Stillwater fisheries

October heralds the real start of the ‘small stillwater season’ with many of our fisheries renewing stockings. With cooler water temperatures stocked trout feed much better and as we go into winter, the fishing can only improve on these venues. Our larger stillwaters also really pick up, with October providing some super sport from boat or bank.

Dare Valley, Aberdare – Report from the fishery: Been a busy month here at Dare Valley trout fishery. The cooler weather is definitely helping. The fish are fighting really hard. The dry fly fishing seems to be slowing down a bit but the lure fishing buzzer’s etc really starting to pick up. There has been a lot of good fish caught over the last month with lots of double figures being caught, also a few brownies have started to show.  Average size of the rainbows are now around 8lb. Our catch and release ticket for a full day is still £30 but we have a lot of other options to suit everyone.

Foxhill, Haverfordwest – The West Wales venue is on form, with a huge number of trout being caught over the past few weeks. The cooler conditions are really helping. Some anglers are reporting up to 38 fish in a session. A very healthy rod average of 8.8 fish per angler from last week, which saw over 502 fish banked (with most returned). Olive flash straggle bodied damsels are very effective here, as are smaller nymph patterns, Daiwl bach and crunchers. 275 Exmoor rainbows were stocked recently so the fishing can only get better.

Ynys-y-Fro Reservoirs, Newport – Fishing has been tough through the summer, with high water temperatures, however fish have now started to feed with a vengeance and both of the reservoirs are now open, having had a top up of stock with 600 rainbows of around 3lb. On 24th September Andy Hoffrock reports: It looks like the reservoirs are switching back on now. We had an excellent day with 24 anglers landing a total of 105 fish—giving us an impressive rod average of 4.38 per angler. There were plenty of fish rising, and most catches were made in the top couple of feet.

Cwmtillery Reservoir, Abertillery and District Fly Fishing club – Some great improvements are being made by the club, including new pathways, drainage pipes being laid into the bank, rubble being shifted to make way for a car park, strimming, reclaiming pieces of wood and pipe. Fishing has been tough due to bad weather, but as it cools the fishing will pick up. The venue is a stunning spot especially in Autumn. Day Tickets £25. Expect rainbows, browns and spartics.

Garnffrwd fishery, Mynyddcerrig, Llanelli – October has seen the fishing improve with lots of action on the dry flies on the calmer days. The lake is looking superb and stuffed with fish. Open as normal 8am till dark 7 days a week.

Wal Goch Fishery, Nannerch, Mold – The fishery is on form, with Daniel Tricket reporting 17 fish including 7 rainbows and 10 tigers, mostly on black and green lures. The fishery was stocked with 60 rainbows and tigers earlier this week, so the venue will be well worth a visit.

Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery, Abergele – With the cooler weather the fish have now started patrolling the margins and are chasing fry, some good fish 5lb+ have been showing and being caught on damsels.

Graiglwyd Springs Fly Fishery, Penmaenmawr – Has been closed all summer as an ‘aqua park’. The venue is now undergoing maintenance. The venue should re-open for fly fishing this autumn, although the fishery has not issued a date. Keep an eye on their socials for details.

Aberystwyth Angling Association – The ten lakes are open until 17th October. Expect some brilliant fishing at this time of year with Frongoch being very productive for rainbows and blues, with Rhosrydd being the star performer for grown-on brown trout to over 3lb. Bookings on the Fishing Passport.

Elan Valley – The Rhayader Angling Association reservoirs and Claerwen are open until 17th October for wild brown trout. They offer good value for money and the action can be fast and furious in October, with traditional wet flies pulled through the waves.

Llyn Trawsfynydd Resevoir, Maentwrog – Is running a youth participation day on Friday 1st November 2024. More details on their Facebook page. When the weather has allowed, the reservoir has fished well this autumn.

Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, Llanidloes – Report from 3rd October: Weekly Stock: 500. Season to Date: 41,200. If you’ve been following our updates or have visited recently, you’ll know that Clywedog is on fire right now, with fish reported almost everywhere! We’ve had multiple reports of boats catching over 30 fish from various areas of the lake. During the Autumn buzzer hatch, large numbers of fish are feeding on the surface, providing excellent opportunities for anglers. Boats are having the best of the action, but plenty of fish are also being caught off the bank, particularly along the popular areas. Anglers are using a wide range of methods from dry flies to the bung, making the fishing accessible for all levels of expertise.

Top Boat Areas: Bigga Arm, Braich y Ffeder, Mouth of Carters, Eblid Basin, Sailing Club,Bwlch y Gle. To Book a Boat call 01686 412890

River Fishing

The river trout season proved to be one to remember for many anglers in Wales this year, despite heavy rains limiting fishing time during the last month of the season;  which finished on the 30th September for most Welsh rivers, with the upper Severn closing on 7th October.

The stocks of wild brown trout in Welsh rivers are excellent, with many rivers producing more and more quality fish as the years go by, some of them in excess of 5lb. The south Wales post-industrial rivers in particular, are well known for their superb fishing, in often semi-urban environments. It is amazing how these continue to thrive, with the multiple challenges they face.

We are also seeing more and more large wild trout being caught on the rivers of West Wales, and in the North and Mid Wales rivers, especially the tributaries of the Severn and Wye.

As we move into October, grayling now offer superb fishing opportunities on the rivers that hold them. We have several well documented venues that can produce big catches of grayling, including the Dee, Severn, Upper Wye, Taff and Rhymney. We are already hearing reports from these rivers of excellent numbers of grayling, which bodes well for the winter fishing ahead. Below: An October grayling from the Monnow.

Grayling are also present in many of the Wye tribs in Mid-Wales, but be aware that a large part of the lower river Irfon is still out of bounds. According to NRW and the Fishing Passport this is due to the presence of crayfish plague, which is carried by invasive signal crayfish. A restriction on angling will help lesson the risk of spreading this disease to the native crayfish of our other rivers. The Wye and Usk Foundation will hopefully be issuing an update soon on when the Irfon restriction will be lifted. For now the Colonels water, Melyn Cildu and Serenity house upper beats can be fished.

On the subject of crayfish, it does appear that invasive signal crayfish are rapidly colonising many Welsh rivers, which may partially explain why the trout in them are growing so big. Crayfish are a favoured prey item of larger brown trout. It is illegal to remove crayfish from the water. We also urge anglers to practice ‘check, clean, dry’ to avoid spreading crayfish eggs.

Migratory river angling has again been challenging this year; the extreme wet spring saw any early running fish heading straight through, to be dispersed widely into the river systems. What has been encouraging are the slightly better numbers of salmon being reported this autumn, compared to 2023, especially on the Towy and Dovey. Abercothi (Towy) saw 30 salmon landed in September with plenty more being caught in early October, with Colton Kelly in particular achieving success. Towy club water such as Carmarthen and District have also seen a good back end; one member was fortunate last week to net three sewin, the largest around 3lb and two salmon on Thursday evening, a cock fish around 10lb and a hen of about 14lb, he also lost a salmon of around 8lb on Wednesday evening. The Usk and Wye have also seen some salmon captured in September and October, with the Wye and Usk Foundation reporting above average numbers of salmon parr found in some of the important spawning tributaries, so some hope for the future. Below: Abercothi salmon caught by Colton Kelly.

It seems sea trout numbers have been quite thin on the ground sadly throughout most of Wales in 2024, although some dedicated anglers such as Rob Redman have had a good season on the rivers of North Wales, which seem to be holding up better than the rivers of the south. Fair numbers of schoolies have been showing up though, as the season draws to an end. Below, Charlie Corkrums capture of a late season small stream sewin, from Carmarthenshire.

We do have until the 17th October to fish for salmon and sea trout on most of our rivers – the migratory rod licence must be held and the bylaws adhered too. As we look further into October, the grayling rivers and small stillwater fisheries will see most of the angling focus for game anglers – if the weather is good it can be a magical time of year to get out and enjoy our varied venues.

Wild stillwater trout venues

August has generally been a productive month on the upland Welsh lakes and fisheries, thanks in part to cooler than normal temperatures for most of the time, with the exception being a very warm few days, which brought water temperatures up and put the fish down.

Thankfully, the recent storms and windy weather just prior to the bank holiday have now cooled things off significantly, and the wild brown trout fisheries have improved. Venues such as Nant-y-Moch reservoir (new video here) offer fantastic top of the water sport, also Llyn Teifi at Teifi Pools. The ten Aberystwyth Angling Association lakes are beginning to fish well, especially Rhosrydd lake, which is producing quality brown trout ranging from 2.5lb to 5lb. Below: two typical Rhosrydd brown trout captured a few days ago.

As we head well into September, prospects for wild trout stillwaters are good, should water temperatures remain cool. September is often one of the best months, with waters such as Claerwen reservoir, Elan Valley lakes  Ogwen Valley stillwaters, Llanbrynmair angling club lakes, Beacons Reservoir and Cambrian Angling Association’s Gamallt and Llyn Morwynion coming into their own. All of the traditional wet flies will work well in September, pulled on a floating line. e,g bibio, black zulu, mallard and claret, peter ross and red tag.

