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.