A wet and unsettled February gave way to a wet and unsettled March, therefore, fishing options have been a bit limited over the past month, especially with the closure of the coarse fishing river season and almost non stop rain. However, on a positive note the weather has been largely very mild, so for the hardy anglers heading out many coarse species have remained active.

Despite the conditions, the rivers ended the season well, some good grayling were reported on the Taff, Rhymney, Dee and Monnow for anglers trotting, plus some early spring barbel on the lower Wye in early March, with some of the club venues and Fishing Passport beats around Monmouth doing very well. Below, Luke Thomas with a new Welsh Wye PB of 12lb 6oz.

With the rivers closed, you can still fish some canals, for example Mon and Brec canal on Pontypool Angling Association water and also Merthyr Angling Club water at Brecon, or Llangollen canal in Denbighshire. There are lots of roach and skimmers about on the Monmouth canal, as well as some big perch and a few jack pike.

Please note: a few canals are SSSI’s and a closed season will apply, so always best to check on the NRW website.

Merthyr Angling Alliance have recently restocked their stretch of the Brecon Canal as part of the club’s ongoing stocking programme. This included around 1000 fish, a mix of tench, roach and bream. The club have also re-stocked the Middle pond at Merthyr, with again around 1000 fish, including crucian carp, tench, roach and bream. Fantastic work by the club.

The Brecon Canal has also been producing some fantastic perch, Tim Hughes (below) has found success by drop shotting, with a good number of specimens coming to his net. The murky water and higher levels have no doubt helped with the perch fishing.

Small Ponds and fisheries have been fishing well in the mild weather. Lliswerry Pond in Newport has reported a string of good tench recently, with great bags of roach, rudd and skimmers also being caught. The carp fishing has been excellent in March, with many of the Lliswerry’s residents actively on the feed.

The club at Lliswerry (Angling Watch UK) are offering free family fishing sessions this spring. They had a great turnout on 27th March, a few images below. Brilliant work by the club! Look out for more free family fishing sessions on their Facebook page.

For pike, Llandegfedd Reservoir has been running pike fishing through March. Once home to the UK record pike, the venue still does produce some quality pike, including the specimen caught by Reese Preston last week, which went 24lb 11oz.

Llangorse lake hosted the annual Kayak Fishing European Championship on March 23rd, with 43 kayakers hitting the water in search of predatory fish. With variable weather and wind gusts to 35mph, conditions were tough, but plenty of pike and perch were caught. The winning angler, Richard Archer, landed three pike of 112cm, 97cm, and 90cm, plus two perch of 31cm and 32cm.

Gweryd Lakes Fishery in the hills above Mold opened on March 1st. The lake has already produced some great looking carp, including the 20lb common to Mr Greggory below.

Pen-y-clawdd fishing pool is another really scenic venue, up in the hills near Llandrindod Wells. This relatively new fishery is a lake of 4.5 acres holding carp and perch. Some good fish have been caught to 22lb last year and it is expected to start fishing well in April. Bookings on 07791152170

New Celtic lakes near Creuddyn Bridge Lampeter is fishing well for carp, lots of upper double figures being caught. Matthew Bird reports 23 fish in a 24 hour session last week which included a 24lb leather and a catfish in the 30’s.

On Caerphilly Moat lake, some stunning carp have been landed recently, including junior member Isaak Richards, fishing the Moat’s North Lake, this outstanding carp art pulled the dial around to a highly impressive 25lb, setting a NEW PB for Isaak in the process.

Commercial fisheries have been producing a lot of carp on the milder days, venues such as Hazel Court Ponds, Seven Oaks, Canada lake and Tri-Nant fishery in Glamorganshire are all well worth a try, if you fancy a lot of runs action over Easter.

Grange Springs is a another good runs venue, set in a lovely location near the border at Trelleck, Monmouth, as is Lower Pen-y-clawdd Farm Fishery.

Eisteddfa Fishery at Criccieth has seen some nice double figure carp landed on the old carp lake. The cafe here is now open daily from 8.00 am – 4.30 pm and will be open later on the Easter weekend.

Spring is a good time pretty much anywhere in Wales for carp, as they ‘wake up’ and begin feeding heavily. Prospects for Easter and April can only get better, along with the weather.

February so far has been one of those months where the weather has literally put a dampener on things. Despite this, some cracking fish have been caught, thanks to very mild temperatures that have kept the fish quite active, particularly on the stillwater fisheries.

Kevin Clark headed to the lower river Taff in mid February, where he managed to land a Taff beast, just before the river rose again into flood conditions. Like most barbel in this part of the river they are of a decent average size, this one weighing in at just under double figures. Fishing permits with Glamorgan Anglers.

During a lull in the river levels in early February Toby Curson, who works for the Angling Trust as a content producer headed to Builth Wells on the upper Wye with friends. They found the grayling were hard on the feed, with big numbers coming to the nets using trotted maggots, on both the Wye and irfon, just above the bridge in the town. A selection of images below.

This part of the Wye can be easily accessed with the Groe Park and Irfon Angling Club, day tickets are available in Conti Newsagents in the town.

Sadly most of the Welsh rivers with coarse fish have been in flood ever since mid-month, with levels rising drastically again. So action has been very limited, including on the lower Wye, where a few chub, barbel and pike have been reported whenever levels have been low enough to fish safely. The river season ends on 14th March, so there could still be time to get out and bag up some specimen grayling, barbel or chub.

On the pike fishing front Llangorse lake near Brecon has been fishing well in February, on the calmer days, especially to deadbaits placed in the shallower marginal areas.

Gareth Griffiths took a break from his usual saltwater fishing to try for pike on the lake, where he had great success on Valentines day, with several decent fish including his new PB below. This huge croc was estimated between 25lb and 30lb.

Gareth has also guided several clients on the venue recently, including Taylor Newton (below) who caught a 17lb, 12lb and 16lb pike on his first ever session, a great result!

The popular Llangorse Kayak Fishing European Championship will be happening on March 23rd this year, for more details on that head to their Facebook page.

Bosherston lily ponds have fished well over most of the winter; with the mild temperatures the pike have been willing to chase. Regular visitor Charlie Corkrum is consistently catching pike on various Rapala lures, even in extreme wet weather, including the specimens below.

The lower Lliw reservoir, which is part of South Wales Fishing Society, has produced some good pike recently including the specimen below caught at the start of the month. They didn’t have any scales, but the fish looks well over 20lb.

While pike fishing on the same venue, Steven Welch had a large out of season wild brown trout pick up his deadbait. Weighed at 6lb 3oz and carefully returned. Interestingly, looking back at the photos on the club Facebook page, this very same trout has been caught at least 4 times in the past few years. The notch on the bottom of the tail and the spot patterns are the key identifier. Proof that good fish handling works!

Siop Y Gwyniad in Bala reports that Llyn Tegid (Bala lake) has produced some cracking pike this winter to kayak anglers, images below, including another cracking out of season brown trout which was returned. This vast venue has a lot of potential for coarse, predator and game angling. Day tickets are very inexpensive. On the carp front, mild, wet and windy weather can often be very productive, if you are able to brave the conditions! Charlotte Blick of Angling Direct has done well in February on the Hendre lake, with the fish of 23lb below being just one of 6 fish landed during a session, despite the poor conditions and muddy slippery banks.

Joel Cannon (below) is a regular on Darran park lake, which holds some lovely looking original strain carp, such as the dark mirror below, a real stunner.

Caerphilly Angling Association are running a junior carp competition for ages 12 to 16, open for members and non-members. The competition is set to take place on Sunday the 19th of May at 7am until 7pm at Caerphilly Castle. There are 15 spaces available. For more details head to the club Facebook page here.

Natalie May continues to have success on the Llyn Cae Ty nant Syndicate near Tregaron, with this mid-February fish of 36lb 8oz ‘stubberfields’ which was caught within 2 hours of arrival in the dark.

Prospects for March are always uncertain, but with a bit of luck we might see some rare spring sunshine and settled conditions, which could lead to some great fishing next month on the rivers and stillwaters, as they start to warm up. Its an Early Easter break too, so there should be plenty of time for fishing next month.

January is one of the toughest months for the coarse angler targeting rivers, with high levels usually an issue. This was certainly the case at the start of the month, but with some cold weather thankfully the waters dropped. As a result some cracking grayling have been caught on various venues, especially the Dee, lower Taff and Rhymney. Trotting being the best method.

Chub have also figured in the catches, including the lower Taff and also the Wye. Kev Clark below with a lower tidal Wye chevin.

We recently ventured out on a very cold day last week with TV star and author Will Millard, on the famous Rectory beat of the Wye at Boughrood, where Will captured the lovely chub below whilst trotting. A video featuring Will is in the pipeline, look out for it soon!

Dave Healy reports some huge bream on Cwmbran boating lake (below) and during the wet weather the urban streams and canals around Cardiff have been fishing well.

Eugene Griffiths (below left) with a chub from Roath Park brook and Lloyd Pryderch of Garry Evans Tackle (below right) with a chub from the Taff Feeder Canal near Cardiff castle.

Welsh Ladies Carp Team members Rhian Thomas and Charlotte Blick hosted Welsh and Scottish rugby legends Lee Byrne and Ryan Wilson at Caerphilly Castle moat lake on 15th January, for a spot of carp fishing. Pictures below (image credit Simon Ursell)

To find out how it went – and who got the win – watch it on Six Nations Sin Bin, BBC Wales, on Friday evening Feb 2nd and then on BBC One Saturday afternoon Feb 3rd.

Carp fishing through January has generally been slow in Wales, thanks to iced over venues and at the other extreme wet and windy weather. That said a few nice ones have been caught, including the fish below by Rhian Thomas and her son Hunter from one of the Glamorgan Angling club pools at Barry. The fish were taken off the surface on a very mild day.

Former ladies carp team member Natalie May just smashed her carp PB at Llyn Cae Ty Nant syndicate near Tregaron with this stunning 46lb 8oz mirror, the fish named ‘Cols’ has not been caught for 15 months. It is likely one of the biggest Welsh carp caught this winter. Natalie has also landed a 39lb mirror called ‘triple row’, again a massive fish for a Welsh water. Superb angling.

Pike fishing has been a bit off the radar recently, however some good pike have been reported off the Wye during the cold snap, and stillwaters such as Pontsticill and Trawsfynydd reservoirs have produced several pike in excess of 20lb to the hardy anglers willing to brave the weather.

At Bosherston lakes, Pembrokeshire, Charlie Corkrum reports several pike to over 100cm while roving with lures at the venue, with the fish (below left) caught just a couple of days ago at 102cm and the fish below right at 108cm and 19lb at the turn of the year.

Prospects for February look promising, with some fairly mild weather and less rain in the long-term forecast there could be some excellent carp fishing in the milder spells, river coarse fishing for a mix of species and for pike and perch, which will be starting to feed hard in readiness for spring.

The winter so far is proving to be quite frustrating especially for river fishing, with the coarse rivers being subject to very high flows, The lower Wye and Taff being only fishable for the very short cold and dry spell we had in early December and again for a couple of days this past weekend.

When levels have allowed, good grayling have been caught trotting on the lower Taff, Rhymney and Dee. Kevin Clark hit the Caerphilly angling club water on the weekend, where he was rewarded with a brace of superb specimen grayling, the best of which went 2lb 6oz.

The Builth Wells stretch of the River Wye has produced some good grayling, 1 rod reporting 13 to red maggot on the town stretch on 17th December, with a few around 1.5lb.

Dan Yandle had a surprise fishing on the river Monnow, on Monmouth and District Angling Club water. A brown trout of nearly 9lb took a liking to a piece of spam, a bait intended for barbel and chub. After a tremendous fight on a feeder rod and 5lb line the fish was safely returned. Looking at the image, the fish could well be a grown on ‘triploid’ stock fish, no doubt originating from one of the game angling clubs upriver. A fish of lifetime regardless and probably a record for the river.

For anglers looking for a retreat away from high water, canals and feeders are often a good bet, and can fish better with some colour in the water. For example, the Monmouth and Brecon canal with Merthyr Tydfil Anglers, or the Dock feeder canal in Cardiff, which is free for rod licence holders in the Bute Park area.