Stocked Stillwater Fisheries

Dare Valley, Aberdare – Report from the fishery: It’s been fairly busy over the summer. The weather has helped with the fishing as it’s been a lot cooler and we are lucky to have a cold flow off the mountains into the river that feeds the lake. The lake has been fishing well, with a lot of action on the surface. CDC buzzer and shipman’s buzzer and now moving on to the daddy’s, have been doing the best. We have also kept stocking plenty of big fish on a regular basis which has helped and we also have a stock pond, from which we are drip feeding them into the main lake. We also have a boat now which people can hire at £15 a day. The boat will take two people. Customers have been enjoying it and have had very good results.

Foxhill, Haverfordwest – The fishery has now been up and running for 12 months and is now highly regarded as one of the best run small stillwaters in Wales. The fishery record for ‘numbers’ was broken on the year anniversary date (24th August) with regular Phil Lumber netting 30 on a mixture of nymphs and buzzers. To book call 07920 056761

Ynys-y-Fro Reservoirs, Newport – Fishing has been tough through July and early August, with high water temperatures, however fish have been caught in the deeper water on the lower lake using sinking lines or dry flies at dusk. A big improvement should be seen with the wet and windy weather of the last few days. The venue now has a new boat, improved CCTV to deter poaching and hosted a successful open day on 17th August, with Charles Jardine providing casting lessons, along with several local retailers on-site showing their support. The club are already looking to expand upon the successful open day next season.

Cwmtillery Reservoir, Abertillery and District Fly Fishing club – Warm summer water temperatures have slowed the fishing down as you might expect, but rainbows, stock browns and spartics are still being caught. Fishing is expected to improve as we head into Autumn. Day tickets £25.

Llyn Cynwch – Dolgellau Angling Association – Reports of good numbers of rainbows, with fish being caught on coral eggstacy worms fished under a bung. This lovely venue in North Wales can be fished on a day ticket, purchased through the Associations clubmate website.

Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery, Abergele – Fishing has remained challenging due to the weather conditions, however some good size browns (3lb-5lb) have been caught during the evening on sedges. The water is starting to cool now so we are expecting some good fishing in September.

Tata Game, Eglwys Nunydd Reservoir, Port Talbot – Not many people have been fishing the lake in late July and August as the water temperatures led to poor fishing, and a lot of the fish do not survive into autumn. So, the fishing will be difficult. That said, it is possible to have a good day when conditions are favourable, with the club now offering a morning ticket. It will cost the same as an evening ticket, £12 for 2 fish, if you want to keep any, plus c&r up to 10 fish. 1 hour before sunrise up to 12 noon. You must stop fishing when you dispatch your 2nd fish. Early morning is usually the best time when water temperatures are cooler. More details on the club website and Facebook Page.

Llyn Trawsfynydd Resevoir, Maentwrog – Reports cracking top of the water fishing yesterday (26th August) using hover lines or 12ft slow tips, pulling hoppers, daddies and boobies through the waves. For locations, main dam, totem pole, cold water channel gap and tyn twll bay are all fishing very well. Plenty of sedges around and plenty of fish feeding on them.

Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, Llanidloes – The lake has been stocked with 35,700 so far this season with around 1000 going in per week. Report from 22nd August: It’s been a busy week once again and as we mentioned last week definitely are seeing more fish in the upper layers of the water, although with the windier conditions we are not seeing many fish rising but there are definitely fish ready to accept a ready meal. Roger Lewis and boat boat partner Tudor Owen enjoyed a very good day on Wednesday both catching double figures on black daddies and Midas. But as a general feeling it seems like the depth is intermediate lines and washing line, with small boobies and cormorants which have done well today. There are still fish being taken deeper, in fact the bung at about 10ft has been effective.Areas are also quite varied depending on the wind strength and direction Bwlch y gle only seems to fish on lighter winds where as the top end Bigga, Gronwen to carters and the Eblid basin is more consistent. The bank fishing has also picked up with more fish being reported along popular side and Braich y ffedew.

Llyn Brenig, Cerrigydrudion – Jim Jenkins reports from the fishery on 18th August: The future at Llyn Brenig is looking good with Dwr Cymru fully committed to maintaining the lake as one of the foremost fly-fishing lakes in the UK. There are plans to construct a new jetty in the near future and we are also planning to stock Llyn Aled Uchaf instead of Llyn Alwen. We will be canvassing the anglers who fish in the Alwen (see below) but we believe that by stocking Aled Uchaf we will improve the anglers fishing experience. There will be a greater concentration of fish in a smaller area, easier access to the lake, better parking facilities and an overall better experience than the angler is presently getting.

The weather has been very unpredictable over the last few weeks with a reasonable number of warmer days interspersed with cooling showers which have kept the water temperatures hovering around a comfortable 16 degrees C to 18 degrees C. There have been some very squally conditions at times which has been challenging for the angler when casting. Hatches of heather fly over the past few weeks has given the angler some great sport as illustrated by Mr. J. Owen who wrote, ‘Nice to see red legs on the lake. The trout liked them too’, and the following week he wrote, ‘The best dry fly action for ages.’ With the cooler conditions over the past few days the fish have tended to stay further down in the water with an intermediate line and lure being the order of the day.

One thing that is noticeable when reading the catch returns is the number of fish of 4lbs and over that are being caught. These are big fish, and it reminds me that when I was a boy fishing the rivers and streams around Rhydymain, near Dolgellau, I don’t think I ever encountered a trout of more than one and a half pounds, so these Brenig fish are indeed big fish. There were also several fish of 5lbs caught with Mr. J. Moores recording the biggest fish of the week, a 5lb 12oz Rainbow. The biggest bag of the week was recorded by Mr. Jose Villarino and weighed in at 26lbs! (Wow!)

Llyn Brenig will be hosting a major cycling event on Sunday 22nd September. This will be a whole of site event so there will be no bank or boat fishing available on that day. There will be road closures in place with no vehicle access to either shore. Alwen reservoir will be open as usual.The top flies have been sedges, daddy long legs, hoppers, buzzers, hares’ ear, heather fly, diawl bach, cormorant, damsel and various blobs and boobies all doing well. Hot spots for boat anglers and bank anglers have been consistent over the past weeks with boat anglers having success by the dam wall, the Quarry, Tower Bay, Bouy 7, and near the cages.Hot spots for bank anglers have been the Visitors Centre shore, Tower Bay, Hafod Lom, the point by the Visitors Centre and Sailing Club Bay. The main gates will be shutting at 6.00pm this week and all boats need to be back on the jetty by 5.15pm.

Migratory Game Fish

After some unfavorable warm weather at the end of July and in August The Towy is now reporting sea trout and salmon, with Carmarthen and District Angling Club members catching salmon and grisle on their beat at Whitemill. Anglers having success on the club waters include Steffan Rhys Williams and Viv Davies (below). A new video featuring the club can be viewed here.

With the current extra water thanks to the storms last week, sewin have been reported on the Towy below Llandeilo bridge spinning, along with a few salmon.

Rob Redman has been putting in the effort on his local waters for sea trout through August, in the Dolgellau area and North West Wales, Including the river Dovey. A few of Rob’s sewin catches below.

On the river Dovey, Gareth Dixon has been doing well off the back of the recent rains, on 9th August he reports 5 salmon and 4 sea trout in one day spinning. On 24th August he returned to catch 3 salmon and couple of sea trout, this time using the double hander on the fly. Below: Dovey salmon.

In North Wales the Conwy is producing sea trout and grilse, Dan Lewis reporting 2 sewin and 2 salmon spinning. A good number of fish have been seen going up the falls at Betws-y-coed in the past few days.

On the Wye and Usk, warmer river temperatures led to fishing being suspended by many beats and clubs in late July and most of August. Temperatures have now fallen back below 19 degrees, with Wyesham on the Wye reporting a 10lb salmon on 24th August and on the Usk at Newbridge a 10lb fish on 21st August.

The Teifi on Llandysul Angling Club water has produced a good number of school sea trout at the start of August, which have been taken fishing dry flies into the late evenings. The recent rains should hopefully bring more sewin and some salmon up into the system.

River trout and grayling fishing

Late July and August saw the ‘dog days’ of summer and many of our well known trout rivers pretty much switched off as it got warm, aside from very late evenings. Following the substantial rain of last week, most of our trout rivers have started to pick up again, with the Usk and Ebbw once again producing some special trout. Below: 19 inch river Usk trout from the Upper Tower Beat captured on 24th august by BG of Exeter.

Charlie Corkrum is reporting a number of good sized brown trout from his local rivers this month, including the 50cm plus specimen below from the Gwendraeth system on the Gower / Carmarthenshire border.

With the falling river temperatures, grayling have been caught in increasing numbers, Tim Williams below, with a cracking fish over 50cm from the Severn catchment caught a couple of days ago. The Taff in Cardiff and the Rhymney river have seen good grayling caught recently while nymphing.

The river trout season ends on 30th September for most venues, so we urge you to get out and enjoy the remainder of the season while you can!

Migratory Game Fish

Sea trout (sewin) fishing on Welsh rivers has finally kicked into gear, with a fair number of fish being reported. A highlight being Rob Redman’s 29 inch specimen below. Rob has also had a good number of other fresh run sea trout on his local rivers, in the Dolgellau area and North West Wales.

