of the hotel, the Owain Glyndwr in Corwen. I'd probably stay there again. It made access to the water very easy. Good food,hot water. The hosts were friendly and they had parking. What more could you want?

I don't usually fish the last day but as the Liverpool boat was only an hour and a half away and not till early evening it seemed wrong not to. The chain pool was selected. Water I know well and I was confident I could keep my bits out of the water and dry but still access the fishing.

It was a similar story to the previous days. Very little activity and a few plucks to spiders and nymphs swinging in the current. Remembering the stonefly I had a root in my boxes. A diawl bach with a holographic red thorax caught my attention. Onto the top dropper. First cash, fish on!

A small trout. Fish on! A small grayling. Fish on! Oh, now that's more like it. A sizeable brownie was leaping away. I muttered prayers to any god that was listening to keep this one stuck. Hardly breathing I played it round and into the net.

Now that was more like what I was looking for. It was also my last fish of the day and the trip. Despite finishing fishing down the pool I didn't get another offer or tweak on the line. So as my best of the trip swam away so it was time for me to have a change of clothes and drive north for the boat. I'll be back when the trout have woken up a bit more.