2024 was another superb season for guided fly fishing on the rivers of Wales; we are truly blessed with some of the best river fishing for trout in the UK, especially here on the waters of South East Wales and in the Brecon Beacons.
Last year was action packed, with plenty of happy clients, all of whom caught fish and thoroughly enjoyed the Welsh guided fly fishing experience!
As well as trout, grayling have been a popular request, with several anglers catching their first ever ‘lady of stream’ – to an impressive 18 inches. We have also seen some colossal trout landed, to over 5lb on dry fly tactics.
Next seasons 2025 guided bookings are now being taken! So if you are looking for a fly fishing guide, an instructional day, or to simply improve your overall fly fishing skills, then please get in touch: cerivthomas@hotmail.co.uk
I am the only fly fishing guide based in Cardiff, so if you are visiting the area on holiday and wish to enjoy a memorable day’s fishing I will be able to help. We are spoiled for choice locally with several excellent rivers nearby.
I also cover the famous river Usk and its many feeder streams in the Brecon Beacons, plus the lower and middle Wye system, which has some superb tributaries in the scenic Welsh Borders and the Black Mountains.
All tackle can be provided for an enjoyable and productive day on the water, along with lunch and a pick up and drop off service if required.
For peace of mind, I am a fully licenced angling coach, with ‘Angling Trust Level 2’ qualification and insurance.
What a season it’s been in Wales! Despite varying conditions, the river fishing in particular has been simply world class. From early season nymph fishing on small tributaries, to action packed dry fly fishing on balmy summer evenings, the Welsh rivers continue to produce outstanding brown trout fishing, with both prolific numbers of fish and to trophy size.
I am now taking guided bookings for next season, so if you are looking for a fly fishing guide, an instructional day, or to improve your overall fly fishing skills then please get in touch. I am the only fly fishing guide based in Cardiff and I cover South and Mid-Wales area. All tackle can be provided for an enjoyable and productive day on the water.
As we wait for the trout season to kick off again in March, the winter grayling fishing is excellent in South Wales and I can guide you through the colder months for these beautiful fish, whenever the weather allows.
Trout fishing in Wales has been superb for myself and clients throughout 2023, with fish up to an incredible 26 inches. No client left the water without catching any fish! I’ve put together of few of my favourite images from 2023 in the gallery below. I’m looking ahead to the new season with excitement already. Hope you can join me on the water.
It’s been a great start on the Welsh rivers, despite the variable conditions this month.
Local knowledge is everything, so if you are looking for a fly fishing guide, an instructional day in Wales this season or to improve your fly fishing skills then please get in touch.
I started my season on the river Usk in cold and exceptionally low conditions, however I did manage my first 4 fish of the season on dry flies, including a 19 incher.
With the current unsettled spell the main rivers have been blown out since mid-March, however I have found some excellent nymph fishing on the smaller streams and tributaries that would otherwise be hopeless in low water conditions. Some of these can produce unexpected surprises as well as fantastic numbers of smaller fish!
A few images from my early season fly fishing in Wales March 2023:
All good things come to an end they say. That’s what happened to the previous version of this blog website, when a hosting issue meant I lost almost all of the content on it, about 6 years of stuff.
With a new hosting provider the site is back online; an opportunity for a fresh new look and even better fly fishing content. It’s still a work in progress, but bear with me and keep an eye out for old and new blog posts as and when I re-upload them.
In the mean time, you can book a guided day with me here.
The Edw is a magical small river deep in the upper Wye valley. In this video I show you what you can expect on the Edw; and indeed on many of the smaller streams and rivers throughout Wales.
In this video I go grayling fishing with my good mate, Welsh rivers international Terry Bromwell and coarse fishing friend and film maker Tom Jehu. We fish for grayling on this stunning Welsh river.
I recently took part in a podcast hosted by Ceri Jones. This new show is called ‘Casting with Ceri Jones’. It’s a brilliant fly fishing podcast that I’ve really enjoyed listening to, so it was an honour to be invited up to Ceri’s studio in Porth.
On the podcast I mostly talk about fly fishing remote Welsh lakes, pike on the fly rod and Fishing In Wales, plus quite a few fishing stories. I really enjoyed recording the podcast and I hope you enjoy listening to it. Hit the link below to check it out!!
This is a project I have been working on intensively during the lock down. The site features everything you need to know about fishing in Wales – where, when and how to do it. Plus some brilliant articles and videos that will be released over the next few weeks and months.
In my last blog post in March, I talked about a perfect start to the season and ended with a prediction of a good season to come. Famous last words!! Covid-19 struck a few days later and Wales entered full lock-down, with angling completely off the cards.
After what seemed like an eternity without fishing (to keep sane I explored the local woods and purchased a mountain bike!) things finally changed in Wales around a month ago (mid May) fishing was permitted, but on a ‘local basis only’ with no driving to fish. You could walk or cycle to a venue.
Of course this wasn’t the news most anglers in Wales had been waiting for, but in my case I am lucky enough to live just half a mile away from my local stretch of river, only a 15 minutes walk.
Upon news of my local angling clubs re-opening, I was on the river pretty darn quickly! That first evening back was glorious, a pleasantly warm late afternoon faded into the perfect evening, still, without a breath of wind.
As the light diminished blue winged olive spinners carpeted the water, and at last knockings fish sipped them steadily in a smooth glide. Five lovely wild brown trout came to the net that night, silvery, strong fish, almost like sewin in appearance (as they often are on this part of the river) each one extremely welcome after such a long break. The simple enjoyment of wading in a cool, flowing river whilst rhythmically flicking dry flies at rising fish was something i’d really missed – it was great to be back!
From there on in, I was back on the water as often as I could – almost obsessively I must say, making up for lost time. An hour or two early in the morning, or a couple last thing, fitting a fishing fix into the day whenever possible. It was hot and the river low, the driest May on record. So keeping to these hours made for better fishing. I stayed very local and initially walked everywhere.
The fishing ‘regulations’ changed in Wales somewhat over the next few days and weeks – you could drive, but only very short distances. This opened up some more local river territory, and in another update we were told 5 miles ‘ as a rule of thumb’ was the limit for outdoor activity, which is still in place now (25/06/2020)
Although the productive early spring trout fishing had been lost, I still manged to catch the tail end of the brook dun hatch, which is one of my favourite upwing species. There were also yellow may duns aplenty, and the aforementioned blue winged olives, which hatched in numbers that I hadn’t seen for many years.
After more than a full month back on the water, I’d have to say I am now fully acquainted with the five miles of my local stretch, having walked or fished almost every single yard of it. The fishing has been challenging, in part due to the low water and very warm, bright weather, but there have been some memorable outings, with some great fish taken on streamers twitched through deep pools, or on dry flies fished at dusk or on rare, cloudy days.
I also had some great sport fishing for carp on the fly on a local lake, just 2 miles away as the crow flies. A former trout fishery, it holds an abundant head of carp (mostly commons) and is now open for day tickets.
I’ve fished it a few times, always on the hottest, blue-sky days days when the river was far too warm for trout – perfect conditions for catching sunbathing carp. I’ve done well on the fly, feeding dog biscuits on the top and then picking them off using deer hair ‘imitations’. The best fish, a lower double, gave me a tremendous fight on a 7 weight, a proper reel screamer.
So what was a perfect start to the season and became a disaster, has swung around again. It’s turning to out to be a good season after all – a fantastic one in fact, with much more to come. And sometimes, the grass isn’t always greener. I’ve grown to really appreciate, and be grateful of, the great fishing available on my own doorstep.