The Towy is reporting sea trout, with Llandeilo Angling Club stating that sewin have been caught during the last few weeks, more than in recent years, so it is worth getting out there and having a go. Anglers having success on the Towy include Rhys Meilir Davies, who has had good fish to 5lb on the fly at night.

Salmon are also showing on the Towy system, with Viv Davies of Carmarthen and District Angling Club reporting a 10lb salmon last week (below). The club also has adjoining water to the Abercothi Estate on the river Cothi, along with beats on the rivers, Gwili, Taf and Gwendraeth. Great value for £60.

Guide Colton Kelly reports a red letter day on the salmon on Abercothi, off the back of the recent rain. A nice salmon for Colton below, on the fly while fishing with a single hander.

Charlie Corkrum is reporting a number of sewin from his local rivers of Carmarthenshire, from angling club waters such as Abergwili and around St Clears. He heads out very early morning and utilises lure tactics, with single barbless hooks (as per the regulations) which can be seen in our video here, on the lovely Afon Gwili.

The Teifi on Llandysul Angling Club water has started to produce a good number of school sea trout, as well as some cracking fish to 7lb (below, captured by Steffan Jones) the recent rain should really kick start the season on the river.

Sea trout are being caught on the Rheidol at Aberystwyth to those that make the effort…the best fish of this week came to the experienced rod of gamekeeper Dave Lloyd who travels around 70 miles on a regular basis to fish the river. Several other quality sewin to 6.5lb have been caught.

Pembrokeshire Anglers Association reports that the first sea trout have arrived on the Cleddau’s, with fish caught on the fly at night and on Rapalas. Salmon have also been caught on both the Eastern and Western Cleddau. Below, Adrain Batty captured this cracking salmon on the Western Cleddau.

In North Wales the Conwy has started to produce a number of sea trout and salmon. The river Clywd, on Vale of Clywd angling club water, has produced some good sewin on the fly at night recently, to over 2.5lb this season. The Dee has produced a few sea trout and some salmon, Huw Evans, Chairman of Llangollen Maelor Angling showing us how it’s done.

Stillwater Trout Venues

June has been a productive month on the Welsh lakes and fisheries, thanks in part to cooler than normal temperatures for most of the time, with the exception being a very warm few days in mid June. As we head well into July, cooler damp weather seems to be prevailing once more, which for a game angler is great news, as water temperatures will remain cool and the trout active.

Ynys-y-Fro reservoirs, Newport – the past couple of weeks has seen some great fishing. Andy Hoffrock reports over 20 fish on a recent session, shared with boat partner Lee Ashcroft us on a range of methods. Dry fly including ginger hoppers and CDC’s fished well with cloud cover. Damsels on tip lines took a couple. Buzzers, straight lining and under a bung took the most, but also washing line, Diawl Bachs and a booby on the point taking a few. Permit prices have been reduced for July, to member £10 and non members £15.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – Young Anglers Fly Fishing Wales enjoyed a session at the fishery a few days ago, with a number of fish caught. To keep up with the great work being done by the YAFW, head to their Facebook Group. They aim to encourage children to learn how to fly fish whilst enjoying a new experience.

Cwmtillery Reservoir, Abertillery and District Fly Fishing club – The venue is thriving under new committee management. Rainbows, stock browns and wild brown trout figure in the catches. Jesse Gale, below, visited the lake for the first time. Excellent fishing in truly stunning surroundings. Day tickets £25.

Foxhill, Haverfordwest – Report from the owner Steve 8th July: What on earth is going on with this weather, one warm day and continuous cool winds have made for difficult conditions on times, but fish continue to be caught. Numbers vary from low single figure catches to an outstanding 21 to the net for Connor Owen. My stocking policy remains unchanged which is to stock as frequently as I can get them here as the support has been brilliant from all of you. The usual excellent quality fish from Exmoor Fisheries and a few surprises each time too for you all to get stuck into. Last month’s heaviest fish was won by Jerry Wadley. Evening tickets still available each night for the great value of £16. Weekends are still booking only, as they are busy so please feel free to drop a message or call to book a spot. Patterns consistently doing well have been diawls, ptn’s, damsels. In the evenings cdc’s along with small spinner, gnat and sedge patterns have picked up good numbers of fish, although the difference between not catching and catching is often the leader size and scaling down fly size. To book call 07920 056761

Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery, Abergele – Fishing has been up and down of late dependant on weather conditions. Fish have been generally feeding in the top 3ft. Skinny buzzers, sedges and damsels have all been working well. CDC’s have tempted the rising fish. Plenty of large brown trout feeding in the evening on sedges. The lakes were stocked heavily with rainbows and blues on 6th July.

Dare Valley, Aberdare – Neil (owner) reports on 9th July : We have done a big stocking of hard fighting rainbows ranging from 10lb up to 20lb two weeks ago. The lake has been fishing reasonably well with a variation of patterns working, but naturals being best. Some lovely fish have been caught as you will see on our Facebook page. We also dropped the price of our catch and release ticket to £30 for all day or a 4 hour ticket to £25.

Tata Game, Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – The lake usually slows right down at this time of year, but due to cooler water than usual it has been fishing really well, with fish lice numbers low. There is a bag limit in place now of 15 fish, since most fish do not survive the summer. Lots of fish 3.5lb to 5lb are coming out, such as David Benjamins fish of 5lb below. David is reporting plenty of 15 fish bags to dry fly tactics, as are other members and day ticket anglers. The fish are also feeding on sticklebacks, corixa and snails. If you hook a fish here hang on, they will take you right into the backing! Evening probably best time here right now. Day tickets are available for non members, details on the club website.

Llwyn On Reservoir, Merthyr Tydfil – the popular any method fishery is fishing well. It is stocked with fish every fortnight with rainbows. Bags of 4 fish per angler are quite common, with some anglers reporting 6 fish limit bags. Wild Brown trout have also been caught. Fly, spin and bait are permitted here.

Aberystwyth Angling Association – The 10 lakes have fished very well in June and now into July, with several receiving a stocking of supplementary brown trout. Rhosgoch, Rhosrydd and Frongoch in particular have been excellent. There have been some coch beetle on the water to bring them up. For good numbers of free rising wild fish, try Llygad Rheidol and Cwm Rheidol reservoirs. We filmed a ’10 lake challenge’ video on the club waters at the end of June, aiming to catch a trout from every single lake. Look out for this on our YouTube channel soon! Below: Rhosrydd trout of 2lb+ taken during the evening rise by Alan Parfitt.

Brecon Beacons Reservoirs – The Beacons Reservoir on the Fishing Passport has provided great fishing through the early summer, especially on cooler windy days. Crai Reservoir is also well worth a try, ticket £15 at the Cnwer farm house. Wild brown trout here to 1.5lb. Ystradfellte Reservoir with Mountain Ash fly fishers is another hidden gem in the Beacons, day tickets are available. It is fishing well with lots of fish 12oz to 1lb plus. Below: Crai reservoir wild trout.

Elan Valley – Craig Coch reservoir has been drained, which has had a knock on effect on the other reservoirs, being either very high or muddy. However Joe Alexander did well on Penygarreg last month, with the coch y bonddu providing a couple of days action. Claerwen my be a better bet in the area, with the track side drop offs producing some nice fish to bibios and hoppers.

North Wales Lakes Eryri / Snowdonia – Seiont Gwyrfai and Llyfni Fishing Society’s llyn y Dywarchen has fished well on the warmer days after a slow start this spring. Rainbows to 3.75lb have been caught. The clubs Llyn Cwm Dwythwch above Llanberis has done well for wild brown trout in good numbers on the windier wetter days. Llyn Nantlle has also produced some pretty golden wild brownies from the boats. Ffynnon Lloer of Ogwen Valley AA has produced some nice fish around 3/4lb recently. This is the highest fishable lake in Wales, so well worth the walk! Llyn Bochlwyd, also on the Ogwen portfolio has been worth fishing, with catches of up to a dozen fish taken last month.

Llyn Clywedog Reservoir – has been fishing well all summer, with the lake hosting the Fly shop Invitational competition last weekend, where 12 teams caught a total of 1306 fish, with a huge rod average of around 9 fish per day for each competitor. Team Flyshop Welsh Hawks emerged as winners, with Matt Russell of the Renegades as overall top rod, with Gareth Dixon of the Hawks close on his heels. Russ Owen landed a specimen rainbow of 12lb during the competition, which is pictured below.

Llyn Brenig, Cerrigydrudion – Report from the Fishery: One thing that has been very changeable over the recent weeks has been the weather as it doesn’t seem to be able to decide on what to do. The temperature has been very variable, and this has had an impact on the fishing. There has been quite a chilly wind blowing across the lake and this has tended to put the fish down in the water which has resulted in anglers favouring lures and sinking lines. The rod average of 4.0 fish per angler is down on previous weeks and does reflect the more challenging conditions. Last week we welcomed the North Wales Police Fly Fishing Club to Llyn Brenig. Colin Jones wrote, ‘Sixteen anglers caught seventy-five fish for an average of 4.6 fish per angler (21 fish retained) Strong, gusty winds made for a challenging day however it resulted in every angler catching at least one fish. Simon Davies was the top bag with 13, followed by Darryl Price and Andy Jones both on 7. Hard fighting fish, best quality seen on Brenig for many seasons.’ A number of fish of 4lbs 8oz and over have been landed this week but the biggest fish weighed in at 5lbs 8oz and was caught by Mr. Richard Cheetham who wrote,’ Nothing until 3pm then this big one gave me a great fight taking me back to the backing and leaping out of the water four times.’ Are you sure it wasn’t a Marlin!! The biggest bag this week of 16lbs 10oz for six fish caught was recorded by Mr. Alan Jones. The top flies this week have been buzzers, cormorant, montana, cat’s whiskers, hopper and various blobs and boobies. The hot spots for bank anglers have been the Visitor Centre shore, Sailing Club Bay and Tower Bay. The hot spots for boat anglers have been Visitors Centre, Tower Bay, Sailing Club Bay, Dam Wall and near the Quarry.