Lloyd Pryderch of Garry Evans Tackle shop has been fishing the dock feeder in Bute Park, Cardiff, and on a recent session captured a ‘species slam’ including a brace of chub, perch to 1lb 6oz and a barbel of 4lb 8oz, by ‘drop shotting’ with maggots on a light lure rod. Fish catches below.

Dedicated lure angler Charlie Corkrum has ventured to the Mon & Brec canal, where jack pike have figured in the catch. He has also done well on Bosherston lilly pools in Pembrokeshire, where perch have started to show in good numbers, along with pike to 97cm. various Rapala lure and Blue Fox spinners are working well for him.

Lliswerry Pond at Newport has also been fishing well for pike, with a good number of jacks and some lower doubles being caught on lures. Carp and tench continue to be caught at the venue as well. Below: Tony Hunt with a Lliswerry pike and Andrew Bruce with a 15lb carp and a nice tench. The venue is also providing a wonderful community experience, with a successful ‘meet Santa’ day organized for the local children.

On Sunday, November 26th the South Wales region of the Pike Anglers Club organized its first junior fishing event in collaboration with the Caerphilly Angling Club at Semtex Lake in Brynmawr.

Despite the challenging conditions of cold, wet, and foggy weather, seven young anglers showed up to brave the elements and try their hand at pike fishing.  Daisy and Stuart Dawdall were the stars of the day, managing to catch the only pike weighing around 4 to 5 pounds. This catch provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate proper unhooking and handling techniques.

Despite the tough conditions, everyone had a fun day, and the kids enjoyed spending time together and making new friends.  At the beginning of the day, each child received a bait pack and a pike pack containing essential pike terminal tackle to ensure they had the correct equipment.

On the carp front, big fish are still fairly active and if you can brave the weather specimens are still there to be caught, an example being Harry Morgan’s immaculate common (below) from the Wharf fishery, which went 37lb 6oz.

White Springs near Swansea is fishing really well this winter due to mild conditions, with many reports of fish from 20lb to over 30lb coming from the venue, with the best being this 37lb 8oz common for Chris Thomas.

We are sad to hear of the closing of Port Talbot Dock to angling, this one-of-a-kind venue was home to some superb coarse fishing in a unique industrial setting. It is believed that ABP no longer wishes to renew the lease on the dock for angling, with the dock set to be re-developed.

‘Take A Friend Fishing’ is running over the Christmas Holidays, so if you wanted to introduce someone to angling then you can claim a free freshwater rod licence for the day, by simply going to the TAFF website and registering them.

With a wet and windy month behind us, that has seen very limited fishing opportunities, we are finally entering a spell of more settled weather and can look forward to crisp, winter days on the bank!

For those anglers who braved the storms, liquid mud swims and howling winds, the rewards have been there. Carp have been quite active on the fisheries, due to the mild weather.

Andrew Riste braved the weather on the Iconic Caerphilly Castle moat, with a brace of belters below.

Charlotte Blick fished a remembrance carp match on Riverside fishery in Hengoed near Caerphilly, in honour of long term resident angler Brian. The match raised £700 for Brian’s family. Charlotte landed the largest fish of the day at 16lb 15oz (below) which was named ‘Brian’s fish’. The match was won by Joshua Jones with 27lb 6oz weight.

Big perch are another species to target at the venue, and Riverside is also producing some gudgeon rivaling UK record size (example below captured by Rhian Bomber!) so if you are looking for a record breaker it could be the place to try.

A junior pike day is being held by the Caerphilly Angling Association on 26th November on the Semtex lake Brynmawr, details below or contact the club through their social media page.

Ryan Healey has been enjoying some pike fishing, with a jack (below) from a local South Wales lake. Pike venues around Cardiff include Hendre lake, the Birch, Cardiff Bay barrage lake and Roath park lake.

Bosherston Lily ponds in Pembrokeshire has started to fish well for pike and also perch on the lures. Charlie Corkrum (below) has been enjoying several mobile lure sessions recently, with a number of jacks taken on Rapala lures fished over the weed. Tickets are issued on the bank by the resident warden.

South Wales Kayak Anglers held a European Championship event at lower Swiss valley reservoir, Swansea on 11th November. Fishing for predator fish species. Bogdan Pascaru was 1st place with a number of perch, congratulations!

SWKA are promoting the venue to become a premier predator lake, they have come to an agreement with the council that SWKA members will be the only ones permitted to fish it afloat. With a recent stocking of 70 pike and most being 10lb+ SWKA think that this will be a great venue for the kayak angler. There are also perch and trout in the venue, along with silvers and carp.

Swiss Valley Angling Association is working hard with the council to make it a premier venue for all disciplines of fishing where the council has an ongoing restocking program with big carp and other species to add to the list. This really will be an awesome venue for the future.

Unfortunately due to flooding for over a month, river coarse fishing has been almost non-existent, but with levels dropping the Rhymney, lower Taff, Irfon and Wye will be back in contention for grayling, barbel and chub soon. One river that did see some limited grayling fishing was the river Dee, which is regulated by several lakes, although levels there are still high.

Next week it looks like the rivers with coarse fish should start fishing well, but be aware of slippery, muddy banks especially on the lower Wye.

Stillwater fisheries all over Wales will continue to fish well for carp and other species as the water gradually cools off in the run up to Christmas. Below Jim Hutton with a lovely Koi from White Springs fishery, Swansea, part of a 131lb haul on the match lake.

Harry Doubler age 13 (below) with a specimen mirror caught recently from Parc Cwm Darren lake, a Rhymney and District Angling Association water available on a day or season basis. The fish weighed in at 19lb. Top angling young man!

Winter coarse fishing in Wales presents an array of opportunities for anglers willing to adapt their strategies to colder conditions. From pursuing predatory species like pike and perch to targeting big bream, November and December offer a variety of experiences for those venturing into the serene and less-pressured waters of winter. With the right tactics and a keen understanding of the seasonal behavior of coarse fish, anglers can find success and satisfaction in the pursuit of winter catches in our beautiful locations.

Coarse fishing in Wales during late October and into November can be a rewarding experience, with a change in seasons as we shift towards cold water loving species that remain active through the winter, for example, pike, grayling and perch. As water temperatures will remain warm for the next few weeks, carp, bream and silver fish will still be worth targeting.

Cwmbran boating lake, Cwmbran – Dave Healey reports: With the weather looking great today for a pull it was rude not to visit my local boating lake for a few throws after dropping the kids to school. I arrived at around 9am and gave them 5 pints of 4mm pellet and Ringerbaits chocolate orange micro with a scattering of 8mm pellet as these fish are big! I’ve been lucky enough to land 11 slabs some of which into the 9lb bracket and a lovely boaty common all on the hybrid with Feederland wafters. Images below.

Lliswery Pond, Newport – Tench and carp are figuring in the catches as well as pike, which are being caught on lures and deadbaits now the water temperatures have dropped. Below some pike from the venue.

Caerphilly Angling Club – Multiple reports of big carp in October, from Semtex lake and the moat at Caerphilly castle. Below left Mark Hunt with a stunning new Semtex lake 20. Below right Tom Braud with Moonscale at 30lb 8oz, no mistaking the venue! The club have plans to add a new coarse fishing venue to their portfolio soon, a perfect place for coaching and youth development. Watch this space for more details.

Springwater lakes, Lampeter – Andrew Fegan (below) reports: Had a cracking 48hr session on lazyboys . The weather was a challenge at times, but the fishing was great. 8 fish in total with doubles and a couple of twenties. Some great work been done with the pegs to go with a great fishery.

New Celtic lakes, Lampeter – Carp are still hard on the feed, with plenty of doubles and 20lb plus fish. Catfish are still figuring in the catches.

Eisteddfa Fishery, Criccith – Holyhead & District A.C. held a club match, on the Pleasure Lake, on Sunday. The weather was kind to them with early rain clearing and the day gradually brightening. Fourteen anglers fished and some great bags of fish were caught, roach, bream, tench, carp to 10lb with the star being Brian’s big perch (see pic). The top six anglers all weighed over 50lb.

Grayling: Anglers on the Taff and Rhymney in South Wales report good numbers of grayling to trotting tactics. Below Ryan Healey with a typical Rhymney grayling. Fishing season and daily tickets are with Caerphilly Angling Association.

Pike fishing: Is starting to kick off on the usual venues around Wales – Trawsfynydd, Brenig, Ponsticill and Llandegfedd offer the chance of seriously big pike. Llangorse at Brecon is another great venue, however there is an algae issue so check this one before travelling. Port Talbot Dock is a wonderful pike venue. Fishing at Port Talbot Docks, Hunter (age 6) & his parents Rhian & Dave were expecting to fish the deadbeats for most of the day, but the high winds made it difficult to do so. A last minute change to a lure set up resulted in this beauty weighing 18lb 6oz.

River Wye: With the river very high barbel fishing continues to provide great sport using floodwater gear in the slacks. Pike will also be coming into contention as the river clears and falls. Lot’s of options are available with angling clubs, Fishing Passport or Angling Dreams, or at Hay-on-Wye on the Warren beat. Below, Kevin Clark of Korum and the Angling Initiative with a lovely clean lower Wye barbel.

Coarse fishing in Wales during the transition from September into October offers a unique and rewarding experience for anglers. As the days become shorter and temperatures start to drop, the aquatic environment undergoes subtle changes, influencing the behaviour of coarse fish species, often prompting fish to become more active and feed voraciously as they store energy for the winter. Cold water loving fish such as pike and grayling will come back into contention as water temperatures fall back.

The weather recently has been a real mixed bag, making it quite difficult to pick a decent day for a session – from a washout August to a late summer heatwave in September and now back to rain and unsettled conditions for the next week.

Lliswery Pond, Newport – the lake is seeing a good number of pristine common carp being caught, and also tench. A linear mirror carp of 25lb 6oz (below) has been a highlight the past few days. It seems the carp are attuned to the weather change and have now started to feed hard.

Springwater lakes, Lampeter: Fishing well, Tom Owen reports 2 grass carp, a 25lb mirror and a 23lb common (grass carp below)

Llyn Carfan (Pembrokeshire Coarse fishing): reports catches of Ghosties, fully scaled, commons, tench, roach and Rudd on the method feeder. This venue is a fantastic place for young anglers or beginners. The recent Pembrokeshire Piscatorial match for this month was held on the top lake. The very hot clear, sunny day meant that the carp were very shy with only four or five being hooked, and only two caught. However, the silvers fished well with the eventual winner taking 16.8 kilos of them and no carp in his bag.

Hazel Court Ponds at Cowbridge reports catfish to 42lb 14oz. Plenty of small carp, bream, rudd and hybrids are being landed on the pleasure lake, even in wet weather. Some anglers netting 20 plus fish in a session.

New Celtic lakes, Lampeter – Is seeing some huge catches of carp with plenty of 20lb plus fish. Also catfish to 30lb plus.

Yet-y-Gors, Fishguard – Grass carp to 19lb 10oz have been caught recently. Baileys lake is now free of the invasive fringe lilly and from 1st September will be known as Home lake. As a result the lake will be much easier to fish.

Eisteddfa Fishery, Criccith – Reports some cracking carp captured during the warm week. Harley Stafford below with a 22lb 1oz mirror from the venue that took a 16mm krill boilie.

Carp are being caught in good numbers on Canada lakes fishery, including fish to 24lb. The venue holds a lot of commons and ghosties, with floater fishing being very popular here on milder days.

White Springs near Swansea is fishing it’s head off for big carp this autumn, a highlight being regular visitor Justin Davies 35lb mirror (below left) which took just 2 rod lengths out. Chris Thomas reports: Had an awesome 2 sessions with loads of PB’s. Megs corner I had 36lb called Boyo (below right) and Alfie at 29lb, then the next day I had 27lb and 25lb mirrors. On the island peg I had a 28lb leather followed with 22lb scaley mirror and a 23lb from the pit. Sounds like it’s well worth a session!

River Wye: Barbel fishing continues to provide great sport as we head into the autumn, with plenty of water in the river you can expect bites at most times of the day now, not just confined to the early or late hours. Floodwater gear may be required for the next week or so looking the forecast. Lot’s of options available with angling clubs, Fishing Passport or Angling  Dreams, or at Hay-on-Wye on the Warren beat. Bvelow: Tim Hughes with some nice barbel Hay-On-Wye area.

