Well that went quickly – Almost a year (to the day) ago I posted last, and I know it’s not cool… Things have been hectic, however, there has been plenty of fishing done and I have many stories, tips, product reviews and general fishing nonsense to tell…

I’ll start the ball rolling for 2016 (albeit late!) with a couple of pictures from a short river outing with my pal, Adam. Adam’s a newbie to the river, it’s something he’s tried in the past with little success, so was over the moon when we talked about an evening on the river.

We headed over to the river Ebbw (day tickets here) for a short session as the light was fading, the ideal opportunity to target rising fish as the summertime temperatures start to dip. In anticipation of some dry fly fishing I tackled up the Hanak Superlight 2# – A superb 9′ (convertible to 9’6″) rod for both dry and nymph fishing, a 15ft tapered leader and a 7X tippet. Attached, a size 16 Foam Dun courtesy of Mr Craig McDonald.

We wandered a few pools looking for rising fish but to no avail, so swiftly swapped to the nymphs for some tasty looking fast water up ahead. For a few weeks now I’ve been using the Soldarini BiColoured Leader, a tapered leader that’s coloured orange and yellow, and it’s ideal for nymphing in pocket water. The 15ft long tapered leader can be fished at long or short range, under trees or under the rod tip, with an impressive casting ability for quick changes between the duo and french leader.

I strung up a single nymph tied to the same tippet as the dry fly and greased the end of the leader for added bite detection. Being a nymphing novice, I let Adam have a go with the new leader. Fishing upstream, he led the fly along the current, lifting the leader to get the fly to hang vertically and sink in the turbulence (before I’d even said anything, so I let him carry on…) Within 10 casts he’d hooked his first Ebbw trout – A colourful, wild river trout…

We fished for another hour until it was almost dark, taking a dozen or so fish between us on a mixture of both dry and nymph fishing techniques – An ideal way to get into river fishing to say the least!