River Trout Fishing

late June is usually when our river fishing really tails off, and near the end of June a very warm few days elevated the river temperatures and made things very tough. However, with cooler weather and now some decent rain as I write this report, the usual ‘dog days’ of summer have been delayed, and our trout rivers are still producing excellent catches of wild trout, with fish over 5lb reported from the South Wales river systems of the Taff, Ebbw and Tawe. Further West the Teifi has been good during the evening rises.

The upper Wye has also been productive for trout and also grayling that are now ‘in season’. With extra water day-time nymphing is very effective, and in the evenings we should start to see improved blue winged olive spinner falls. Below: visiting angler Lindsay Simpson with an upper Wye trout, caught last month. Lindsay has produced an excellent video on the Wye, with Shaun Watkins, who is the owner of a number of Fishing Passport beats. You can check the video out here.

In North Wales the Dee has been very good for grayling fishing, with the cooler weather helping, especially during the various Team England eliminators that are taking place on the river. The Clywd, on Vale of Clywd angling club water has produced some good trout, to over 2lb this season.

The Usk has fished well in the evenings, and with the rain the various Usk tributaries can fish well, on the Wild Streams Pass. Fish to 20 inches can be caught in these, if you hit it right. Below, Rhys Morgan with a 3lb Usk tributary wild brown trout.

On the subject of Wild Streams, Joe Alexander has done really well on some of the Wye tributaries recently, such as the Edw beats, a nice example of an Edw clonker below, taken using dry fly tactics. The river Ithon is also fishing well for trout. The Irfon however has been closed to angling on the Fishing Passport, due to suspected crayfish plague. For more information on that contact the Wye and Usk Foundation. With cool and showery weather forecast for the rest of July, we should see some outstanding game fishing in Wales, so get out and enjoy!

As we settle into the end of May conditions have vastly improved for both stillwater and lake fishing, with warmer, drier weather bringing in the cream of the season when it comes to trout fishing. Even with heavy showers, the fishing has been top notch this month.

Rivers

Starting with rivers, trout fishing has been excellent throughout May, with venues such as the Taff, Tawe, Ebbw, Upper Severn, Upper Wye, Monnow and Teifi now really coming to life.

The Usk in particular has now switched on, after a slow start, with fish taking yellow may duns and brook duns. Below: A nice Usk trout of 3lb, caught by Rhys Morgan in the Sennybridge area.

Fishing Passport beats such as Abercynrig, Dinas, Brecon Town, Fenni Fach and Penpont are reporting excellent catches for some anglers, as are angling club waters such as Merthyr Tydfil and Gwent AS. For a quick taster of what the dry fly fishing is like on the Usk at the moment, check out our latest video of the Gwent Angling Society water near Gilwern.

This time of year sees the Danica mayfly appear on some of our Welsh rivers, these include the Llynfi (Powys), Monnow, slower parts of the Usk, river Thaw at Cowbridge and some of the west Wales rivers, such as the Eastern Cleddau. So always worth keeping a few imitations in your box, just in case!

The river Dee has also fished quite well in North Wales, with Corwen and District waters producing many fish to dry fly in the evenings now. Below: Danny Williams river Dee brown trout.

The Angling Trust Team England River Qualifier took place on the River Dee, Llangollen a couple of days ago. The river did fish fairly well, with the extra water in over the week, the morning session fairing a little better than the afternoon. Congratulations to the heat’s winner, Dee regular and current Team England River Team member, Kevin Moran. He worked determinedly to winkle out some quality fish on mainly Nymphs to hold off John Bowen to a very close second place who alternated between Nymphs and Dries. In third was the ever present Tom Hunt, whilst largest fish fell to Danny Williams on the Dry fly.

Another North Wales river to look at for good wild trout fishing is the Clywd, with the Elwy holding decent sized brown trout as well.

The bigger fish have started to show themselves already in the evenings on the Teifi on Llandysul angling club water. However, if you’re not the water from around 2030 to 2200 you could easily believe that the river was devoid of life – especially on the bright days. Should be consistent sport for a month or so now on the river in the evenings. Below: 19 inch Teifi trout caught by Steffan Jones.

The smaller West Wales rivers, such as the Lougher, Gwilli, Gwendraeth’s and the Upper Tywi have also continued to surprise, with good size wild trout being caught this spring.

Below: Charlie Corkrum with a pretty Gwendreath Fach trout of 54cm.

Outstanding fishing with light lure fishing tactics, mostly on Rapala lures. We will be getting out with Charlie soon on an upcoming video, to learn about his lure fishing tactics and explore his home waters and the local angling clubs.

We really are blessed in Wales, our river trout fishing is truly excellent. As we head into June, it will get more difficult in the day, but cool and showery weather will help keep the daytime fishing going. Evening fishing will be superb, with fish rising freely as the light fades, with blue winged olive spinners making an appearance on many rivers..

On the migratory fish front, it has been slow, with the thought being that due to the very wet spring the fish that have run are now widely dispersed in the river systems, so therefore very hard to locate.

However, there have been a few cracking salmon caught on the Carmarthen & District Angling Club water of the Towy around a month ago. (Images below)

Abercothi Estate on the Towy also reports two salmon landed, one a fish measuring 38 inches and estimated at 21lb.

Llandielo angling club reports a few salmon in May, with highlight being a fish around 20lb captured by Aled Jones.

The Wye has seen a number of springers in May, mostly on the lower beats. On 21st May Upper Bigsweir saw a 16lb fresh hen fish for Nathan Jubb on Little Run, on a yellow tiger tail. On 24th May an 18lb very fresh fish was caught at Lower Carrots & Luggsmouth by Glynn Cawte, with another lost and more seen.

The Usk has produced a few salmon this spring, with notable capture on May 10th at Trostrey where a very fresh 22lb salmon was caught on a #10 cascade by Peter Dent. Mike Bolt also landed an 8lb Usk salmon on the Whitsun bank holiday weekend on the lower river, ISCA water.

The Afon Glaslyn in North Wales has been producing a lot of sewin for lure anglers in the lower reaches this spring. This is a unique fishery where estuary fishing for sea trout is very productive. There have been a few salmon caught spinning on the Conwy last week.

As we head into June, we hope for an upturn in migratory salmonids, which although in decline generally are still worth pursuing in Wales.

June traditionally sees much better numbers of sewin entering our rivers, with schoolie sea trout often providing action off the back of rainfall.

Stillwaters

Through May stillwater fly fishing in Wales has been epic, with great catches on reservoir, small stillwater fisheries and natural lakes.

Garnffrwd Fishery, Cross Hands – Some great fishing at Garnffrwd at the moment. Fish fighting extremely hard. Lots of fly life, and the fish feeding heavily on the nymphs and emerging flies. Ryan Harvey reports 14 trout on 27th May all to small dry flies.

Ynys-y-Fro reservoirs, Newport – First half of May saw some amazing fishing at the venue, plenty of rainbows and some spartic trout too. Browns to 3lb being reported as well. A final stocking of 500 fish went in on 17th May, adding to a huge head of fish in both reservoirs. Deeply fished buzzers seem to be working best and the evening fishing has been good to dry fly.

Pen-y-fan pond, Risca – Another gem of a water in South Wales, Pen-y-fan has seen first class dry fly fishng in May, with evening fishing now coming into full swing. Quality rainbows here that will run you into the backing! Tickets with Islwyn & District Angling Club.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – Lot of fish reported in May. Good surface action with dry fly. Plenty of bag limits with fish to 5lb. If you would like to book a spot, please call: 07814741252

Cwmtillery reservoir, Abertillery and District Fly Fishing club – The club reservoir is fishing really well and is now under new committee management. Rainbows to 2.5lb being regularly caught, along with brown trout over 3.5lb. Dry flies are working well. The venue offers day tickets for £25 in a cash honesty box (monitored by CCTV). More details on the Facebook page. A few pictures of the stunning venue below.

Nine Oaks, Aberaeron – Reports of rainbows to 10lb in May. Ali Molyneux reports 13 fish on C&R. A great venue for beginners with easy access.

Foxhill, Haverfordwest – the fishery is going from strength to strength, with plenty of top quality hard fighting rainbows from Exmoor Fisheries being stocked. Tactics vary, but with clearer water buzzers and nymphs in smaller sizes are working well. Richard Barrett recently netted twelve on buzzers including a beautiful 10lb 4oz blue trout. As always, great advice will be provided at the fishery regarding tactics. Booking is essential at the venue, with evening tickets now available at £16.