Lower river Taff: Large barbel are being caught regularly, particularly off the back of the recent spates. Grayling are now starting to show up in the catches as the water cools, trotting with maggots being very successful. A pleasant diversion in the Cardiff area is Roath Brook, which holds roach, dace and chub, best fished after a lot of rain. The brook is locally considered as ‘free’.

October prospects – If temperatures fall then pike will be in contention. Venues such as the Wye, Llangorse lake Brecon and Bosherston at Stackpole offer easy access. Llandegfedd reservoir is allowing pike fishing on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout October. Fishing permits for this are available to book online. Llyn Brenig’s pike season also starts on 30th September and runs till March (example of a Brenig pike below) Both of these reservoirs offer potential for 30lb plus fish, as does Llyn Trawsfynydd reservoir in North Wales.

Wales has fantastic grayling fishing in our rivers, which usually switches on in October after the trout season ends, when the trees turn shades of brown and gold. The upper Wye, Irfon, Ithon, Rhymney, Dee and Severn should all be on your list for trotting a float on a crisp autumnal morning.

Overall, autumn coarse fishing in Wales offers a chance to connect with nature, experience the changing seasons, and potentially land some impressive catches. Whether you’re a local angler or planning a fishing getaway, the Welsh waters in September and October provide an enticing opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and pursue your angling passions.

As August transitions into early September, anglers in Wales can look forward to prime fishing conditions for most warm water loving coarse species. This period offers a mix of warm weather and active fish, making it an excellent time to enjoy fishing on lakes, rivers, and ponds across the region.

After a cold and wet July and early August, the weather has improved somewhat and the warmer temperatures have helped stimulate the feeding behaviour of barbel, carp, bream, roach, perch, and tench.

Perch are another fish that you can fish for in late summer and it seems David, Rhian and Hunter have found success on Cardiff Bay Barrage, the large freshwater lake at the heart of the Capital city. With specimen perch to 3lb 6oz. The venue is now showing its full potential as a perch venue. Dendrobaena worm fished on the bottom at range proved to be the method, with high numbers finding their way to the bank between the three anglers. Tickets here with the Harbour Authority or via Glamorgan Anglers Club.

Speaking of Glamorgan Angler’s, Roath Park lake in Cardiff, once considered a ‘free’ venue is now under control of the club, with fishing now only for members on designated pegs. A full list of rules can be found on the GAC website.

Lliswerry Pond Newport are doing a huge amount for the local community. The recent free family day fishing was attended by 32 adults and children. Another event took place on Tuesday 22nd August 2pm – 4pm with 14 families on the bank. Next Tuesday 29th August will be the last family fishing session for the summer holidays. Don’t forget to book with the venue. 2pm – 4pm. A few pics below of the event.

Nine Oaks Fishery, Newquay has seen big carp catches on the main lake this August. These run to lower double figures. There are also good grass carp here, and you also might catch eels and tench at the venue.

Llyn Carfan (Pembrokeshire Coarse fishing) lots of fish being caught on a float and feeder with sweetcorn, mostly carp but also some nice rudd and roach, plus the odd tench.

Hazel Court Ponds at Cowbridge reports plenty of carp, koi, bream, roach, eels and cats to 40lb 5oz. A fun fishery which is just £10 for a day session. Martyn Coles reports 22 carp yesterday at the venue, all on dog biscuits on the surface.

Abernant fishing lake at Neath reports plentiful catches of carp through the summer, lots between 7lb and 8lb with the odd double. This is another good runs water where action is almost guaranteed.

The scenic Gweryd Lakes Fishery in the hills near Mold is producing many immaculate carp; commons and ghosties particularly. A cracking mirror of 23.04 lb pictured below. To book here call Johanna, 07974 427578

New Celtic lakes Lampeter reports plenty of double figure carp in the catches in late August, several to 20lb plus. The big catfish are now showing regularly, with a 44lb 4oz cat to Nigel Darcey.

White Springs Fishery is rightly famed for its big carp, the summer weather has seen a multitude of 20’s and 30lb plus fish being caught. Below, Becky Thomas with a 30lb common from the venue.

Lower river Wye: All of the rain over the past month has done the river a world of good. The barbel fishing has been superb, especially when fished into the evening using fishmeal based pellets. Below Luke Thomas with a Wye double from Monmouth area club water.

Below: Kevin Clark with young Wayne Blake, displaying a cracking Wye barbel. The talented young angler keeps on catching!

On the Lower Taff, Rhys Sullock reports an incredible run of big barbel including a new PB of 13.9lb and an 11lb specimen in just 10 minutes of fishing!

There is a KHV outbreak on a number of fisheries in Wales, including Redhill fishery at Monmouth, so anglers need to pay heed to fishery rules to use dip nets and fish care products that will eliminate the virus. Clean, check and dry your tackle after use, to help kill disease organisms and invasive species.

The Welsh Federation of Coarse Anglers now has a new official Facebook Page. You can follow them here for more information about the WFCA activities in Wales.

Remember there is still time for TAFF! ‘Take a Friend Fishing’ is on now until to 3rd September for National Fishing Month. Existing rod fishing licence holders in Wales can register for a FREE one-day Natural Resources Wales rod licence so they can take someone they know fishing. You can register online here.

For coarse fishing the month of July and into August brings fantastic opportunities for anglers, with our many stillwater fisheries, canals and the lower River Wye and Taff providing brilliant action.

Stillwater Fisheries:

Summer holidays offer excellent fishing conditions on the stillwater fisheries of Wales, especially now the weather has cooled down after the intense June heatwave. Our dozens of well-managed small water fisheries are teeming with a variety of coarse fish species, including carp, bream, roach, and perch. Below: A stunning tench caught at Peterstone lakes Newport by Harrison Aubrey, a nice example from a day ticket venue.

If you are going on holiday there are lots of options close to popular tourist centres, venues worth a try include Cedlyn Lake fishery llanybydder, Nine Oaks Llanarth, Ian Heaps resort Narberth, Bosherton Lilly ponds Stackpole, Aberystwyth fishing lake Capel Bangor, Bryn Y Gwyn Dollgellau, Llyn y gors Anglesey to name but a few. You can find them all on our map here.

If you are after big carp on a day ticket then New Celtic lakes Lampeter, Cefn Mably lakes Newport and White Springs Pontardulais should be on your hit list.

Below: A possible Welsh record bream from Roath Park lake, for Hazza, weight of 15lb 8oz.

As the summer season is in full swing, fish are actively feeding, and you can expect exciting action throughout the day. Anglers often find success with floating baits, such as bread crusts or dog biscuits, as well as traditional methods like feeder and float fishing or boilies fished over a PVA bag of ground bait for specimen carp

Canals:

Wales boasts a network of canals that provide a unique and charming fishing experience, especially in South East and North East Wales, for example the Monmouth and Brecon canal, Montgomery canal and Llangollen canals. July can be particularly rewarding for fishing on the canals. Species such as perch, tench, chub, and roach are commonly found in these waters.

Anglers usually find that natural baits, like worms or maggots, work well in attracting a wide range of fish. Keep an eye on your surroundings, as wildlife abounds along the canal banks, adding to the delightful atmosphere of your fishing trip.

Lower River Wye:

The lower River Wye is renowned for its stunning scenery and diverse angling opportunities. Despite the warm weather in June the Wye fished quite well, however July into August is probably the best time to visit, as the river’s water levels tend to be stable and have now cooled down with the recent rains, providing anglers with fresher waters and easier access to prime fishing spots. Below: Blake James & his father Wayne were treated to an action packed weekend on the Wye with Kev Clark.

The Wye is famous for its summer barbel and chub fishing, and you may also encounter perch, dace and even river carp. Traditional tactics like feeder fishing with pellets or fishmeal boilies and using ground bait can yield great results. Lots of club water to go at, or for day tickets Fishing Passport or Angling Dreams offer exclusive access.

Lower River Taff:

The River Taff, another gem in Wales, offers great coarse fishing prospects in July, given water. Glamorgan Angling club offers 5 miles or so of prime river coarse fishing. Their River Taff only season licence purchased through Clubmate also includes the right to fish on the club stretches of the River Ely and in the designated Cardiff Bay angling locations. Some really big chub have been showing on the Taff in the urban Cardiff area this season, ranging from 5lb to 6lb and in good numbers. Below: Several cracking Taff chub caught by Ryan Healey of Garry Evans.

Now the water is much cooler, the grayling have switched on, with bags of 20 fish or more possible trotting maggots.

Perch can also be found in the system at the lower end and in Cardiff bay, which as mentioned is on the same ticket as the Taff, these have been reported to 4lb recently, Steve Harrington with a cracking example below, light lure tactics proving successful.

Be prepared for some delightful surprises, as the Taff is known to hold some hefty barbel, double figure fish are common, and are often partial to a big lump of meat. Some smaller barbel have been showing up in the catches this year, from sausage sized to 7lb, boding well for the future.

Summer is an incredible time for coarse fishing in Wales. Whether you choose stillwater fisheries, the tranquil canals, or the meandering rivers Wye and Taff, you’re bound to have a memorable angling experience. So pack your fishing gear, grab your rod licence and permits, and get ready to make unforgettable catches!

Tight lines and happy angling

As we head into mid June conditions have been very warm for the past month, encouraging coarse fish to become active on the stillwaters and fisheries, leading to some fantastic bags of fish. However, with the ongoing hot weather you should look out for spawning fish and avoid them, or check with the fishery, since carp in particular need to be given a wide berth if they are still spawning.

The rivers holding coarse fish open in just a couple of days’ time (June 16th). Many will head to the Wye, given its fantastic barbel and chub stocks. It can take a while to get into the fish there, because the barbel spawn quite late and may not be on the feed quite yet. It is a magical time regardless, to be on the bank on the opening day or even at midnight if the rules allow, waiting for that sudden bite that nearly pulls the rod out of the rest. The Fishing Passport has a wide selection of river Wye beats to choose from and there are many angling club options available. For a taste of barbel fishing  on the Wye, check out the video below with Kevin Clarke which was filmed near Monmouth.

The lower Taff on Glamorgan Anglers water is another Welsh river with big chub and barbel, also the lower Rhymney and the Severn, plus lower sections of the Dee. The Taff is well known for producing large double figure barbel, with fish to 18lb plus recorded.

Kevin Clark landed a Welsh 40 pound mirror carp on the Birch Syndicate, the fish was captured unintentionally while Kev was fishing for tench at the venue last month. It gave him the run-around on light tench gear! If you do want to catch quality tench at the venue try the Pencil lake, it is day ticket access and it has a big head of them.

Darren Park Lake in the Rhondda is known for its carp and tench, some nice fish are being caught by Rhian and Dave who manage the syndicate that controls the fishing at the venue. Look out for a video about the lake soon!

Festival angling club lake Ebbw Vale has been fishing really well, big bags of carp, bream and silvers. A few images below taken during a match a few weeks ago. We shot a promotional film with the club on the day, you can watch it here. Like many venues fish could be spawning so check before you go.

Llliswerry Pond Newport reports plenty of carp to the 20’s, lots of tench and also bream. A truly mixed fishery where you never know what you might catch next. Day tickets here are just £7.

New Celtic lakes Lampeter reports plenty of double figure carp in the catches in May and early June, to 28lb 6oz. The big catfish are now being caught, 44lb 8oz being a notable specimen this month. The Lake is closed till June 16th for spawning.

Cefn Mably Fishery has some impressive catches, here is a report from a competition a coupe of weeks ago: “Well as competitions go that was a close one for sure thanks to all the boys that turned up and took part we sure picked the right weekend for it boys! Over 500 pound of fish caught between 9 anglers in 48 hours. Good going, I would say by any standards. Congratulation to Liam Lloyd on the most weight and congratulations to Alex Phasey for the biggest fish! Good angling boys, very close towards the end. 4 pbs broken 2, 30s 29lb grassy multiple high 20s and a gem of a koi. Cefn Mably Lakes you done us all proud, a lot of happy anglers!’’ Sounds like the place is on fire.

Hazel Court Ponds at Cowbridge has great fishing on the pleasure lake, 10 to 15 carp in a session is usual, most 6lb to 8lb. Reports plenty of koi, bream, roach, eels and big cats to 28lb as well. A fun fishery which is just £10 for a day ticket, a great place to take the family.

