As the rain hadn’t seemed to stop this winter, a planned trip up to the Dee, had to be called off. A phone call to the Wye gauge confirmed that river was too high for comfortable fishing, It had rained in Caersws all day Friday, so I doubted the Severn be fishable, a quick walk over to have a look, it had come up about twelve inches with a slight bit of colour, but worth a go.

I thought for a change from bugging I would have a go fishing the Duo, large dry with two small nymphs underneath, after getting my gear together. I went to the first run, which was about two feet deep with a fast flow on the far bank under a tree. Staying well away from the water, I worked the flies along the shallows to start off with, as I worked my way out into slightly fast water, the dry passed underneath the over hanging tree and stopped, a slight lift of the rod tip and a small trout was thrashing about. This fish had come to the point fly. Slipping him back quickly, I carried on working my way through the run, but no more fish came to my flies. Down below me was a lovely looking run, with nice broken water about one hundred yards long, it was a lovely run, but no fish were caught!

As I rounded the corner a nice long glide came into view, about three feet in depth and about seventy yards in length. I made a couple of casts and the dry dove under the waters surface, a lift of the rod tip and there was a good fish fighting for freedom. The fish stayed deep and I couldn’t see what it was. Then through the coloured water, the telltale purple-tinged fin could be seen, it was a good looking grayling. This fish really didn’t want to come to the net, but after what seemed an age, he slid into the net. It was a good fish of a round two pounds. After reviving him and watching him swim away, it was time to cast the flies back into the run, after about three casts, the flies swung round but the dry had sunk under the water’s surface, never mind leave it swing round, I thought. Then the dry, shot off into the depths, a lift of the rod and even a better fish was thrashing for freedom, after landing him I thought I would weigh this fish as it looked a little bigger than the last. Yes it was two and half pounds was the reading on the scales. This time the fish had taken the top dropper fly, another four fish were caught in this run in about twenty minutes. As I came to the tail of the run, the dry fly broke the water surface again, but this time it wasn’t a grayling but a very angry trout, a very big angry trout. It was a fantastic coloured fish, covered in black spots. I didn’t weigh this fish but I would have thought it was around the pound and half mark, a good trout for the upper Severn. It started to rain quite heavily and the wind was very chilly, so I decided to give the next run a try and if it didn’t stop raining I would head home. As I got into the main body of the run another little trout jumped onto my flies, this time a small one of around ten inches. As I carried on toward the end of the run another fish took the flies as they lifted off the bottom, but he came off as quick as he had taken the flies, I decided this was a good time to call it a day and go and have a warm and a cup of tea. All in all, a well worth while day, especially considering as the weather hadn’t been playing the game for a considerable amount of time.

Finally it has stopped raining, the River Severn has fallen to a fishable level, the river level came down dramatically on Friday evening, I think there must have been quite a bit of dam compensation water in the river for it to drop so quickly.

So I managed a few hours on Saturday and an hour on Sunday morning, Saturday produced 10 - 12 fish mainly grayling and one trout, with the biggest fish around the 2 lb mark, on Sunday I tried a run I have fished many times, how it had changed after the floods, so much gravel has been washed down the river, instead of being to deep to fish in the winter it is now waist deep along nearly it’s whole length, This run produced one real good fish of 45 cms and a lot of small grayling and trout up to around ¾ lb, the grayling was one of the hardest fighting fish I have caught in a long time, he put up a very good account of his self.

I walked the river on Monday and it had fallen even further, and a strange milky tinge coloured the water, but nice to see the river back to a more fishable level after all the floods.

As the river is still high, I thought it would be on with the Czech Nymphs, top dropper a new black bug I have been playing with, middle dropper, old faithful "The pink killer" and on the point a heavy hare ear. In the first run a lovely looking spot under an over hanging tree, flip the bugs up stream, tap, tap along the bottom of the river bed, bang, fish on, a very lively out of season brown trout, thrashing around on the surface trying to get him self loose, but not this time, a lovely, silvery fish of about half a pound. About 4 metres further down the run, the same happens again, another brown trout, some grayling fishing this seems to be today, the run was about 50 - 75 metres long, all in all four nice silvery browns had come to hand, but where was the grayling !

Moving off further down the river to another nice looking run, there has got to be a grayling in this run, but first there is a tree laying along the river bank, with a nice deep Eddy of the end of the tree, that looks worth a go flick the bugs in and straight a way, I have hooked part of the tree, as all of a sudden the tree shakes its head, the tree turns into one of the best brown trout I have seen in a long time, on the plus side it was a fantastic fish, but on the minus it broke me right at my feet as I was about to slip the net under him, Oh Well I suppose you can't win them all! After moving into the main body of the run and working my way into the nicer looking water, another fish and this time a grayling, but only about twelve inches long, not a monster, but nice to see the young fish coming through the system. By the time I had reached the bottom of this run, no more grayling but another couple of brown trout.

Two more lovely looking stretches came into view as I wondered around the next corner of the river, the first run was a lot faster than any of the other ones I had fished so far to day, so I swapped the point fly for a heavier fly, working a long the run the bugs stopped all of a sudden and yes, it was a nice grayling, you could see the silvery flanks flashing in the water, this was a better fish also, when it came to the net, it weighed around one and a half pound, that was more like it, I thought I was on to something in this run, but no, I didn't have another fish all the way down this run, well to the next one, by now my hands were numb, I thought I would make this one, the last one for the day.

At the start of the run the water went over a solid rock step, into an almost like witch cauldron of swirling water, placing the bugs up stream so they would wash over the lip of the rock step, to see if any thing was waiting for food to wash down to them, first run through and violent pull, well I think someone is at home, but have I just pricked him and now all is lost? A couple more goes and what have we here, a solid pull and a fish thrashing his way down stream, in the fast flowing water and guess what, another out of season brown trout, a lovely fish of around a pound and a half, the grayling didn't want to play to day, but the trout certainly made up for it.