Dare Valley, Aberdare – The venue is proving popular, with May being a very productive month. Liam Martin reports 9 fish to the net a few days ago, including some immaculate rainbows, spartics, tigers and blues. A large stocking went in on the bank holiday weekend, with fish from 5lb to double figures. There is a food van at the fishery on weekends now, open to the public as well as anglers. Below: An 8lb brown from the venue and the new food van.

Tata Game, Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – Fished well at the start of May, but is starting to slow down now with water temperatures creeping up. But still well worth fishing especially in the evening or off the boat. Fish are on damsel nymphs and sticklebacks. Osprey fly fishers club from Abercynon held a competition on 18th May, with full limits for 11 anglers with rainbows to 3lb 15oz. Marco Orsi, Ospreys member said “hardest fighting fish anywhere”. Below: A cracking Eglwys rainbow with a full tail.

Llwyn On Reservoir, Merthyr Tydfil – the any method fishery is doing well according to the Fishing Passport site. It is stocked with fish every fortnight. Bags of 4 fish are common, with some anglers reporting 6 fish limits. Brown trout to 4lb have also been caught this month. Fly, spin and bait are permitted here.

Llyn Trawsfynydd lake, Maentwrog – Llyn Trawsfynydd hosted a fishing taster session for 19 pupils from Ysgol Bro Hedd, Trawsfynydd. Using a mixture of methods, float, ledgering and spinning. A good number of perch were caught and a couple of trout. All had a good time. Morgan Jones (below) reports a cracking wild brown trout on dries from the venue. June should fish very well with coch-y-bondu beetle expected soon.

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes – Is fishing very well with 17,700 fish stocked this year to date with extra stockings planned for the next 5 weeks. Even on days with moderate winds and drizzle anglers are still reporting catching fish on dries. As things stand, we still seem to have 2 bands of fish one holding around 10ft down the other in the top 3 feet which are willing come up for the dries or take washing line. Areas are changing slightly for the boat anglers, with Bwlch y gle starting to shine on the calmer days, but the arms are still all holding fish as is the cages, Valley to yacht club. Bank anglers have been enjoying good sport in Braich y ffedew, Bigga arm and popular side. The coch beetle will be on the water soon as we head into June, this marks some of the best dry fly fishing of the season. Below: A superb rainbow caught in early May from the venue.

Llyn Brenig – Report 27th May. We have had another good week at the Brenig, the highlight being the Ladies international which took place on Thursday. In a team sport the saying ‘united we stand divided we fall’ is very pertinent and working together brings its rewards and forms lifelong trust and friendship. The best thing for me was the camaraderie that was exhibited between the four nations, which shows us that competition isn’t just about winning but about forging respect between people. Many of the ladies were on the lake for five straight days battling through all sorts of adverse weather conditions and they all showed great resilience and good humor. Of course, there is always a winner, and, on the day, England came out on top catching 85 fish with the top rod, Julie Gerry catching 12 fish. Wales were in second place with Enid Edwards being the top Welsh lady with ten fish, Ireland came third and Scotland came fourth. The rod average was 6.1 fish per angler with the average length being 44cm, the longest fish was 59cm.

The Vale of Clwyd anglers (member Matthew Davies pictured above with a brenig brown) also had a competition at Llyn Brenig on Saturday, which again went well. The fish have been near to the surface and there has been some excellent dry fly fishing taking place. The anglers have also been catching on buzzers as the water temperature has risen. Again, there have been some excellent fish caught with a number of fish of 5lbs and over being landed. Mr. Jim Davies, Mr. Paul Jones and Mr. John Lewis have all landed a 5lb plus Rainbow but the biggest fish of the week was caught by Mr. Fred Salt weighing in at 6lbs 8oz and landed by Peg 10. The rod average is again a respectable 5.8 fish per angler. Kyle Hutchinson had a fantastic day catching 17 fish from Tower Bay and the Brenig Arm on buzzers and a diawl bach. A reminder that the fish farm will be moving to a new position in the lake. The works will start on Tuesday 28th May and will take approximately two weeks. There will be intermittent disruption throughout this period including a suspension of car parking near to the jetty on some days plus a wider restriction to boats in and around the fish farm area. We will try to keep services as near to normal as possible. We do apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. The top flies this week have been small black beetle, hawthorn, diawl bach, olive damsel, sedges and various blobs and boobies. The hot spots for boat anglers have been the Visitor Centre shore, the Dam Wall, Sailing Club Bay and Tower Bay for boat anglers. The hot spots for bank anglers have been Hafod Lom, the Visitors Centre shore, Tower Bay and Sailing Club Bay The main gates will be shutting at 6.00pm this week and all boats need to be back on the jetty by 5.15pm. Tight Lines – Jim Jenkins – Seasonal Ranger

Cantref reservoir, Brecon – Continues to fish well this year for wild brown trout. Levels are still high so bank access is a bit tight. Rainbows have been stocked this year so you can expect to catch them as well. Dry flies are working in the late evenings here. The lake can be fished if you join Merthyr Angling Alliance club for just £67 a year.

Talybont reservoir, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park – Has been fishing exceptionally through May, plenty of smaller fish around this season about 10oz, but fish to 2lb have been reported. Mostly by pulling traditional wets. Fishing here has now switched to the evenings, expect good action to sedge and on small lures as it gets dark. Day tickets with the Fishing Passport.

Teifi Pools, Tregaron – Great sport here, with the Coch-y-bonddu beetle due soon. All of the lakes have been fishing off the top, Coch y bonddu beetle really gets them up. Fish to over 2lb can be caught here, especially on Egnant and Hir. Llyn Teifi holds some surprises and is rarely fished. Llyn Berwyn on the same ticket is also worth a visit, great dry fly action here at the shallow venue. Stay on for the evening rise if you can.

Elan Valley – The various Elan dams and Claerwen reservoir have all seen a lot of action this spring, with local angler Joe Alexander really getting into the action. Plenty of wild brown trout can be caught here, ranging from 8oz to 1lb or more, with the odd specimen topping 3lb. This is another venue that has a fantastic fall of coch-y-bonddu beetle in early June, an event you should not miss out on, the fish simply go wild!

Lake Vyrnwy, Powys – Is fishing well from the boats to intermediate lines and small black lures. Great sport and value here, with wild brown trout averaging up to 1lb in several locations on the lake. To find out more about the reservoir, watch our video from the venue, recorded at the start of May.

Prospects for June for all game fishing in Wales are excellent. June probably is the best month in the whole calendar for salmonid fish, with grayling also in season from June 16th. So we urge you to get out and enjoy!

Just remember to check your rod licence is valid before you fish, in case it has expired. May is when many people now need to renew their annual rod licences each year, a pattern set by Covid restrictions easing a few years ago. You can easily purchase or renew online, for the next 12 months.

Rivers

The weather in the first part of April matched that of March – rain, rain and more rain! As a result fishing was initially quite limited on the Welsh rivers, but some lucky anglers have managed to enjoy some good fishing, particularly on the rivers of West Wales, which opened on 1st April.

When conditions have allowed, we have seen some very large trout from these rivers and also some early sea trout. For example, Aled Jones (below) had a flying start on the River Towy on the Golden Grove water on Easter Monday, with a fresh run sewin of a good size, plus a brown trout of 4.5lb which was caught the following day. Fish were caught on the fly, single handed rod with a Willie Gunn.

The upper waters of the Towy have also fished well, with some surprisingly large trout being caught in that part of the river. Harley-River the son of Steve Manning of Llandovery Angling Association landed a beautiful 4lb 9oz wild welsh brownie (below) from the club’s upper water in April. This is a fantastic trout for the river and no doubt the young angler is now hooked for life!

The river Lougher in the Ammanford area is also producing a good number of wild brown trout, some on the fly, during large hatches of Grannom, and some very large fish to 5lb on spinners and rapalas, mostly on the Ammanford and District Angling Association waters, which are £50 a season. The two fish below were caught by Stephen Redfern and Mike Perry, with the larger bottom right fish estimated at 5lb.

The ever-consistent Charlie Corkrum has been catching some very well fed brown trout using rapalas and soft plastic jigs from several of his local club waters, including the Gwendraeth fach, the streams around St Clears such as the Cynin, Dewi fawr, and also the Gwilli. A few of these fish have reached 58cm in length and over 5lb, which is trophy sized. Usually, Charlie fishes these rivers at dawn, when the larger predatory fish are active and on the hunt. As always, Charlie has released every fish, using single barbless hooks allowing them to grow even bigger! Below: a selection of Charlies river trout captures made throughout April.

With levels falling anglers have been able to get out on the Teifi on Llandysul club water, where trout have recently been locked into the grannom hatches. Streamers have also worked during the high flows. The Teifi should now start to offer first class dry fly with olive uprights starting to show.

The river Usk has finally switched on, with good fishing being reported throughout the river as water levels have continued to fall through mid April. It looks like most of the March Brown hatches have been missed due to the floods, but fish are taking olives and grannom fished dry, with nymphs being very effective. Below: Kim and Laura from Finland visited Wales for a few days fishing, they experienced some good sport on the upper Usk around Sennybridge.

The Usk tributaries are also fishing well, plenty of options there on the Fishing Passport.

The upper Taff has taken a while to switch on, with limited numbers of fish seen rising, but some larger fish are now making an appearance as the brook duns begin to hatch. The middle river Taff has fished quite well, especially the Osprey fly fishing waters, with Wales international Terry Bromwell experiencing some ‘dry fly magic’ with the corking brown below.