Nine Oaks at Newquay reports plentiful catches of carp, lots between 5lb and 7lb with the odd double. This is another good runs water where action is almost guaranteed, if you are on a family holiday it is well worth checking out.

The Gweryd Lakes Fishery near Mold has some cracking carp, commons and ghosties particularly. The venue (below) is stunning and fish to 20lb plus are caught regularly. To book here call Johanna, 07974 427578

Llyn Carfan (Pembrokeshire Coarse fishing) Another successful match for the Pembrokeshire Piscatorial’s on Sunday. The winning bag of 23.3 kilos mixed carp and silvers. It was a close match with plenty of fish were caught from all pegs .

Pike angling is now not recommended, water temperatures are heading over 18 degrees almost everywhere, pike are fragile fish and do not cope well in warm water and low oxygen content. The same goes for grayling which are perhaps the most fragile of all fish in hot weather.

If you do fancy some lure fishing, then perch are quite hardy, so get the ultralight lure gear out and do some jigging. Venues such as Cardiff Bay, Port Talbot Dock, Brecon Canal and Pontsticill reservoir can all provide exciting perch fishing.

As we head into May conditions have been far more favourable and compared to early spring things have been a lot drier and warmer, encouraging coarse fish to feed! May is is perfect time to get out there and enjoy our many stillwater coarse venues.

Below, Ryan Healy managed a 2lb 6oz crucian from one of the Glamorgan angling pools, a new PB.

Reports of Pike to 17lb coming from Llangorse lake. Angler Shaun Harrington below. Water is still cold enough here for lure and fly fishing, but please keep an eye on the temperatures if heading up there, pike are quite fragile fish in warm weather.

Kurt Jennings smashed his way into the 30’s club with his new PB of 38lb 2oz, below, from the Birch Syndicate St Brides Newport.

Also on the Birch (Peterstone Lakes) the Tench have become very active. You can catch plenty of these in the day ticket Pencil lake at the fishery. Below Kev Clarke with some nice green monsters!

Llliswerry Pond Newport also reports lots of big tench, to nearly 6lb, also bream to 8lb, some nice rudd, eels and of course carp to over 20lb. A truly mixed fishery. Day tickets here are just £7.

New Celtic lakes Lampeter reports plenty of double figure carp in the catches in late April, several to 20lb plus. The big catfish are now starting to wake up!

White Springs Fishery is rightly famed for its big carp, the milder spring weather has seen a multitude of 30lb plus fish being caught. Below, ‘Hercules’ at 34lb.

Cefn Mably Fishery has seen big hauls of carp in late April, many 20’s in the mix and for Nathan Duggan below an impressive 28lb 1oz grass carp from lodge lake.

Trinant Fishery Llantrisant is fishing well as we head into May, Morgan Hutchingson this week on Dragonfly Lake caught an immaculate common in the region of 20lb. Picture below.

Hazel Court Ponds at Cowbridge reports plenty of carp, koi, bream, roach, eels and small cats over the past week. A fun fishery which is just £10 for a day session.

Abernant fishing lake at Neath reports plentiful catches of carp, lots between 7lb and 8lb with the odd double. This is another good runs water where action is almost guaranteed.

The scenic Gweryd Lakes Fishery in the hills near Mold is producing many immaculate carp, commons and ghosties particularly. A cracking ghost carp of 19.5lb pictured below. To book here call Johanna, 07974 427578

Aberystwyth Fishing Lake, Capel Bangor, reports of lots of carp 5lb to 17.5lb plus. Some great fun fishing available here, bags of 40 carp are possible on waggler tactics. Day ticket £12, 24 hour £20.

Nine Oaks Fishery, Newquay has seen carp catches of over 20 fish per angler on the main lake this April. These run to lower double figures. There are also tench here, one angler reports catching 18 of them in a session.

Cledlyn Lake Fishery and Cafe is a family run business nestled in the tranquil countryside near Llandysul. There are reports of carp to lower double figures being captured in good numbers, to boilies and also off the top on the warmer days.

Llyn Carfan (Pembrokeshire Coarse fishing) numerous fish being caught on a waggler float setup, mostly carp but also some nice rudd. A match on 30th April saw a winning weight over 26 kilo made up of 21 kilos of carp and additional 5 kilo of silvers, with a couple of tench thrown in. Second place also had a 20.5 carp bag. It sounds like the place is on fire!

A cold dry March gave way to a very cold and snowy, then consistently wet and unsettled remainder of the month. Therefore, fishing options have been a bit limited, especially with the closure of the coarse fishing river season.

Despite the conditions, the rivers did end the season well, lots of grayling were reported on the Taff, Rhymney, Dee and Monnow for anglers trotting, plus some early spring barbel on the lower tidal Wye in early March, before the floods.

With the rivers closed, you can still fish some canals, for example Mon and Brec canal on Pontypool Angling Association water and also Merthyr angling club water at Brecon, or Llangollen canal in Denbighshire. Note, a few canals are SSSI’s and a closed season will apply, so always best to check on the NRW website. There are lots of roach and skimmers about on the Monmouth canal, as well as some big perch and a few jack pike.

Small Ponds and fisheries have been fishing well for the brave anglers heading out. Lliswerry Pond in Newport has reported a string of big tench recently, for example the 6lb specimen below left and 4lb 7oz specimen below right. Lliswerry could easily be classed as one of the best tench lakes in Wales. Carp and bream are also coming out on a regular basis. Look out for a video about this great venue on our YouTube channel soon.

Commercial fisheries have been producing a lot of carp, venues such as Hazel Court Ponds, Seven Oaks, Canada lake and Tri-Nant fishery in Glamorganshire are all well worth a try if you fancy a lot of runs action. Grange Springs is a another one, set in a lovely location near the border at Trelleck, Monmouth as is Lower Pen-y-clawdd Farm Fishery.

In the Rhondda valleys, Darren Park lake is always good for a few quality carp, commons in pristine condition can be found here. Rhian Bomber (below left) with son Hunter with a nice one. Rhian also went fishing with Hunter and partner David to one of the Glamorgan angling club ponds in Barry (below right) Thanks to the milder weather they had 38 carp between them, many to surface baits.

Some very large carp are coming off the specimen lakes. Caerphilly Castle moat head bailiff Stephen Hill is now the proud, joint holder of the Moat’s current lake record Carp after banking “Patch” at her heaviest ever weight of 32lb exactly.

New Celtic lakes near Creuddyn Bridge Lampeter is fishing well for carp, lots of 20lb plus fish are coming out. Matthew Bird reports over 40 fish in a 24 hour session last week with his family. White Springs Swansea is getting good, with mild and changeable weather now with us. Lots of reports of fish to over 30lb. Spring is a good time pretty much anywhere in Wales for carp, as they ‘wake up’ and begin feeding heavily.

Llyn y Gors in Anglesey has been producing a lot of big carp on the syndicate lake to 25lb, and the last of the winter matches have seen good bags of roach and bream.

Llyn Derwen, Ruthin, is a runs venue that offers good sport with some pretty and obliging carp so ideal for beginners and children. There are some really big perch here as well, Craig Jones with a cracking one below.

Eisteddfa Fishery near Criccieth reports some good bags of coarse fish on their pleasure lake. Carp, bream, skimmers, roach, perch and the odd gudgeon will all figure in the catches, which regularly exceed 40lb keep net weights in the local club matches.

Bron Eifion Fishing Lakes & Lodges is another venue near Criccieth North Wales. There are reports here of big bags of carp taken to 64lb with long pole and hard pellets. Some lovely accommodation is also available on site.

For pike, most fisheries tend to stop pike angling now, since the pike are spawning and the water will often be too warm for safe angling in summer. Some venues remain open, for example Llangorse lake, where the Kayak anglers have had some great pike fishing this spring. The recent Llangorse Kayak Fishing European Championship saw 36 pike landed to 96cm and a big perch, at 42cm. Llangorse is doing very well, with lots of high teens and low 20’s being caught thanks to the highly educated anglers fishing it now. There really is no excuse for poor fish care, with all of the great content we now have on YouTube about pike safety. Joe Shaw below, with a nice Kayak caught pike from the venue.

Llandgefedd reservoir has been open for pike trials throughout March, sadly there were no reports of anything significant being caught, such a shame but it is a very hard water.

Prospects for April and Easter can only get better, along with the weather – we hope!

Remember it is ‘’take a friend fishing this Easter’’ when you can register for a one-day rod licence to take somebody with you fishing for a day during 1st and 16th April 2023. For more details head to the Take a Friend Fishing site.

Coarse fishing rivers

A variable set of weather conditions has meant limited river fishing activity, but now with settled conditions fishing has been much better.

Grayling have been popular for the anglers who enjoy trotting, The Rhymney near Caerphilly is a star grayling river and has produced many grayling of 2lb or just over this season. Below – Ryan Healy and Steve ‘copper’ with a fine Rhymney brace of 1lb 14oz and 2lb 2oz respectively, the fish took double red maggot. Fishing here is with two clubs, Royal Oak and Caerphilly AA.

The upper Wye has been fishing inconsistently – some excellent days have been reported at Builth Wells, of 20 to 30 grayling and chub taken trotting, whereas other days very slow. It is a large river so locating the fish is key here as they are often shoaled up tightly in mid winter. Below – At Builth Wells town water.

The Irfon has had a tricky winter, it needs some water but not too much! We have heard of a 3lb 2oz specimen caught by Angling Dream’s Adam Fisher, captured with snow on the ground and also of a few 2lb plus fish, example below John Cheyne of the Angling Trust from a Fishing Passport beat last week.

The lesser know river Ithon is also well worth fishing for grayling, this is largely underfished but we have heard reports of 2lb plus grayling from the river. Plenty of access here with Fishing Passport beats. Our latest video (below) shows a day spent trotting on the Ithon.

The Taff at Cardiff has had a good grayling winter when the levels have allowed angling, lots of fish around 1lb plus the odd one to 2lb. The Glamorgan Anglers water in Cardiff is a good bet, from Radyr train station to Sofia Gardens. Day tickets in Garry Evans tackle on Whitchurch road. Below – typical Taff grayling this winter.

The lower Monnow can offer tremendous sport, Kevin Clarke has had plenty of grayling and chub in the town stretch, and above this section there is Monnow and District Angling Society water.

Pike fishing

Pike fishing has been good on Llangorse now the lake has dropped a little after the floods. Sea fishing guide Gareth Griffiths tries for the pike once a year on Llangorse and had an epic session first week of February, landing Eleven pike with the biggest weighing just over 20lb. He also had an 18lb and a few between 7lb and 12lb. Gareth Israel had a new PB of 19lb. Chris Hughes took Philip Christie out for his first time piking, they had a brilliant day, with over 100lb of pike in 10 fish! With 7 doubles and 3 jacks, Philip breaking a PB at 18lb 8oz. Look out for upcoming competitions on the Llangorse Pikers page, where Chris is organizing a ‘Fly vs’ Jerk’ comp for the start of March. Below Gareth Griffiths into the pike!

The Wye has fallen back nicely past week and has produced plenty of pike to lure and deadbait. Jake Jones had a 25lb specimen from Monmouth area, picture below of the awesome fish and very happy captor. A 30lb plus fish has also been reported from the Wye past week.

A junior pike day is being organised on Pontsticill by the pike anglers club, for Saturday 18th February. Should be a great opportunity to learn about pike fishing methods and welfare. Details below.

Stillwaters

Small fisheries have been producing a lot of carp, venues such as Hazel Court Ponds, Seven Oaks, Canada lake and Tri-Nant fishery are all well worth a try if you fancy a lot of runs action, best to fish on the milder days. Ladies carp team member Charlotte Blick, below, with a nice winter conditioned Tri-nant carp.

On Caerphilly Moat lake Luke Kennard recently banked four beautiful Carp, one of them a stunning, recently stocked, heavily plated VS Mirror weighing mid double figures, another chunky 23lb 10oz Mirror, a mint 27lb 12oz Common, and the highlight of the session, “Moose’s Mirror” (below) weighing an awesome 31lb 6oz.  One hell of a session!

