Tracy&James | Wednesday, 12 August 2026
After working all week in Scotland where it was lovely and green, also much cooler and where I had seen lots of people fishing, I came home to cinder-dry Wales and had thought it might be a while before I got to go fishing. However, as we had our friend Chris visit on Saturday, James and I decided we would meet him in Corwen to fish the river Dee. None of us considered that we would catch much and started by sitting in a pub garden to have a few drinks over the blazing hot afternoon chatting about fishing and casting.
When we eventually got to the river, we were greeted with people from a nearby campsite enjoying water sports on the stretch we had chosen, so we decided to go further down stream to get away from them. We saw rises straight away and continued to do so as we walked along the river, each of us choosing a different spot to fish. I decided to tie on a buff coloured klink, as this is one of my go to flies to start with. This worked pretty well as after only a couple of casts, I had a strong take from a decent size grayling that just fitted in my net. Due to the warm weather and consideration of the water temperature, I held the grayling in my net for a while until it happily swam away. However, it must have been quite content to stay with me, as although it swam easily out of my net, it stayed very close to me for quite a while – long enough for me to get my camera and film it swimming just in front of where I was stood. After another couple of casts, I missed a good take and then had another few grayling. James saw that I was catching and came down to fish with me as there were plenty of rises in that area.
Chris messaged to say he had just caught a grayling and was also seeing plenty of rises. By the time James and I walked back to where Chris was, we had caught 10 grayling between us and found Chris had also been as successful, however with nymphs as well as dries. After a quick stop at the cars for a snack and drink, we went the upstream, this time avoiding the children on floats bobbing down the river. There were more rises spotted and James took the first spot, whereas Chris and I walked further on. We both caught another fish, him a grayling and myself a gorgeous little brownie, however James hooked numerous fish, missing many takes and finished significantly ahead in the fish count. He noticed that there was a large amount of tiny white flies on the surface, that could have been easily missed amongst the bubbles, and had swapped to the smallest pure white fly that he had in his box.
Before it got dark we walked back to the car and decided to go to a local Indian restaurant – which turned out to be an excellent idea as the meal was one of the best curries we've had for a while. So this might become a regular activity for James and I – go to Corwen, have a few drinks in a pub garden, go fishing and then finish the evening with an Indian meal – he'll probably make me pay though as a reward for him catching more fish.
On the Sunday, we all went casting to our usual practice field. Chris wanted some distance coaching with the #5, T38 and S55 outfits, as well as sharing the joys of casting his vintage T120 rod (which was heavy as f***, but cast ok according to James). Chris finished happy with two new PBs, in the T38 and S55, following coaching from James, but not so pleased with the welt across the back of his leg from the T120.
I hope you are all having a great time, whether fishing or casting,
Cheers,
Tracy