The river Tawe has also woken up now levels have fallen off, with a number of good sized wild and overwintered stocked fish falling to fly fishing tactics, including the fish below of approx. 2.5lb, caught by Adrain Davies from the Mond Angling Society on the lower Tawe. The fish (a grown on stocked trout) was kept for the table.

The Ebbw has been the outstanding performer this spring, with many trout being caught of 3lb plus. It really is the crown jewel of post-industrial South Wales rivers and has fished well through the second half of April. Below: David Massey with a typical Ebbw trout caught in April.

In North Wales, the Afon Glaslyn is already producing fresh sea trout, as well as some nice trout in its lower reaches and in the estuary, which is a hotspot for spinning, tickets with the Afon Glaslyn Angling Association.

The Dee has also produced some good trout fishing, with fish to 1.5lb being caught during grannom hatches. The Afon Clywd is another North Wales trout river that can produce in the spring, as is the River Alyn, which is near Wrexham.

Finally, Rob Redman (below) has caught a wild brown trout of 24 inches on the weekend past from an undisclosed river in the northern part of Wales, an incredible trophy fish, which was caught on the fly. This may be one of the best looking trout we have seen from a Welsh river for some time!

Salmon catches: have started to pick up on the Wye system in Mid April, once the floods subsided. From 15th April some nice fish have been landed, and it appears they have made it high up the system. The Rectory Beat has seen half a dozen good fish banked over the past few days, with a fish of 20 – 25lb landed by Gearge Otterwell being the best. Llangoed & Lower Llanstephan has also produced a couple of 18lb fish. The upper Wye is now holding a stock of quality 3SW fish and fishing well. As the river continues to drop beats further downstream will also come into good fishing condition. If you want to catch a big salmon this is the time and place to do it. The Usk has also recorded some salmon, with a fish 15lb to 16lb from the Chainbridge beat.

Stillwaters

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – has started to fish very well now the winds have dropped. Lots of fish have been seen rising and evenings should start to fish with dry flies. A group of young anglers, Lewis, Steff, Iestyn and Gruff (below) landed 69 fish between them across two visits in April, mostly off the top on dry flies. Great angling boyos!

Ynys-y-Fro reservoirs, Newport – the two lakes are going from strength to strength, with the addition of brown trout, spartic and tiger trout to the recent stockings. Good rainbows are also being caught, from bank and boat to over 4lb. Fish are mostly coming to straight line nymphing with buzzers or under a bung.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – Lot of action reported in April. Plenty of bag limits and C&R anglers doing well. If you would like to book a spot please phone: 07814741252

Wal Goch, Mold – some excellent reports for April on their Facebook group, a wide variety of methods working well for high quality rainbows and brown trout.

Nine Oaks, Aberaeron – C&R tickets are reporting bags of over 25 fish. The fishery has been re-stocked again in April, so expect the good fishing to continue.

Foxhill, Haverfordwest – The new fishery in Pembrokeshire continues to fish well, drawing in anglers from all over Wales and beyond. Some larger residents are now starting to show, for example Mike Colwill’s 13lb rainbow and Chris Jones 9lb 4oz blue, both pictured below. Several other doubles have also come out over the past weeks. Tactics vary from nymphs to lures. Booking is pretty essential now at the venue, which is fantastically run by the owner Steve.

Dare Valley, Aberdare – Fish are being taken on lots of different methods but dries and natural patterns seem to be doing the best now we have calmer, more settled weather. Quality rainbows, tigers, spartics and blues are being caught at the venue on a regular basis. Some very large brown trout have also been introduced recently.

Tata Game, Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – The reservoir is fishing well after several stockings. It really is producing some outstanding trout to 5lb, which are starting to grow rapidly on a diet of corixa, damsel nymphs, sticklebacks, shrimps, snail and buzzers. These are some of the best quality grown on fish in Wales, that will make your reel sing. Boat fishing is now possible, as is an evening ticket for £12 from 4pm.

Llwyn On Reservoir, Merthyr Tydfil – is now open as an any method fishery. The lake has been fishing well through April after being stocked with around 500 fish every fortnight. Bags of 4 fish are common, with some anglers reporting 6 fish limits. Fly, spin and bait permitted here.

Llyn Trawsfynydd lake, Maentwrog – First round of the Traws League was held on 21/04/24. Bright skies, fairly calm waters met the competitors for the beginning of the match.
20 anglers took to the water, with boats going in various directions at the beginning. For a change, no boats stayed in Home bay for an early drift. This is the first time that this competition was fished to a full catch & release, recording the time of the first 2 fish. At the end of the day 71 fish were caught giving a rod average of 3.55. The club are running a ‘photo of the month’ on their Facebook page, for a £10 voucher to be spent in the shop at the venue.

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes – Report 18th April . Weekly stock 1000. Season to date 11,000
Another very changeable week with strong cold winds interrupting sport . But in between we have enjoyed some excellent sport we are all holding out for the change in the weather which is finally set to arrive from Saturday onwards with light winds finally this should in turn start the surface fishing with plenty of buzzer hatching the fish should oblige ! Our first swallows arrived today so that’s a good sign the resident Ospreys have also been very busy they’ve certainly managed to find the surface feeders. Top bank areas Bigga arm , Gronwen field, Christmas trees and hedge end. Boats areas Bigga arm, llywd, willows centre of popular side and cages. Fish to 7lb (below) have been reported in April.

Llyn Brenig – For some anglers it seemed as if the fish were practically jumping onto the bank and into the boats with many anglers going home having caught their six fish quota and their twelve fish catch and release quota. One of the biggest recorded fish this week (April 14th) was a 4lbs 8oz Rainbow caught by Mr. Swift which contributed to his 18lbs 4oz bag weight. But the biggest fish was recorded by Mr. Fred Salt and weighed in at 5lbs using a white snake. The top  Brenig flies have once again been wet flies and lures, such as cormorants, buzzers, montana, olive damsel and cats’ whiskers plus various blobs and boobies.

Natural trout stillwaters

Claerwen and Elan Valley in particular have produced excellent fishing in April for wild trout, many of which have been around the 1lb mark. Joe Alexander reports some very good days in the area, with the clonker from Claerwen below being the highlight, a massive trout for the venue. It was caught on the opening day and must be pushing 3lb.

Nant y Moch, Teifi Pools, llyn Berwyn, Cambrian Angling, Talybont, Beacons and the Aberystwyth lakes have also been well worth fishing in the spring of 2024. Fish below, from llyn yr Oerfa Aberystwyth Angling Association. Caught by James (Butch) Thomas, fish estimated about 4lb in weight.

As we head into the end of April, with fairly dry weather forecast, the trout fishing should be on fire in Wales, May is one of the best months for trout fishing in the country, so if you can get out, make the most of it.

Finally, Don’t forget your licence!

Spring is when most people’s EA or NRW Freshwater fishing rod licences expire, so it is always worth checking before you fish, in case a renewal is due. You can easily purchase or renew online for the next 12 months.

Rivers

Many Welsh rivers opened on the 3rd of March for trout and despite high water levels some hardy anglers took to the water, especially in South East Wales, where the Ebbw produced several cracking trout on open day, several of which to dry fly, during hatches of March Browns and Large Dark olives. The river has continued to fish well whenever conditions have allowed. Below: An open day Ebbw trout caught by Kyle Cheshire on a split wing March Brown dry.

Based pretty much on the banks of the Ebbw, keen angler Luke Gator has really captured the fun and excitement of fishing his local river on the opening day, you can watch his video below, which features plenty of action.

The river Taff had a slow start, but between the yo-yo levels it has also produced some good fish to both nymph and dry fly, as well as a fair few smaller fish. Lure anglers have also done quite well for numbers of fish.

The Usk has been all but unfishable in the reaches below Brecon, but the upper beats on the Fishing Passport have seen a good few fish caught, on rare calm and drier days there have been fish caught on the surface to hatches of March Brown and Large dark olives.

The Wild Streams on the Fishing Passport have fished quite well, with a number of the Usk, Monnow and Wye tributaries producing fish, some of them to a decent size. These are always worth a go in flood conditions, when the larger rivers are blown out. Below Rhys Morgan with some good wild stream trout.

For a taste of what the smaller streams have to offer, check out our latest YouTube video, featuring Ceri Thomas and Alan ‘Parf’ Parfitt, a proper fun day on the water!

We have heard reports of a few large trout from the upper Tawe system, a river renowned for its good sized trout and spring hatches.

For some reason the rivers holding trout in North Wales always tend to take longer to get going than those of the south, but there have been a few trout caught on the Dee. Rivers such as the Clwyd and Alyn should produce good spring trout fishing, once the levels clear and the rain stops falling.

The upper Severn, which opened in Mid-March, is another river that can provide good spring trouting, around Caersws. Its tributaries, the Vyrnwy and Banwy can also be excellent, with some good sized fish to be caught.

The upper Wye is another fantastic river, the trout fishing here seems to be improving each season. Sean Watkins has already managed to catch several good trout from the Craig llyn beats around Rhayader, with an open day cracker below.

Prospects should be good for river angling as we head into the next few weeks, but as always, we need the taps in the sky to turn off, so we can get out and enjoy the rivers at their prime time.