Port Talbot Dock has been running winter matches, here roach have dominated rather than the usual skimmer bream, Steve O’Mara had 52 roach for 7lb 7oz during a recent match on peg 17.

In Cardiff The Wharf Fishery’s head bailiff Marc Woodward started the year as he means to go on, by landing a new 30lb carp which tipped the scales at 30lb 8oz. Very impressive to see, as the fish was only put in at 8lb 8oz in November 2016.

Darran Park Lake, located in Ferndale in the Rhondda is a coarse fishing lake which is stocked with plenty of quality carp, amongst other species, including tench and pike. Image below shows a lovely Tench from the venue. It can be fished on a day basis through the local syndicate.

As I write this. We’ve got perfect conditions for grayling fishing. Such an obliging species, particularly when temperatures are cold, with the river levels stable and the lakes frozen over. One of the best ways to fish for grayling in a river is by trotting maggots, an enjoyable and active method of fishing.

We have many different stretches of club water here in Wales that you can practice trotting, including the Wye, Dee, Taff and Wye tributaries on the Fishing Passport. Not all beats allow maggots, but sometimes worms instead. So always check local club rules and the bylaws.

Angling Trust CEO. Jamie Cook recently visited the Caerphilly Angling Association water. Near Machen in South Wales. For just £5.50 for a day ticket. Jamie enjoyed catching a large number of river Rhymney grayling, Several of them over a pound and a half. Plus numerous out the season trout. A testimony to this fantastic river. A few pictures below of Jamie with some of the fish.

The Wye is in deep freeze but it is possible to catch some cracking chub at this time of year, plus silver fish, which can be tightly shoaled up at this time of year. The barbel fishing was good up until the frosty weather, as they tend to switch off the feed, but when we next have rain and an influx of warmer water they are worth a go.

Remember, salmon, trout and sea trout spawn at this time of year. So if wading when grayling or winter river coarse fishing take care to avoid spawning fish and trampling on redds, which could destroy eggs. Check out our article on redd spotting here.

On the stillwater front, after a wet and windy November It’s been quite difficult. Ice has hit a lot of the lakes.  As I write this, we’ve got frozen venues in many locations, so it is always best to check before travelling.

At the end of November and the start of December the pike fishing was excellent, with numerous reports of pike over 20lb on some of the reservoirs and larger lakes, such as Pontsicill. Our film with Will Millard shows a magnificent capture, a 24lb 8oz pike captured by Chris Howell, pictured below.

For any junior anglers interested in pike fishing, the PACGB are running a free event on Feb 18th at Pontsticill Reservoir in conjunction with MTAA, open to all anglers aged under 16.

Other venues that can fish well for predators include Trawsfynydd, Bala, Brenig, Llangorse to name a few of the well-known waters. They’re all worth visiting if you’re wishing to catch a big Welsh pike, and of course you have the Wye. Boshertson in Pembrokeshire is another cracking venue, Wales Women’s carp team captain Rhian Bomber pictured, with a nice pike from a recent visit.

Should the ice break smaller stillwaters can continue to provide good fishing all winter long, for a multitude of species. Specimen perch being one of them. Below, Kev Clark’s cracking bag of perch from White Springs fishery.

As soon as we get a break in the sub-zero weather It’ll be worth getting out. And the same goes for winter carp fisheries. Good carp are out  there for the hardy angler, as shown by Tony Jones 35lb 11oz mirror from the Birch, a syndicate water near the sea between Cardiff and Newport, which often stays ice free.

Rayan Healey has been living the bream dream on an urban canal feeder in Cardiff, check out his nice sized bream and uniquely Welsh backdrop in the image below! Looking ahead a thaw looks likely in a weeks time, so that should kick some of our stillwater fisheries into life again and get rid of the ice, fingers crossed.

October into November has been very mild – with an overcompensation of water, a stark contrast to most of the year. These conditions have meant that barbel fishing has been fantastic on the Wye, with many fish captured to lower double figures in weight. Almost all of the Welsh angling club beats, Angling Dreams and the Fishing Passport venues are going well. Below – the ever consistent Kevin Clarke with a double, along with another fish around 7lb, and Andrew Riste and Rhian Bomber with some nice Wye barbel.

Baits such as halibut pellet and meat have scored big catches, fished with heavy leads in the marginal creases. The excellent barbel fishing should continue as long as the weather stays mild, which it is predicted to do so for some time. High water is good for barbel, but there is a limit to what is actually fishable, with that in mind make sure you check the river gauges before heading off to fish, as a raging flood is no good. A falling river is often best, as less debris and the fish are inclined to feed. Our article here explains how to read the NRW river levels website, an essential tool for river anglers.

The Taff is known for big barbel, but suffers more than the Wye from flood water so a window of opportunity is more limited. It has produced some good fish recently well into double figures before the worst of the rain. It should fish well when the river falls off.

The pike season has started well, the fishing on Llangorse lake has been fast and furious, with lots of doubles reported already, with a fish of 16lb 14oz the best we have heard of. It seems the venue is going from strength to strength. There are a number of winter events being organised by the Pike Anglers Club RA10 South Wales region, for details of these head to the Llangorse Pikers Facebook group. As always when fishing this venue check the weather and the Langorse Lake Facebook page before travelling, as they do cancel the boats in windy weather for safety reasons.

Pontsticill Reservoir has been fishing very well for pike, the low water levels, mild weather and influx of fish transferred from Dolygear (which ran dry in the summer) has helped. A good number of 20’s have been caught, as well as large numbers of jacks and doubles. The lake is filling up fast now with all of the rain, so things might slow down soon. Below a great release shot of a 18lb 9oz specimen captured by Chris Howell, pic taken by Will Millard.

Llyn Trawsfynydd N. Wales is open till 20th December and for the hardy pike angler this venue can offer the chance of a fish of a lifetime with 30lb plus specimens on the cards. The cost is £25 per day from the bank. We have just heard of a 35lb 4oz Traws pike and hope to have pictures and a story from the captor soon.

Llyn Brenig is also open for pike fishing, until 28th February 2023. This costs £20.50 for two rods or £31.00 for three. To pre-book a peg, simply book online with the venue or call the visitor centre on 01490 389227. Anglers may view a peg map on the website to help choose their preferred fishing location. You can also hire a boat for just £10 a day up until 27 November 2022. For the hardy angler, night fishing is available at £41.00. Please contact the visitor centre for more information. Below – Brenig pike captured by Jack Finney.

Other than a few jacks, we have not heard of many large pike from the Wye system yet, what we need is a fall in water levels and the water to clear, pike being a sight feeder will then be easier to catch. As the waters recede target the slacks with bits such as herring or sardine for best success, or large rubber shads and replicants that imitate coarse fish.

The Birch Syndicate/Peterstone lakes just outside Newport has been producing some good pike, there is a winter pike season ticket option available here. Below, young Blake James with a Birch double figure pike.

Talking of the Birch, it has produced a 43lb 12oz carp in mid October, a new lake record. Captor Tom Misfud with the fish below.

Carp fishing in Wales has been good over the past few weeks, especially in late October. Mild weather wind and rain has encouraged the fish to feed if you can brave the conditions and put the time in. All the usual big fish waters are producing, White Springs near Swansea for example threw up three 30’s last week to 35lb 8oz. New Celtic lakes at Lampeter has produced carp to 29lb and cats to 37lb this month. Llyn y Gors Anglesey has produced a lot of big carp this autumn, with fish to 28lb 8oz from ‘The Old Lake’ on the complex. Bear in mind a lot of the carp venues and fisheries will switch to winter opening hours, so it is always best to check before traveling.

Before the worst of the rain grayling were being caught in good numbers and size from the usual grayling rivers, such as the Taff, Irfon, Upper Wye, Dee and the Rhymney. Trotting being a favoured method. Brett Davies (below) broke a PB while fishing a South East Wales post industrial river. The stunning fish went 2lb 6oz.

Eisteddfa Fishery at Criccieth N. Wales is fishing well for the match anglers, some good bags of silvers coming out to 34lb 14oz. Llyn Y Gors on Anglesey is also hosting a round of winter matches, plenty of small carp here in the match lake and silvers. Stamford Way Fisheries near Ewloe is running an autumn league on Saturdays and open matches on Tuesday and Thursday’s.

Port Talbot Docks are running winter matches, some bags of bream and skimmer being caught here to 15lb. Should the weather allow, fishing here will improve over the winter.

October is a time when we move away from the summer species to winter, pike being the most obvious.

Good pike fishing has been reported on the ever popular Llangorse lake, with Lloyd Thomas (below left) and Chris Hughes (below right) reporting lots of action to deadbaits and lures.

Ponsticll reservoir at Merthyr Tydfil is also producing plenty of pike, the water levels are low and Dolygaer is practically dry so the pike are a bit easier to track down. These fish are ranging from high doubles to jacks, with plenty of action reported. Luke Davies (below) with one of 6 fish in a session of a few hours.

Other waters now producing pike include Peterstone (The birch), Lliswerry Pond, Roath park lake, Port Talbot Docks. Llandegfedd has held pike trials, which are ongoing this month. Sadly it seems most anglers are struggling there, with few catching. This is attributed to the very low levels. There is however one report of a 32lb pike from the venue. For more information on pike fishing locations in Wales, take a look at our article by Adam Fisher.

The river Wye has seen a slight influx of water recently and as such the barbel fishing has kicked into life. Anglers around the Monmouth area are reporting bumper catches, many of them in double figures. The earlier evenings are helping, so make sure you stay on where rules permit into the first half hour of darkness as this is often when the takes come. Below – Rhian Bomber, Jake Jones and Kev Clarke with some lovely Wye barbel.

Chub are also figuring in the catches on the Wye with reports of up to 15 chub in a session from  Michael Gallagher. It won’t be long until pike are being caught as well, now the river has some water in it and the temperatures are falling fast.

October 2nd saw the Garry Evans Colin Cook Memorial Match on the Wharf Fishery (East Dock) in Cardiff. Andy Neal won the match, using feeder and whip fishing tactics.  Andy bagged 53 skimmer/bream for 107lb which managed the win, setting a venue record. A bag of 70lb of roach was also recorded. This goes to show the coarse fishing potential in some of our carp fisheries.

Match angler David Healy (below) has been fishing close to home at Cwmbran boating lake, where he has been catching some impressive bream to 8lb 15oz. The water is run by Crow Valley Angling who have done a good job of looking after the lake, which holds specimen sized bream to double figures and other coarse fish. Tickets are £5 pay on the bank with membership options available.

Grayling are now coming into their own, with rivers such as the Rhymney, lower Taff, upper Wye, Irfon and river Dee producing some great fish to 2lb plus. Trotting is a perfect method to catch these fish, using worms or maggot.

Perch are worth a try this autumn, with the ‘big perch’ venues such as White Springs, Riverside, Port Talbot dock and Dyffryn Springs reservoir being good places to try. These fish well with baits such as lobworm or prawns fished under a float. The Cardiff bay barrage lake should also produce a lot of perch as soon as the weed dies down, here small jigs work best.

October into November can be excellent for carp, as the weather systems stir them up before the water temperatures cool significantly. So as you might expect the carp fisheries have been very productive of late. Caerphilly Moat, Peterstone/Birch fishery, White Springs, Cefn Mabley, New Celtic lakes, llyn y gors Anglesey and Gweryd lakes North Wales have all produced multiple 20’s  to name but a few venues. Welsh Ladies team member Natalie May fished Llyn Cae Ty Nant syndicate near Tregaron recently and landed a brace of stunning 30’s (below) both of which smashed previous PB’s.

Its been such a hot summer that our river coarse fishing has really suffered, with a lot of the summer barbel and chub fishing on the Wye being affected. That said in recent week or two the temperatures have dropped, and people are now catching lots of barbel on the angling club and Fishing Passport beats, but with some blanket weed reported so bear this in mind. Jake Jones and Bec Goodliffe (below) have enjoyed catching some nice double figure barbel on angling club water near Monmouth recently.

The Taff is another river with big barbel and this year it has produced lots of big chub as well on the Glamorgan anglers stretches. If we have some water here it will perk things up and some really big barbel could come out as a result.

