Wales, again!

Almost to the day one year after my first trip to Wales I was back in Wales for my 2nd Welsh Social Tenkara meet-up on the River Ceiriog. As far as schedule, it was almost an exact copy of my first trip:

A 4-day trip, arriving in Wales on Friday afternoon and fishing the Dee in Llandderfel below Bala Reservoir. Then Saturday meet everybody and disburse for some fishing on the River Ceiriog and some more fishing on the Dee on Sunday with Daniel Hall of Esoteric Tackle and a half-day on Monday before heading back home to London.

Fishing on Friday was dominated by very heavy wind that which made fishing almost impossible, I had to, for the first time, fish with a titanium line to be able to get the fly into the water. At times, it was raining literally sideways! Here is a video how windy (but beautiful!) it was that first afternoon.

And a few more "scenery" pictures due to the lack of fish:

After fishing, I headed to a pub (The Grouse) overlooking the river and catching-up with Mark & Hillary who drove-up from Somerset and Daniel from the Isle of Man. Sure enough, by that time, the wind has calmed down and we were spotting rising fish just below the pub.

On Saturday it was back to the River Ceiriog; the wind has significantly calmed down and it was overcast but dry (!). We all met first at a cafe, discussed strategy and divided ourselves into groups to fish the various beats. Daniel, Roger and I got the beat below A5 where I caught a few fish last year after dinner.  The fishing was a bit slow until I switched flies, remembering some remarks of last year... 

Simon Hayes

And just like last year, I couldn't not go back to the river for some extra fishing, there was a pool with my name on that I wanted to revisit:

Daniel loaned me for this day one of his Esoteric Tackle rods, the Strooan. A very fine zoom rod (365/325/285), with a beautiful dark purple finish, red winding check and plug and a very fine slightly contoured camo foam handle. I was too engrossed in fishing and didn't take my own pictures so here is a link & picture from Jason Klass' Tenkara Talk Blog where he reviewed it:

And lastly, this is a video put together by Simon who is the gentleman above in the blue shirt and bruiser of a trout! 

Saturday I fished the Welsh Dee with Daniel, I was hoping for some big grayling but alas, due to water temperature change (release from Bala Reservoir), the big guys were shy and I was able only to get some small grayling and trout:

Daniel Hall

Daniel Hall

your's truly 

your's truly

Monday was the last day, I squeezed a few hours in between breakfast and hitting the road back to London, I am glad I did as as the weather was fair and I got a few more fish.

I sure hope to get back to Wales soon and hopefully hosted again on the River Ceiriog!

Tight Lines, Karel