Stillwaters

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – on 14th March a cracking stocking of hard fighting Torre fish arrived at Garnffrwd. Despite the rain Garnffrwd has been fish well the last few days. With fish looking up and feeding on buzzers. Terry Bynon on 7 fish released this morning before the fresh stocking. Below: young angler Lewis Thomas with a stunning rainbow from the fishery.

Ynys-y-Fro reservoirs, Newport – NRFFA are implementing a ‘tag’ system for anglers at Ynysyfro. From 18th March all anglers (including season ticket holders) must book in and take a tag (recording the number on the booking in sheet). This system is being implemented to make it is easy to identify persons from the booking in sheet which will ensure any persons who have not paid the correct amount can be challenged. Boat and bank anglers are reporting many 8 fish C&R limits from both lakes. The bung with egg flies being successful off the bank as are lures on intermediates such as blue flash damsel. Fish have also been seen rising in numbers to buzzers. 1840 fish have been stocked between the both lakes so far in 2024.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – Lot of action reported in March, with fish fighting hard. Plenty of bag limits and C&R anglers doing well. If you would like to book a spot please phone: 07814741252

Wal Goch, Mold – Daniel Trickett reports a good day on 18th March, with 18 rainbows and tigers to 5lb in weight. Nearly all fell to lures but a few fell to a bloodworm.On 12th March he also reports 9 in total and just as many lost and pulls. It sounds like the venue is well worth a go.

Nine Oaks, Aberaeron – C&R tickets are reporting bags of over 20 fish, with Dylan jones capturing 21 on dries and buzzers at the venue. Emyr Joines with 34,caught on white snakes and damsels. The fishery has been re-stocked in March, so expect the good fishing to continue.

Foxhill, Haverfordwest – This new fishery in Pembrokeshire continues to fish well, drawing in anglers from all over Wales. Rhys and Jeremy Wadley visited a couple of days ago and had 24 and 25 fish each on C&R respectively. Chris Humphries below with a 5lb fish. Nymphs are really picking fish up now with the milder weather. The fishery is also supporting the ladies fly fishing team, with a competition in April.

Hayscastle Trout Fishery, West Wales – 3 acre lake still water fishery in the heart of Pembrokeshire at Hayscastle. The fishery has produced great action all winter and now into spring. Rainbows to 4lb are showing in the catches.

Dare Valley, Aberdare – The lake is fishing really well and fish are fighting hard. The fishery welcomed the lads from Fishing For Heroes a few days ago. A fantastic day was had by all, lots of fish missed and caught! Nathan Davies reports on 9th March: ‘’Had a cracking day yesterday, ended up with 19 and dropped a few, all the fish pulled like trains and the average size of the fish was about 5-6lb with a few bigger ones thrown in, fish spread all over the place and plenty of other anglers caught as well, brilliant day get yourselves up there and booked in.’’ Below: Owen Bufton with a PB of 8.5lb from the venue.

Tata Game, Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – The reservoir is still fishing well after several stockings. A number of good fish are being caught along the borg Warner wall, black buzzer fished on the washing line method proving a success. Yacht bay is also producing some quality trout. Day tickets are available.

Llandegfedd reservoir, Pontypool – this will be opening in March. We have once again heard it will be stocked with about 300 trout per week this coming season. Boats will be available.

Llys-y-fran reservoir, Pembrokeshire – is open for trout fishing by any method this season, with options for boat and bank angling. It will be stocked with rainbows, with wild brown trout also present. A 4 fish ticket is £28, boat is £27 to hire (for up to 2 anglers)

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes – Opened on 7th March. Visitors are catching huge numbers of fish, one boat reported 105 trout between 2 anglers. Bank anglers catching up to 40 fish in a session. Most of these fish are coming to lures.

Clywedog Facebook Report 14th March: Well, that’s our first week of the 2024 season over and it been an excellent start to the season despite some rather testing weather conditions in the first few days. One thing for sure is that the fishing has been excellent with some fantastic bags of fish caught and some cracking fish the best of which just over 7lb (above) I wonder how long until the first double of the season will be caught! Bank anglers have enjoyed very good sport from the top of the Bigga arm right down to rainbow corner.

Boat anglers have been able to access all the little nooks and crannies around the top end of the lake such as Carters, Cwm Coch, Eblid, Bigga Arm the steep sides of Eblid to cages have all produced lots of fish. As a rule, the fish are holding 4-8ft down around the contours of the lake the exception for this was the flat calm on Monday which saw good numbers of buzzer hatching over the spring buzzer bed and drawing the fish out across the open water. Prospects look much better weather wise over the next week with warmer drier conditions coming in from the weekend. We still have boats available for both days at the weekend contact the lodge to book. Boat bookings 01686412890

Teifi Pools, Pontrhydfendigaid – These mountain lakes opened on 3rd March, one of the earliest wild trout locations to open in Wales. It has fished quite well, with some surprisingly good fish coming out of llyn Egnant, to lures, pulled wets and buzzers. Llyn Hir and Teifi have also produced fish. Sean Thomas of Greens Tackle below, with a pretty llyn Egnant trout caught on the past weekend. Most of the other ‘wild trout only’ venues in Wales will be opening from 20th March. You can find out more about some of these here.

Llyn Brenig – Pre Season Fishing Report

Another season of fishing is upon us, another year of expectation and possibilities has begun. The reels have been greased, flies have been tied, rods and lines inspected, all ready for the start of the season which begins on Saturday 16th March.

The winter has been good to us with plenty of rainfall and relatively mild temperatures, this has meant that the fish in the cages have grown well. Before opening day, the lake will have been stocked with a total of 7,000 Rainbow Trout. The average weight of the stocked fish is over 4lbs but we have stocked some larger specimens of up to 7lbs, which will make for some exciting fishing. The fish are from a reputable supplier who has a quality assured trout farm at Dunsop Bridge. Top quality fish for a topquality season!

After the initial stocking we will introduce another 1000 fish weekly throughout the season until the end of September. These fish will be a minimum of 2lbs but as the season progresses it is envisaged that the average weight will increase to nearer 3lbs.

The stocking of the lake will take place every Monday, weather and other factors permitting. As with last year we have some brown trout being reared on the Brenig fish farm but unlike last year we won’t be stocking these fish until they have reached 2lbs in weight which should be around June or July.

As for the stocking ‘hot spots’ the fish farmers, Jack and Stef, will be aiming to stock in the well-known and accessible areas for both boat and bank anglers. These areas will probably change each week so if you want to know where the stocking took place then please ask either the Rangers or Paul and Erin in the fishing shop.

Llyn Alwen will have a pre stock of 1,000 Brown and Rainbow Trout. They will be an average weight of 1lb 8oz with some larger Rainbows to supplement the stock. This average weight should increase slowly throughout the season arriving at 2lbs by midseason. After this the lake will be stocked with 300 fish weekly usually on a Tuesday however this is dependent on the weather and other unforeseen factors. The stocking for the Alwen is only done at one point on the lake which is located down a small track close to the dam.

With the cost-of-living crisis facing everyone it is good news that the fishing prices this year will be the same as last year. The other piece of good news is that the cost of a boat for a single angler will be discounted to £20 for the day rather than the £25.50p for two anglers. Yes, we do listen! Which reminds me to encourage anglers to fill out their catch returns after each visit as your comments and suggestions are invaluable to us.

This year we are keeping all the old favorites such as the tagged fish competition with 300 tagged fish being stocked over the season; loyalty cards, with a free boat for every nine boats booked; fish farm tours taking place on the first Saturday of every month over the Summer and a part day bank permit beginning six hours before sunset.
We are also prioritizing bank patrols this year so you should be seeing more of the rangers around the lake talking to anglers and checking permits.

There are a number of fishing competitions coming up over the season as well as some events that will be affecting the fishing. A list of these can be found at the end of this report.
The main gates will be shut at 5pm and boats need to be back on the jetty by 4.15pm up until May 17th after which the gates will be shutting at 6pm and boats need to be back on the jetty by 5.15pm.

We are looking forward to welcoming you all back to Llyn Brenig for another fantastic fishing season. The fish are in the lake, the fishing boats are on the jetty, all you have to do now is hang that sign on your door, ‘gone fishing’ and come to the Brenig and catch them!

Tight Lines, Jim Jenkins and Jack Finne

Finally, Don’t forget your licence!

Spring is when most people’s EA or NRW Freshwater fishing rod licences expire, so it is always worth checking before you fish, in case a renewal is due. You can easily purchase or renew online for the next 12 months.

As we look back at January we had a really mixed bag of conditions. Almost a month of non stop rain finally gave way to a spell of cold dry weather at the start of the New Year, weather very much welcomed by anglers in Wales, this however did lead to some issues on the stillwaters, some of which eventually froze over for a time. Rain then returned near the end of the month, but generally January was a much improved period for angling compared to December, for river and stillwater anglers.

Rivers:

Grayling fishing is very popular through the winter months in Wales and with the return of cold, dry weather the river levels on our key grayling fisheries subsided to allow fly fishing. The Dee, Taff, Severn, Irfon, Ithon, upper Wye and Rhymney rivers all saw some excellent grayling caught on the fly. Below, Shaun Watkins and Igor Giermaniuk with some nice grayling from the ever consistent Craig Llyn beat on the Wye.