Grayling fishing should kick back into life in the autumn, this fish requires a lot of oxygen to thrive, so this summer hasn’t been good for them, as soon as the water temperatures and height allow trotting will be a great method on the Wye, Irfon, Dee, Severn and Taff, all famous Welsh grayling rivers.

The feeder fishing natural venues have been hit by very low levels – Dolygaer (Merthyr Angling) has completely run dry, however the club were able to rescue several ton of bream, skimmers, perch and pike and transferred them to Pontsticll reservoir, which is very low but is still fishable. Below, Dolygaer reservoir at low level.

Wales small fisheries have continued to fish well through the summer holidays, with carp being the main target, a fish that can handle warm water conditions and is very hardy. Venues such as Dyfffryn Springs, Tri Nant, Hazel Court, Llyn y Gors and Llandegla have great stocks of carp from a few pounds to double figures and offer great value fishing.

For the big specimen carp lakes Caerphilly castle moat, Cefn Mably, Gweryd lakes, New Celtic lakes, Llyn Cae Ty Nant syndicate, Wharf Fishery Cardiff and White Springs in particular have produced fish from 25lb to well over 30lb. September is good month for specimen carp fishing when the turnover in conditions can get the really big fish feeding.

For the lure angler perch are being caught, in good numbers in Cardiff bay lagoon using LRF tactics and small jig heads. It is weedy here however, so you need to fish in the gaps or tight in the margins. Lloyd Thomas below.

September going into October is some of the best mixed coarse fishing of the year and should we see a dramatic fall in temperatures at the end of the month pike fishing could well be back on the agenda.

Finally, congratulations to the Welsh ladies carp team who came 5th in the Women’s Carp Fishing World Championships 2022 held in Oxford last week. They beat France, Italy and Hungary by a significant margin, these are countries that are renowned for their carp fishing, so can be considered a great result and bodes well for the future.

The river Wye season began on June 16th – plenty of people fished the Welsh sections particularly around Monmouth on club water. It really was a slow start for the barbel, however plenty of small chub and eels have been caught.

Things have just started to pick up, with some rain and cooler temperatures very much welcome after a hot mid June, with barbel showing in the catches over most of the stretches. Kevin Clark (below) doing well with simple pellet and feeder tactics.

July should prove to be much improved based on the forecast. What’s more there hasn’t been any algae bloom this year, with the river looking great despite being low, fry and weed coming back – a great sign for the future.

The Taff on Glamorgan angling club water has been fishing well. This is a wonderful mixed fishery in the Cardiff area – except chub, barbel, grayling, trout and even the odd perch lower down the stretch. Trotting with maggots or a big lump of meat for the barbel seems to be the favoured methods. Chub to 6lb have been reported and barbel into double figures. Day and season tickets for Glamorgan AA on the Taff are available in Garry Evans Tackle Whitchurch road, Cardiff.

Chub have been reported on the lower Rhymney River on Caerphilly AA water and below to Llanrhymney. This river has some surprisingly good sized ones, and a few barbel too. The Rhymney also has prolific grayling stocks to aim for, if the water temperatures are cool enough. We have also heard of some nice tench coming out of the Welsh waters, Rhian Bomber of Ladies Carp team (below) with a 5lb 4oz PB from a lake in the Rhondda.

On the carp front the warmer weather of June stopped play briefly whilst spawning took place. This has now pretty much finished, so all of the usual ‘big fish’ venues such as White Springs, Cefn Mably, Caerphilly moat, Celtic Lakes, Llyn y Gors, Wharf fishery will be fishing well.

For the general all round coarse fishing June has been good and July will also provide great fishing. Springwater lakes in Carmarthenshire has some great tench, crucians, roach and rudd. Clyne pond near Swansea likewise has a great mixed bag – tench, perch, bream plus the odd trout and eel. Tri Nant fishery at Llantrisant as well as carp has great mixed fishing at the top lake – check out our video here.

Spytty pond at Newport, Trefaldu at Dingestow and Dyffryn Springs near Bonvillston also all offer a quality coarse fishing experience for mixed species. In fact, Wales has dozens of intimate fisheries that fish well in summer – you can find them all on our website.

The big natural waters such as Port Talbot Dock, Dolygaer and Llandegfedd are starting to fish well for bream and hybrids, with some big bags coming off regularly – well worth a go, with matches being held regularly on these venues. Contact the local angling clubs or look up the venue Facebook groups for details of these.

As we look back to April and May carp fishing has been prolific in Wales, with warmer spring water temperatures bringing them onto the feed. Caerphilly castle moat, Cefn Mably, Gweryd lakes, New Celtic lakes, Llyn Cae Ty Nant syndicate, Wharf Fishery Cardiff and White Springs in particular. All of these venues have produced fish from 25lb to well over 30lb. However, it is now spawning time, so look out for this if fishing – it is generally best to leave them too it, and many fisheries close anyway, so always worth checking. Joel Burrows below with a 27lb 10oz Caerphilly mirror and a new PB!

If you like eel fishing then you may be interested to see the 5lb 2oz snake from Kevin Clark of Korum (below). Kev used on a Korum grub feeder packed full of chopped fish and prawn to tempt this specimen from the Birch Syndicate at Peterstone, Newport. He also reports another fish of similar size and three all around 4lb. There are lots of other untapped ‘big eel’ venues in Wales, for example Llangorse lake, Lliswerry pond, various Glamorgan anglers stillwaters. The potential is there for a snakey surprise!

Llangorse lake has been producing good pike this spring, especially to lure and fly anglers. There are lots of doubles and fish to the high 20’s reported, very encouraging for the future. Danny Thompson with a 116cm beast below. With the waters warming into summer now it is probably time to consider stopping pike fishing, from a fish welfare point of view, especially if the water exceeds 18 degrees.

Feeder and match angling at our fisheries and especially the natural waters has been a little slow. These however are picking up, with Dolygaer is also starting to fish better, which some hardy souls venturing out to fish matches run by MTAA, with skimmers featuring in the catches. Port Talbot Dock produced some great bags of bream and silvers in April, especially on the whip, with matches taking place on most Sundays.

Mon and Brec canal has fished well on Pontypool Angling Association water, lots of roach and skimmers about from Horse and Jockey bridge 55-57.

Llyn Carfan Coarse fishing lakes at Whitland, Pembrokeshire are worth a try, lots of small carp, perch and silvers, nothing that will break the scales but all good sport in nice countryside. Another Pembrokeshire fishery, Cosherston has been producing big bags of carp in excess of 20 fish, average weight about 5lb. Simple methods such as float fished sweetcorn will work well here.

We look forward to 16th June, with the major coarse fishing rivers lower Dee, Severn and Wye opening again, and also the lower Taff for big barbel, chub and grayling.

River Wye coarse fishing really picked up in March, up until the last day on March 14th. Many big pike were recorded off the back of the floods, including a 19lb 13oz esox to Will Millard, captured on a soft plastic lure at Wyastone Leys. This was captured on film, and the video will be aired on our YouTube channel in October as soon as the pike season starts up again.

Wye Barbel fishing was also productive in March, with the waters warming somewhat. For example Michael Gallagher and Daniel Evans (below) had a great session on Glamorgan AC water at Monmouth, with 2 barbel each and plenty of chub, including a double hook up.

On the subject of barbel, several double figure fish were caught on the Taff in March, so a promising June 16th is on the cards!

Pike fishing continues to be good on Welsh stillwaters, with the water temperatures being cold. Llangorse lake saw the annual Kayak Fishing European Championship on March 26th. 27 pike were caught to 98cm. This water should continue to fish well in spring, but be aware the fish will be spawning very soon so may be best alone for a few weeks.

Llandgefedd reservoir has been open for pike trials through March, Keith Wilson (below) landed a 33lb pike on the first day. Although it’s a very hard water we have heard of a few other good pike being caught, but details are fairly elusive.

Coarse fishing on Llandgefedd has started, although it is tough going in March. It will be late April when the fish begin to feed readily, then June and July onwards for the best fishing. Other natural venues follow a similar pattern, for example Dolygaer and Ponsticll. Port Talbot Dock is an exception, being coastal it keeps temperatures up and it has warm water inflows from the steelworks, so it can fish well all spring. James Hall (below) who had a net of silvers weighing in at 24lb from the venue.

Caerphilly angling club has seen some 30lb plus carp recorded for the first time – Owain Watkins below left with a 30lb 6oz mirror, whilst Luke Sweeney landed a common of 30lb 4oz, shown below right. These were captured in the Caerphilly castle moat.

Good sized tench and bream are also featuring in the catches on Caerphilly AA, on the moat and Semtex lake.

Small fisheries have been producing a lot of carp, venues such as Hazel Court Ponds, Seven Oaks, Canada lake and Tri-Nant fishery are all well worth a try if you fancy a lot of runs action. Grange Springs is a another one, set in a lovely location near the border at Trelleck. We have a video coming up from this venue soon!

White Springs has been fishing well for carp, with plenty of 20’s to low 30’s being caught in the warm March days we have had. Richard John had 28 carp in a 48 hour session with brother Daniel, biggest 23lb. On the match scene a 92lb 13oz bag was reported on the canal lake.

Llyn y Gors on Anglesey has woken up in the sunshine, Mark Davidson has a new PB common weighed in at 32lb 2oz (below). The winter match league on the venue ended last week, topped off by a 47lb 8oz bag captured by Rhys Edwards.

Llyn Derwyn fishery near Ruthin is a delightful lake, it is stocked with common carp, mirror carp, Bream ,Roach, Perch with a variety of sizes. It has been fishing well in the March sunshine with lots of carp from 3lb to 10lb.

Eisteddfa Fishery at Criccieth has seen bags of over 22lb caught, mostly skimmers with some carp. The cafe here is now open daily from 8.00 am – 4.30 pm.

River Coarse Fishing

It has been a wet and windy past week, with the fishing conditions being very tough to be fair. For the river angler, this this meant flooding, and the lower Wye will be blown out for some time, hopefully there will be time to get out before that end of the season.

Before the wash out the lower Wye was fishing well for chub – Owain Watkins, Neil and Isaac Stevens (below) of Caerphilly Angling Club fished at the club stretch at Wyesham, catching 2-3.5lb chub all day, with the trio ending up with 18 chub in total.

Grayling fishing has been good this winter on the lower Taff and Rhymney. The Taff has had quite a good year for grayling compared to the last two, there are plenty of pound plus fish about, with fish to 2lb plus regularly hitting the nets. The Glamorgan Anglers water in Cardiff is a good bet, from Llandaff to Sofia Gardens. And encouragingly lots of small ones have appeared. Trotting with maggot or using a maggot feeder is the best approach.

The Rhymney is another post-industrial gem, it has good grayling but this year it has been dominated by few but larger fish. 2-3 fish in a session of a few hours can be regarded as good, but fish of 1lb 8oz or thereabouts appear to be the average size. Some of them are pushing 2lb. If the levels drop then both rivers will be worth a try before the grayling season ends.

The Welsh Dee has been ever consistent for grayling this winter; however, it will now take a good week for it to fall to a fishable level. Best areas are around Llangollen with fish to 50cm and nearly 3lb possible.

The Taff has been producing large barbel, in Cardiff, with a brace of 12lb fish caught just before the big flood by one angler. The Taff has been re-stocked with hundreds of 1lb sized barbel by the club recently, so the future should be promising for barbel in a few years.

There are some good fish to be caught in the urban streams of Cardiff, Ryan Healey had a nice chub (below) and some small perch and roach from the stream draining Roath Park lake.

Stillwater Coarse Fishing

Talking of Roath Park lake, it has some good pike in it, including this 21lb 8oz by Danny Curtis (below) on a soft plastic lure.

Regarding fishing on Roath Park lake, it is considered ‘free’ although it is actually in the hands of the council. Anyone fishing there should respect the park, do not leave litter, and bring the equipment needed for fish-care. It only takes a few to spoil the fishing or behave inappropriately which could see fishing banned outright.

There are some quality perch caught in Wales, Brett Davies had a cracker (below) taken on a lure from a canal stretch in Gwent, weighed at 2lb 12oz. Canals are a good bet after heavy rain, the extra tint in the water can help by giving the angler cover.

Another option would be Stillwater perch, Glamorgan AA ponds, Riverside fishery Caerphilly, Dyffryn Springs and of course White Springs are all known venues that can throw up 2-3lb plus perch regularly. Our recent video with Kev Clark runs through how to tackle the commercial venues for them. Check it out here.

