Guided Tour

The plan for Sunday was to have a tour of the Rossett and Gresford Flyfisher waters of the Alyn with Simon. mandy and I had spent the night in Haydock at a friends 60th birthday party, so after a hasty M6 sprint(yes occassionally the M6 allows this) got the gear together and called Simon. "Is one o'clock Ok?" were his words. It was now just past eleven and I was raring to go. I decided I would have an hour on one of the WAA Alyn beats.
I crept upto the river as the beat below the farm has high banks and what with the bright sun and all...
The river looked incredible. The clearest freestone river in clear freestone riverland. In fact clearer than that! Had someone exchanged it for a chalkstream? One thing was 'clearly' apparent, no fish could be seen and this would be tough.
I laced the short furled leader onto the Tenkara, coupled with 3lb mono to the top dropper and 1.7lb mono to the small pink tagged hares ear on the point. Anyway, only 45 mins till the redezvous on the R&G stretch, so I will have to work through this short area as quickly and carefully as possible. With the quoted clarity I didn't expect much, however half way along the sheep run where there is a relatively deep pool, the leader jagged back upstream and a finger sized Grayling left its sanctuary and swung to my hand. Ah well, at least no blank today. Then two flicks later, my nymphs had descended perhaps only 6 inches when I felt the tip of the Tenkara pull and a spritely 30cm Grayling had taken the ptn on the dropper. Fantastic, and perhaps they're looking up also? Delight over, the fish released itself. No matter, spirits lifted and just maybe...
I quickly worked through the remainder of the sheep run, but not a signal. Not one that I noticed any way.
I climbed out of the river and jumped in the Scenic and made my way to the R&G rendevous point.
Simon was there already. I told him of my brief session lower down and that perhaps it could be a better day than anticipated.
It was suggested I try a pool where Simon had had a 2lb Grayling on Thursday, so with the new tip indicator Custom Furle Simon had 'sewed' i dropped into the pool. Several drifts through and not a tweak. An Olive dun floated by, the first I have seen this year. I so wanted it to get nailed by some leviathon lurking under the bridge, but alas, it was free for the rest of its short remaining life.
We walked the river for a short distance with Simon advising on the various pools we passed. I stopped at one and fancied a few flicks. Simon left me to it and wandered upstream to the next pool.


Check the well edited clip above. Yours truely and the Tenkara coupled with a tip indicator Custom Furle.
By well edited, it gives the impression I have caught a nice Grayling. However, when Simon had moved upstream of me he hooked into this fish and took advantage of the clear conditions to get the fabulous underwater footage. The clip of me nymphing, was the next pool upstream where another fish took the nymphs on the drop and once again proceeded to release itself.

Well, Simon showed me most of the R&G waters and they are truely stunning. Full credit to this small club for the amount of work that has gone on to improve fish habitat, anglers accessability and such. IMO the prettiest stretch is part of the 'newly' cut section that was dug to allow the passing of the adjacent A483. Stunning. There is a diversity in R&G's waters to the tune that at the upstream end there is some wild fishing where the Alyn cuts through Worm's Wood and runs over bedrock. This stretch is un managed and seriously productive jungle fishing.

So a special thanks to the club for allowing me to try before I buy, because it worked. Membership request honourably submitted.