Fish that don't play by the rules(our rules)

[andyantiquefly]

Thought I'd make a thread on this as I could with some advice and I'm genuinely interested in what folk on here think as oppose the usual fishing reports where you don't want to hijack.
To fill you in I blanked on a river where I've often done very well(Afon Dwyfor)not sure why but the fish in this river don't seem to act like other rivers round the country.Rarely do they show,jump or in this case drop back into the main pool and tail.
I've come home thinking I should of tried something else apart from the norm.The fish,big ones at that were right at the very top of the neck,has anyone come across this and are these fish likely to take a fly?
Water was perfect for the fly as it had rain the week before.

[T7]

Were the fish running Andy? With decent water and fish in the heads that would be my first thought. If they were moving through and the water up a bit night fishing can be hit and miss, in my experience anyway! Possibly fishing the evening before dark and/or early morning could work?

In general I’ve noticed in recent years fewer fish jumping at night but mainly put that down to fewer fish!

[Sawyer]

We have spoken before about the Dwyfor & what a fantastic river it was/is, heres my twopenny worth!
The pools you fish upstream from the caravan site (assuming you are talking about from the Boundary Pool up) are some fantastic holding pools & are some if not the best HOLDING POOLS on the river, but, the numbers of fish in them bears no relation to the fish caught. I have often wondered why, as I fish a mile or so downstream where there are nowhere near the numbers of fish but my Sons & I do really quite well (we have had 14 fish this year, largest 6lb & have not fished now for 3 weeks due to lack of water). Maybe the pools are just that, holding pools, the fish moving into them early on in the Season & settling down to await the floods in September to push on up to the spawning grounds in October (only a mile or so upstream before the first of the redds appear).
I think that the fish that lie there have some of the deepest water on the river along with a choice of lies to occupy both day & night so they are less likely to move about the pool, often the lies are tight against deep rocks alongside fast running water (top of Widows & Allt Goch) where due to the nature of flow/depth changes it is nearly impossible to present a fly correctly. In all the years of fishing the Widows I have only ever had three good nights when it seemed wherever I put the fly it was grabbed. Once they reach that stretch of river there has been little in the way of obstacles since the Bridge Pool in Llanystumdwy so to have stayed put in their respective pools they must be comfortable/secure.
I used to see an angler on Llyn Neal often many years ago who regaled me with many tales of a good nights fishing, but he used to describe fishing the worm on a fly rod & running it along the channels between the rocks up there.
I know I have not answered the question & have spent many a dreary walk back to the car after a night fishing the Widows knowing that there are a lot of fish in the pool but nothing has taken.
Hope this makes sense!

[andyantiquefly]

We have spoken before about the Dwyfor & what a fantastic river it was/is, heres my twopenny worth!
The pools you fish upstream from the caravan site (assuming you are talking about from the Boundary Pool up) are some fantastic holding pools & are some if not the best HOLDING POOLS on the river, but, the numbers of fish in them bears no relation to the fish caught. I have often wondered why, as I fish a mile or so downstream where there are nowhere near the numbers of fish but my Sons & I do really quite well (we have had 14 fish this year, largest 6lb & have not fished now for 3 weeks due to lack of water). Maybe the pools are just that, holding pools, the fish moving into them early on in the Season & settling down to await the floods in September to push on up to the spawning grounds in October (only a mile or so upstream before the first of the redds appear).
I think that the fish that lie there have some of the deepest water on the river along with a choice of lies to occupy both day & night so they are less likely to move about the pool, often the lies are tight against deep rocks alongside fast running water (top of Widows & Allt Goch) where due to the nature of flow/depth changes it is nearly impossible to present a fly correctly. In all the years of fishing the Widows I have only ever had three good nights when it seemed wherever I put the fly it was grabbed. Once they reach that stretch of river there has been little in the way of obstacles since the Bridge Pool in Llanystumdwy so to have stayed put in their respective pools they must be comfortable/secure.
I used to see an angler on Llyn Neal often many years ago who regaled me with many tales of a good nights fishing, but he used to describe fishing the worm on a fly rod & running it along the channels between the rocks up there.
I know I have not answered the question & have spent many a dreary walk back to the car after a night fishing the Widows knowing that there are a lot of fish in the pool but nothing has taken.
Hope this makes sense!

Yes makes a lot of sense.One thing I learned a long time ago on this river is not to listen to the usual "there's no fish"or you've more chance of winning the lottery tales from folk as you've clearly been doing ok.
Looking back most of my trips have been in September catching school fish but even then I've seen big pods of sewing entering the river and my best ever week in June was on day time fly on big water so maybe low,clear water makes it difficult on there.
Widows pool hardly ever produces for me either but I remember a guy called Simon from Tydin Cethin catching fish from April on there.
I've since been told that fish are now in down at Aberkin which is so much easier to fish imo.
I remember a website that is no more with in depth info about the river,the pool that always got mentioned was the tree swing pool in the woods but I've never caught at night there either.
I'd be interested to know what the Dyrwryd is like?One thing I know for sure is that the Dwyfor has runs of sewin of the same class as the Dovey and I was actually terrified I might hook one.'re them jumping and showing for some reason on that river they seldom show.On the Dart,Tavy or on the Teifi there's been times I knew I'd catch or ought to have caught as they were active,trout anglers would say on the fin.

[andyantiquefly]

Were the fish running Andy? With decent water and fish in the heads that would be my first thought. If they were moving through and the water up a bit night fishing can be hit and miss, in my experience anyway! Possibly fishing the evening before dark and/or early morning could work?

In general I’ve noticed in recent years fewer fish jumping at night but mainly put that down to fewer fish!

That's what two local guys said about them moving 're them being lined up in the neck.Since coming back I found an article about the pool and it did say that the fish lie in the neck and to fish it in waders from the next pool up.suppose we should remember that they're not feeding and there are times where they won't take a fly.

[Elwyman]

Just wondered if you had tried a surface lure in the good holding pool you mention?

[andyantiquefly]

Just wondered if you had tried a surface lure in the good holding pool you mention?

yes tried that as well,guess there are times when they really will not take a fly.Their behaviour fascinates me though.