On the carp front, a lot of venues fish well in February, wet, windy and mild weather often stirs things up. Luke Price (below) has been catching some cracking winter carp from the Hendre Lake St Mellons.

Other venues fishing well for carp include the Caerphilly castle moat, Cefn Mably and White Springs. All of these venues have produced fish from 25lb to 30lb, so well worth braving the weather. Cefn Mably has some new facilities just installed, a new toilet and hot shower, free for anglers to use.

Springwater lakes Lampeter opens on March the 1^st. This is a great complex of lakes for specimen Crusian, Mirror, and Common Carp, large Tench and Bream, Roach, Rudd, Golden Orfe and Perch. They also have a ‘big fish’ Carp venue with fish over 35lb. It will be well worth fishing this spring, the location is stunning, with caravan and camping on-site.

In the Vale of Glamorgan Hazel Court ponds are always a good bet in winter for some nice 5/6lb carp and bream, as is Tri-Nant fishery in the Rhondda.

Pike fishing on the larger waters has been productive when conditions allow. Llangorse is throwing lots of doubles up to the high teens, mostly on deadbait, but always check with the venue as they cancel the fishing due to high winds.

Llyn Brenig has allowed pike fishing all winter, and it is fast becoming a well-recognized and must go to location in the pike angler’s diary. Anglers have been rewarded with some excellent pike being caught, the biggest of which was a stunning 29lb 3oz monster caught by James Penwright.

Port Talbot Dock is another large venue with a lot of predator potential. Allan Hamblin (below) fished it just before the storms, he caught a couple of nice fish using jerkbait lures. There are also perch here to 4lb and even bass and sea trout, that can and will take a lure.

Eisteddfa Fishery near Criccieth has been running a winter league, the last match saw a bag of 25lb 8oz captured by Andy Thompson, a combination of carp, skimmers and roach. This is a great venue for winter coarse fishing. Bron Eifion is another venue in the same area that is worth a go if the weather holds.

December and January so far has been a bumper time for coarse fishing in Wales, thanks to fairly pleasant weather which has allowed people to get out.

The carp lakes have been fishing really well over the past weeks, Cefn Mably in particular producing some big 20’s. The ladies carp team had a very productive session, with Charlotte Blick (below left) breaking a PB at 27lb dead on. Ladies team captain Kayleigh Watkins also had a nice 26lb 12oz common (below right)

Caerphilly moat has been fishing very well during the milder spells, Andrew Riste has been catching fish to 27lb 8oz (below left) and Luke Sweeny has done well with some cracking fish to 24lb (below right)

The Merthyr AA Dowlas top pools have been producing well, even in heavy frost, several carp around 18lb reported recently. Jonko’s Tri Nant fishery Llantrisant has also been fishing exceptionally, with plenty of commons to 15lb despite frosty starts. The Wharf dock fishery in Cardiff has also been throwing up a lot of good carp, with Dean Collins landing a 30lb 8oz mirror. Nathan Brana fished The Wharf on 16th January, where he landed a PB at 45lb 6oz – a huge carp for a Welsh venue!

Other popular Welsh carp waters such as new Celtic lakes Lampeter and Gweryd lakes Mold will be worth a try, especially if we get a mild spell with low pressure.

For specimen perch, fishing has been good with Ryan Healy (below left) reporting a 2lb 13oz perch from a Glamorgan Stillwater. Kevin Clark (below right) has had great success at White Springs, with many lovely perch over 2lb, biggest at 2lb 15oz. Prawns are a favoured bait when fishing for perch at commercials in Wales.

For grayling, The Irfon continues to produce quality specimens, with a report of a 2lb 14oz monster captured by Nigel Botherway whilst trotting on a Fishing Passport beat on the upper river. Numerous other fish to 2lb have been recorded on the Irfon over the past few weeks. Other productive grayling rivers for trotting include the Taff at Cardiff, the Rhymney, the Wye at Builth Wells and the river Dee near Llangollen.

Pike fishing, as you might expect has been excellent recently, Llangorse lake continues to fish with numerous doubles being caught on deadbait and lures, most being between 12lb and 15lb, which bodes well for the future. Bosherston lily pools is another popular venue in Pembrokeshire. In winter the weed dies back here, giving better access. On this fishery ensure you have the correct tackle including net, mat and extra strong mainline or braid – essential where thick weed and snags are encountered. This stunning estate lake has produced plenty of jacks recently, but also the odd to double to 12lb.

The Wye is producing plenty of large jacks to lures and also a good few doubles, with a 20lb fish caught near Monmouth recently by John Phillips. Below: Ceri Thomas and Jake Jones of Garry Evans Tackle with some lower Wye pike.

Prospects will continue to be good for all of the winter species, with settled and mild weather forecast for at least another week – so get out there and enjoy!

The Welsh grayling rivers are fishing exceptionally well at the moment. Trotted maggot is a winter favourite and can be used on various beats of the Dee, Wye, Irfon, Severn, and the Rhymney and Taff in Cardiff. But always be sure check the club rules and regional bylaws before fishing with this method.

Brett Davies (below) fished the Irfon in Powys with a friend last week on a Fishing Passport beat, where they landed 17 quality grayling with many over 2lb. Owain Rees of clubmate has also been on the Irfon, again reporting several lovely 2lb plus specimens. We filmed a video at this incredible venue last week which includes trotting tactics, so look out for this soon!

Kev Clarke has also had some fantastic days recently, including nonstop action on the Rhymney and Taff (below left) Grayling prospects will be good all winter especially if the rain keeps off. Cold weather is no issue for grayling, they will feed on even the bleakest of days.

The Wye was fishing well for barbel earlier in the month, Kevin Clarke again getting out with some double figure fish reported from the lower tidal stretches on Welsh angling club water. (below right) Things have slowed down a lot however, thanks to cool water and low, clear conditions. A warm spate might perk things up a bit on the Wye and also the lower Taff.

The past few weeks have been productive on the carp fishery front thanks to the mild conditions. Cold weather has now switched the carp off somewhat. Lakes that were doing well included White Springs, Caerphilly moat and Lamby lake.

Some of the match/feeder venues are still fishing well including Dol-y-gaer reservoir, Redhill and Port Talbot dock, which has warm water so can fish well all winter. All of these could potentially throw up a good sized bags of skimmer bream, perch and silver fish.

Pike of course have been one of the mainstays over the past weeks, with plenty of fish coming to lures due to the mild weather. Jake Jones (below) with some nice fish from local angling club water in Gwent, which took large swim-bait lures. Largest at 22lb.

Llangorse lake has been fishing well, some really nice doubles have been coming out over the past few weeks. Chris Stevens and Tasha Jenkins (below) with some lovely looking pike captured a few days ago.

The lower river Wye is starting to produce some cracking pike on dead baits now as the temperatures fall – we expect to see some big 20’s in the coming weeks. Dol-y-Gaer and Pontsticll reservoirs near Merthyr Tydfil will also start to fish as the temperatures drop.

In north Wales llyn Brenig reservoir and llyn Trawsfynydd are open for pike fishing. Both trout venues have the potential to produce some exceptional pike. Brenig now has an option to book swims and fish overnighters – full details are on their website.

The large natural venues have been fishing well this autumn – Dolygaer reservoir (below) at Merthyr Tydfil in particular with good bags of skimmers and bream coming out. Low water makes this venue easier to fish, although there are usually good swims available at high water near the dam and the right hand bank. For an idea of what it is like there, check out our recent feeder fishing video here.

Llandegfedd is another great venue for feeder/match fishing. In addition to large bream and hybrids, Dave Healey has reported some 55lb plus bags of roach averaging 6oz to 12oz which were rare a couple of years ago. These are coming on well due to increased coarse angling activity and more bait going in. Deggy is open for coarse fishing until end of October. And if you want to try for the pike there are predator day tickets available every Monday and Tuesday from boat or bank throughout October.

Llangorse lake has started to fish well for pike. Some nice doubles are being caught to dead bait. There are also plenty of eels showing – up to 3lb 8oz. Chris Hughes with a nice 16lb 10oz pike and wrestling with an eel below!

Trawsfynydd reservoir was fishing well for pike in September, with lots of 25lb to 30lb plus fish coming out, but has slowed down a bit as expected in colder weather with hard fishing pressure. It may need a few quite weeks of bad weather for these fish to switch back on. Pontsticill Reservoir in the Brecon Beacons is always worth a go for the pike, especially on a dead-bait rather than lures. It has fished well with some fish to 20lb coming out. The Wye angling club waters in the Monmouth area are starting to fish for pike, with always a chance of a 20lb plus specimen esox.

On the subject of the Wye, the barbel fishing this autumn has been very hit and miss, with some stretches struggling, whilst others have reported good catches, particularly the ‘Angling Dreams’ beats. Chub fishing on the Wye has been excellent this autumn and should continue into the winter. Below – Kevin Clarke of the Angling initiative with an autumn Wye barbel.

If you are into your perch then there are some crackers coming out of our canals, such as the Brec & Mon. Brett Davies with a lovely specimen below caught whilst roaming with light lure tactics.

There are plenty of other ‘big perch’ venues now coming into their own, such as White Springs, Riverside, Port Talbot dock and Dyffryn Springs reservoir. These fish well with baits such as lobworm or prawns fished under a float.

On the carp fisheries this autumn has been very productive. Caerphilly Moat, White Springs, Cefn Mabley, Gryrn Castle fisheries, New Celtic lakes, llyn y gors Anglesey and Gweryd lakes to name but a few. October into November can be excellent for carp, as the weather systems stir them up before the water temperatures cool significantly. Llyn cae ty nant syndicate near Tregaron has just reported its first 40 at 41lb to Concarpangler. (Image below) So if you can brave the changeable autumn weather then give the carp fisheries a try – you wont be disappointed.

The Wye had a slow start, perhaps in part due to the cold spring. Just as things began to pick up in early July for barbel and chub, the heatwave and alage bloom hit and put a stop to the fishing for several weeks. It is only now as the water has cooled down that the coarse fishing is really productive again – we’ve heard of plenty of barbel coming out on WUF stretch as well as club water in the Monmouth area. A lot of eels have been reported on the Wye this year – a good sign. Below: Young angler Lewis Parfitt with a Wye barbel.

There are other rivers in Wales for barbel  – Including the Dee at Bangor on Dee and the upper Severn from Newtown to Welshpool that are worth a try. These are a bit off the radar but they are underfished and have pristine fish that see little pressure. August into September would be a prime time to try them.

On the carp fisheries many of them saw spawning activity return during the hot weather so were closed. In the aftermath however fishing has been excellent all over Wales for carp. Specimen Venues to fish at the moment include White Springs, Cefn Mably, Caerphilly Moat, New Celtic lakes and Gweryd lakes. Commercials such as Redbrook and Stamford Way are well worth trying this summer and early autumn, with 100lb plus bags of carp possible.  Below: Cameron Bates 31.2lb white springs

For summer coarse fishing we have so many options, especially in north East Wales Wrexham/Flint area which has numerous small ponds and fisheries, plus on the canals around Llangollen. Fishing is good at the moment for a real mixed bag of species. In west Wales Bosherston is a really special place for summer fishing, with tench, rudd and roach to be caught float fishing the lilly pads.

The ‘South Wales Fishing Society’ currently run 3 waters in the Swansea area the pluck lake, Clyne pond and Singleton Lilly pond, all of which offer great fishing for a mixed variety of species – this club has worked hard to keep these lakes in great condition.  In southeast Wales the Mon & Brec canal is a firm favourite.

Venues such as llandgefedd have been providing bumper bags of bream and Hybrids to in excess of 100lb, for example at the recent Sensa ‘Deggy Pairs’ match. As has Pontsticll and Dolygear reservoirs near Merthyr Tydfil, which have become renowned for their summer match fishing events. These reservoirs are currently low water level, so the banks have great access. Below: Dave Healy on Llandegfedd

Prospects look great for the rest of August and into September – so make sure you get out there and enjoy the cream of the fishing. Remember up until 5th September you can ‘take a friend fishing’ and claim a free NRW rod licence – more details here.

