Following many hours of work supporting Hereford Museum in putting on their “River Life” exhibition, Sandy and I were invited to stay and fish the Nyth stretch of the Wye for salmon by our friend Philip Parkinson who was the founder of Sportfish.
I had never fished for salmon with a fly before, nor had I used a double handed fly rod, so the opportunity to learn this at the same time as fish one of the most historic pools on the Wye, and probably the best fly fishing pool, was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.
We arrived midweek at the fishing lodge, to be greeted by Philip who had caught a salmon earlier that week even though the water was low and far from ideal. The Wye is showing signs of improvement in the last couple of years with about 1300 salmon taken last year and, even though the water is low, around 600 have been caught so far this year too; much better figures than most years in the previous decade.
We settled in and Philip gave me a crash course in the use of the rod as we worked our way down the pools. Nothing showed although I had a couple of light plucks and caught a small brownie which gave itself up on a large salmon fly. But what a great time I had fishing a truly beautiful stretch of river in good company and learning a new technique too; what could be better.
We stopped for an evening meal cooked in the lodge by Philip with a little help from Sandy – I was on washing up duty.
The next morning whilst eating breakfast, a salmon rolled just outside the lodge so I quickly grabbed a rod and tried to catch it, working down the pool without success. However, I did manage to fall over and got drenched despite wearing chest waders. I only had a short walk to get changed, and we then decided to head up to the next stretch at Ter Celyn where a new lodge has just been built.
We started at the top of the stretch and Philip left me as I worked my way down, now having some understanding of how to fish the pools. All was going well until I fell over again – I was using rubber soled boots on smooth rocks (I have now added a few studs). This time I had no change of clothes so just carried on fishing.
We had a picnic lunch and Philip caught a small parr and then gave Sandy a brief lesson on fly fishing for trout which she really took too, although she did just miss her first take on a fly. I carried on salmon fishing until the rain brought proceedings to a premature close.
This was one of those occasions when you have the most memorable break even though we caught next to nothing, but Sandy and I couldn’t have had a nicer time and must thank Philip for being the perfect host. I hope I can repay the hospitality soon.