The river Wye season began on June 16th – plenty of people fished the Welsh sections particularly around Monmouth on club water. It really was a slow start for the barbel, with almost nothing reported over the first week of the season. Plenty of chub and eels however were caught. Things picked up near the end of June, with barbel showing in the catches over most of the stretches. Richard from London with a nice one below, his first ever barbel. 8mm halibut pellets and a swimfeeder doing the trick. The Wye is expected to continue to fish well, especially as the water clears (we hope!) from a pretty murky algal bloom.

The Taff has also produced some big barbel, several doubles have been reported on Glamorgan AA water. The tactic here is to usually present a big lump of luncheon meat.

Chub have been reported on the lower Rhymney River on Caerphilly AA water. This river has some surprisingly good sized ones and a few barbel too.

On the carp front the warmer weather stopped play briefly whilst spawning took place. This has now pretty much finished, so all of the usual ‘big fish’ venues  such as White Springs, Cefn Mably, Caerphilly moat, Celtic Lakes will be fishing well.

For the general all round coarse fishing June has been fantastic and July will also provide great fishing. Springwater lakes in Carmarthenshire has some great tench, crucians, roach and rudd. Clyne pond near Swansea likewise has a great mixed bag – tench, perch, bream plus the odd trout and eel. Tri Nant fishery at Llantrisant, Spytty pond at Newport, Trefaldu at Dingestow and Dyffryn Springs near Bonvillston all offer a quality coarse fishing experience for mixed species. In fact, Wales has dozens of intimate fisheries that fish well in summer – you can find them all here.

After a slow start in early June the big natural waters such as Port Talbot Dock, Dolygaer and Llandegfedd are fishing well for bream and hybrids, with some big bags coming off regularly – well worth a go, with matches being held regularly on these venues. Contact the local angling clubs or Facebook groups for details of these.

Although pike fishing isn’t really done in the summer, there is an exception at llyn Trawsfyydd, which has been producing some great fish well over 20lb recently to lure and fly. The lake has cold water thanks to its mountain altitude and the fishery carefully monitors the temperatures and stops the pike fishing if over 20 degrees. Cracker below caught by Paul Clydesdale, on a visit from Scotland.

The unseasonably cold, windy and wet weather has meant it has been hard work at our fisheries and especially the natural waters. These however have picked up, with David Healey (Deggy Dave) reporting a 100lb bag of bream on Llandgefedd on 23rd May. These were caught at close range on a whip.

Dolygear is also starting to fish better, which some hardy souls venturing out into the weather to fish matches, with skimmers primarily featuring in the catches. Mikey Williams below with a 10lb winning bag (Pic: Welsh Fishing Wizardry)

Festival lake Ebbw Vale has been fishing well, with some crucians and skimmers coming to the keepnet. White Springs near Swansea has been producing big bags on the match lake to 126lb.

Talking of White Springs, the carp fishing has been on fire with lots of 20 to 30lb plus specimens coming out. Caerphilly castle moat also keeps on producing plenty of carp, our visit with Rob Hughes (below) went well – look out for a film early next month.

Both the Pluck and Clyne ponds of South Wales Fishing Society at Swansea have been fishing really well over the last few weeks. A feeding program means that the fish here are growing rapidly and are in tip-top condition. New Celtic lakes near Lampeter is fishing well, plenty of carp 20 to 30lb plus and some catfish to 40lb+. At Anglesey, Llyn Y Gors continues to produce in foul weather, Andy Scanlan with a new PB mirror of 28lb 8oz below, lovely clean fish.

The Wharf syndicate in Cardiff is also producing lots of quality fish, including some cracking commons to 37lb. Leighton Ryan (below) fished Lamby lake and caught ‘Frodo’ at 32lb 8oz.

Some big double figure bream are also showing up in some of the catches, often falling to carp anglers. Below Andrew Riste shows off a ‘belter’ of 14lb 2oz from a park lake in Cardiff.

All-round specimen hunter Kevin Clark has been having some fun catching eels, tench and bream at the Birch Syndicate at Peterstone. Some cracking Tench to 5lb, bream to 8lb 15oz and eels to 5lb 3oz have all hit the back of his net. A lot of our commercials and carp lakes hold great stocks of specimen coarse fish, these are virtually untapped. So why not give them a try?

Fishing can only get better into June, when hopefully it will warm and dry up! The coarse fishing rivers will also be back in contention on June 16th, so something to really look forward to.

With Stillwater Coarse fisheries re-opening and traveling to fish now allowed anglers have been enjoying fishing again after a long, hard lock down winter.

First off, some big pike have been caught from stillwaters, the most notable being Stuart Watsons, 33lb 6oz monster (below) from Trawsfynydd reservoir, an any method venue that continues to produce big pike from boat or bank regularly.

Llangorse lake re-opened and is also fishing well – with plenty of fish taking lures fished in the shallows. Most are jacks but some nice doubles have been caught. Chris Hughes and Alex Moses have both had some great sessions recently, Alex with a 19lb specimen (below) this lake allows you to bring your own boat or kayak, as well as boat hire. We produced a film at the venue last winter, we will be posting this next month.

Regarding pike welfare, water temperatures are still very cold in our lakes, in just single figures, so fishing for pike by lure and fly is perfectly safe to do so, given the high oxygen levels still in the water. However once water temperatures levels rise significantly in late spring it will be time to put the rods away for pike until the autumn. Water temperatures of 18 degrees or more should be avoided completely.

On the carp front a lot of venues are waking up well, White Springs consistently producing big carp, with high 20’s and 30’s in the mix. Also, the Caerphilly AA Moat, which is producing some great looking fish. We will be producing a film at this venue in the coming weeks. New Celtic lakes near Lampeter has been fishing well, with some nice carp coming out, plus some big catfish to 42lb.

There are some great smaller venues in the valleys, these are fishing well. For example, Festival Lake Ebbw Vale and Cwmcelyn pond (below image by Welsh Fishing Wizardry) which is producing some heavy keepnets.

In Vale of Glamorgan Hazel court ponds is producing good bream and roach, plus some decent carp on the specimen pond. Tri Nant, Dyffyrn Springs and Seven Oaks are now open, so we expect they will start to fish well soon. Redhill near Monmouth has been producing well despite cold weather.

With much warmer weather forecast it looks like we will have good coarse fishing ahead in May and for the rest of April, with big wild venues such as Dol-y-gaer coming into their own and llandegfedd opening again on 26th April.

The past few weeks have been fairly quiet on the fishery front. Cold weather has switched the carp off and lakes that were doing well such as Caerphilly have slowed down a bit. However, if you persevere the rewards can be high – check out the stunning 31.04lb winter common from White Springs captured by Arron Fisher.

The rivers are fishing well for grayling – trotted maggot is a winter favourite and can be used on various beats of the Dee, Wye, Irfon, Severn, and the lower Rhymney and Taff in Cardiff. Tackle dealer Garry Evans recently trotted Abernant on the Wye and had a great day with nearly 30 fish, and Terry Theobald tried the Rhymney for the first time and had nice fish to 1lb 10oz (below). If you haven’t tried trotting then our article by Oliver Burch explains exactly how to do it.

Perch are another great winter species to try for this month – the picture below shows the stamp of fish in some of our commercial fisheries, this was from White Mill captured by Kevin Clarke. Other perch venues include Dol-y-gaer, Brecon canal, Port Talbot dock and llangorse lake, all of which could potentially throw up a good sized perch.

There are still barbel to be caught from the Taff and Wye, especially after a warm flood, when a big cube of luncheon meat can work a treat. The fish below left was caught in the Taff recently by Lloyd P of Garry Evans Tackle. Luke Thomas (below right) also had some sport on the Monmouth beats, one day bagging a brace of Wye doubles on robin red pellets. Great fishing.

Pike of course have been one of the mainstays over the past weeks, with an unsubstantiated rumour of a massive 36lb pike from Llyn trawsfynydd lake in north Wales. The venue is open till 20th December for pike bank fishing.

llangorse lake has been fishing well, some nice doubles coming out over the past few weeks, but it has slowed down a bit now. Fish below captured by Shayne Pink. Check that the fishery is open before travelling.

Pontsticll reservoir at Merthyr has been producing some great pike recently, including this fantastic 23lb 4oz croc which is a new PB for angler Jamie Block.

The Wye has also produced some nice pike so far this winter, with many well into double figures including the 18lb 6oz specimen below which was caught well up the river near Erwood. The lower reaches around Monmouth are also fishing well whenever the water levels permit.

Prospects: January is a hard month, but if Covid lock-downs and the weather allow, Welsh pike will be worth fishing for as will perch. Hardy barbel anglers may still manage to pull a few out of the Taff and Wye during warm spells. Winter chub are also worth a go on the Wye, either trotting maggots or bread flake and grayling will fish well in January on trotted maggot.

October is a a great month for pike fishing in Wales, with venues such as llangorse lake starting to fish well to deadbaits. Chris Hughes has been out on the lake recently in his own boat, resulting in some lovely fish to just over 16b.

Trawsfynydd reservoir is another venue fishing really well for pike at the moment, with plenty of immaculate 20’s coming to the lures. Caerphilly castle moat is also worth a go, as is Cardiff bay barrage lake, which has much potential for monster pike.

The picture below is from Caerphilly Castle, a venue where Angling Trust qualified coach Andrew Riste (South Wales Angling Coaching) offers his services for new anglers, or anglers wishing to fish for something new.

Fishing for chub and barbel has been great on the Wye, with reports of big barbel coming out on the Taff in Cardiff on Glamorgan AA water. A capture of a massive chub from the lower Usk came to our attention, at 5lb 12oz it is a real specimen. Most water on the lower Usk is game fishing club or fishery water only, but you can coarse fish for them on Merthyr AA water. Image below shows Tony James with the 5lb 14oz chub.

Grayling fishing is something to try this month using trotting methods. The river Dee is a great venue, as is the lower Taff on Glamorgan AA water and the Rhymney on Caerphilly AA. Lets not forget the Wye and Irfon, many of which have beats on the Fishing Passport that allow trotting with maggots in winter.

Commercial fisheries are also well worth fishing in October/November, some excellent bags have been coming out of waters such as White Springs and Ian Heaps resort, below  is an image from Eisteddfa Fishery where bags of carp to over 60lb are being caught regularly on feeder fishing tactics.

Due to COVID-19 virus a national ‘Fire break’ lock-down is coming to Wales from 6pm 23rd October to 9th November. This is going to affect angling, since you will not be allowed to drive to fish, only walk from home if you are fortunate to be near a suitable venue. Day ticket fisheries will be closed during this time, and anglers from outside Wales will not be allowed to visit. More details can be found here.

Lure fishing for predators has recently picked up – including venues such as Cardiff bay barrage lake and Llangorse lake, Brecon and Monmouth canal. Expect it to get even better in October.

The images below are from the guys at Garry Evans tackle in Cardiff – Bob , Lloyd P & Iwan – who have been  lure fishing on the bay barrage lake which has been producing some nice perch over 2lb and pike to 25lb.

On the carp fishing front, September has seen improving catches, with fisheries such as White Springs going well.

The stunning 23lb fish below was captured by Gareth Morris from the Tair Llyn gravel pit complex, which is a syndicate water near Aberystwyth.

Barbel fishing has been good on the Wye through September – with stretches around Monmouth and Hay on Wye producing well. Tim Hughes prospected water much further up river than you would expect barbel to be found – and was rewarded with the fish below of 11lb 10oz.

Our larger wild venues such as Dol-y-gaer and Llandegfedd will continue to fish well for bream, skimmers and hybrids all autumn – Check out our llandegfedd film here which was filmed in October last year.

Wales has some fantastic wild venues where huge bags of bream and hybrids can be caught, these can fish well in summer and August has been a great month. These include Llandgefedd reservoir and Port Talbot docks, plus the twin reservoirs of Dol-y-gaer and Ponsticll (Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance)

MTAA hosted a two day competitive festival on the reservoirs on the weekend of 15th & 16th of August. Many top UK Match Anglers attended including Mikey Williams, Lee Edwards, Des Shipp – and the local lads were out in force trying to beat them. Both reservoirs fished extremely well over the two day festival. The winner overall was the legendary Des Shipp – with a total weight over two days of 88lb 3oz!!