The river Rhymney near Caerphilly hosted the first ever ‘Welsh Grayling Cup’ which was held across two days on the weekend of 27th and 28th January.

Fished over 3 sessions on various pegs comprising Royal Oak and Caerphilly Angling Club water, the event was organised by Nathan Gittings and Kyle Cheshire, both of whom help to run the Royal Oak Angling Club water on the river and compete for Wales, as part of the World’s Team. The competition attracted 32 anglers (16 teams) from across the UK and further afield.

Some heavy rain on Thursday evening saw the river rise rapidly, but thankfully it dropped back just enough for the weekend and was fishable, although not optimal for the river. However all teams caught grayling despite the tough conditions, including several specimens, ranging from 45cm to 50cm as well as decent numbers of smaller fish.

Final results table:

Congratulations to all prize winners and especially the Welsh Grayling Cup 2024 Champions, Mark Stewart and Myles Davies, of  team ‘Getting Jiggy With It’!

The largest fish of 50cm was captured by North Wales based angler Rob Redman, pictured below.

The well organised event was a complete success, proving to be a fantastic opportunity to showcase our prolific post-industrial rivers, here in south Wales, to fellow anglers from around the UK and beyond. An excellent video covering the comp, produced by Lindsay Simpson of Team Veterans, can be seen below.

Stillwaters:

The weather has presented challenges for stillwater anglers this winter, but when ice free sport has been fantastic even in wet weather.

Nine Oaks, Aberaeron: January has seen some superb fishing at the venue, with only a couple of days lost to ice. Rainbows to double figures have been caught (below left) as well as tigers, blues and spartics. C&R tickets are reporting bags of over 20 fish. The fishery offers accommodation on site, look out for some deals on their Facebook page.

Foxhill, Haverfordwest: This new fishery in Pembrokeshire has proved to be very popular and we simply had to pay the venue a visit with Steffan Jones for our YouTube channel. The resulting video can be viewed HERE. From a fishing point of view, the lake has seen some great bags of trout almost all month, despite coloured water from the rain and icy weather. For example, 28th January saw 75 fish caught for a rod average of 9.3 which was incredible considering the conditions. Below: some action shots from Foxhill.

Dare Valley, Aberdare: The venue is fishing really well, having been re-stocked a few days ago with lots of massive double figure browns and rainbows. Some of these have already been caught. Hywel Morgan is holding one of his master class sessions at the fishery on 11th February, well worth signing up for if you are a beginner or want to learn new techniques and improve. Below, some of the quality fish being caught at Dare Valley.

Paper Mill Fishery, Swansea: Llangenech Angling Club had a fantastic club competition yesterday (28th Jan) at Papermill Fishery with plenty of fish caught on a variety of methods. Congratulations to Mr John Rossi winning the competition with a bag of 4 fantastic fish weighing over 16lb.

Newport Reservoir FFA: Ynys-y-fro near Newport has been fishing well on both lakes, from boat and bank. Around 800 fish have been stocked in the past few weeks. Egg flies and Diawl bach’s fished under bungs have proved most successful. Day tickets are available for non-members and membership is open to all. From January 1st, member day tickets prices are £14 and non-member day tickets are £20.

Garnffrwd Fly Fishing Lake, Cross hands: The lake has been fishing well on the ice free days of January, with plenty of action. Browns and rainbows are showing in the catches and Exmoor fisheries have re-supplied the venue on 18th January.

Tata Game, Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot: The reservoir has continued to fish well after several stockings. Robert Tucker, on 28th January, reports: ‘’ Good to see a few fish caught today in the sailing club bay, fishing of the stones and the natural bank, I seen at least 14 caught in the space of a few hours . I had mine high up in the water 2 feet under a bung with corixa patterns but seen a few caught down on a Di7 with a booby, also seen a few small buzzers flying past , with the weather getting better things are on the up.’’ For members wishing to renew or potential new members some of the committee will be at the lodge at Eglwys on 17th and 24th Feb between 11am and 1pm to process applications. You will just need your payment and one passport sized photo of yourself.

Prospects for February look promising, with some fairly mild weather and less rain in the long-term forecast there could be some excellent stillwater trout and river grayling fishing. We also have river trout fishing to look forward too, in just over a months time!

Grayling:

Grayling fishing has been very limited this winter, with the first week in December offering low water levels thanks to a cold, frosty snap, which is what all grayling anglers pray for!

The Taff is an exceptional grayling river, which produced some good fish in the Aberycynon, Pontypridd and north Cardiff areas, with fishing through the Osprey Fly Fishers and Glamorgan Anglers on a day ticket basis. Several fish of 45cm plus have been landed, plus an encouraging number of smaller fish. Wales World Team member Kyle Chesire’s huge 52cm grayling (pictured below) is the largest Taff fish that has been caught for some time, it will have been 3lb plus.

The famed Monnow is a good grayling river, with two excellent beats available on the Fishing Passport. Well known fly fishing guru Charles Jardine landed an immaculate grayling of 2lb, while filming a video with us on Gwent Angling Society water, which you can watch here.

The river Rhymney is another wonderful grayling venue that has produced when the levels have allowed, with some excellent fish to be found on Royal Oak angling club water and Caerphilly angling club. The 46cm grayling below was captured by Ceri Thomas on the Caerphilly AA water on the weekend just gone. The fish took a pink shrimp pattern.

The upper Severn is also well worth a go, it has a fairly spread out density of grayling, so you need to work hard for them, but quality and average size is good, especially on the Caersws angling association and on the Llanidloes stretches. Below: A lovely Severn grayling from Caersws area caught by David Bradley in Mid December.

The upper Wye has fished quite well, with Shaun Watkins (below) and friends reporting some good fish on the Craig Llyn beat on the weekend of 17th December, the fishery is just below Rhayader on the Fishing Passport.

Last, but not least, the river Dee was on song during the annual Hannak Grayling festival, which this year took place during the cold, frosty weather on the first weekend in December, providing nigh on perfect conditions for the competitors. A staggering catch of 997 grayling was recorded by the 33 teams of 3 anglers, with fish recorded to 48cm. Congratulations to team ‘Wet your knot’ who won for the second year running. The festivals success is a testament to this magnificent river, which draws anglers from all over the UK and Europe. The local clubs and Hywel Morgan do a fine job of hosting the event each year, which has become a real advert for the excellent river fishing that we have in Wales.

Trout fisheries:

The smaller trout fisheries have been fishing well over the past month, despite the cold snap and colouration from the recent rains.

Nine Oaks, Aberaeron: Steffan Jones and Trystan Davies (below) visited Nine Oaks last week, which has 3 lakes in total and is now under new management. Over 50 trout were caught between them on a C&R ticket. Steffan reports: ‘’Good head of stock in each lake, very reasonably priced, and a warm welcome upon arrival. Consistent sport throughout the day with blues and rainbows. Mainly in the 1.5-2.5lb bracket, but a handful of 3-5 lb fish too. All fighting fit and in good order, highly recommend a visit’’.

Craiglwyd Springs, Penmaenmawr: has been fishing well, with some nice browns being caught including the beauty below. Successful tactics have included sinking lines with damsels, and Oaky Dokeys fished under a strike indicator.

Foxhill, Haverfordwest: this new fishery in Pembrokeshire has proved to be very popular, with many catches of good sized trout, some to 9lb. The fishery reports 50 visits to the fishery in 9 days at the start of December, with 270 fish caught with a rod average of 5.4 fish per rod. It is becoming popular, so worth booking with the venue on: 07920 056761

Dare valley, Aberdare: Fish are fighting exceptionally hard and the water is fishing really well thanks to the cooler water temperatures. Bleddyn Richards reports-  ‘’What a days fishing. Started the morning with 2 nice fish on a pink blob and lost a double (gutted) all went quiet until I put on a green apps worm and what a fly. Every cast was either a fish or a follow. Had 7 to the net and missed I don’t know how many. Made up for the missed double by having another and a spartic to finish off, before I lost the fly while playing a tiger. Images below: Thomas Willis with a nice blue and a pretty spartic trout from the venue.

Tata Game, Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot: The reservoir has been re-stocked in December, with around 2000 rainbows. As to be expected, plenty of fish have been recorded, freshly stocked and some hold-over fish from earlier in the season. Fast intermediate and Di3 lines with blobs have been favoured methods. Day and season options are available, more information on the club website or Facebook page.

Llyn Clywedog, Llanidloes: The venue is now closed until March 7th 2024, but did fish very well all through late November, with Anthony Rees (pictured) netting a 13lb 3oz rainbow a few days before the season ended. This was the biggest rainbow reported for 2023 and what a specimen it is.

Llyn Clywedog 2023 season review (from the fishery Facebook page)

We had planned to open on the 9th March but a sudden heavy snowfall made the roads impassable so we postponed until the 13th, when the roads were clear. Once we opened the fishing was electric with young Cowan Jones from Newtown catching the first fish of the season along with 20+ others.

As the month went on, we had a host of big fish taken from both bank and boat. As we moved into April and the weather started to warm, the spring buzzer started to hatch and fish start to move out across the open water to buzzer beds, Dinas point being one of the best areas where literally hundreds of overwintered fish were making the most of the buzzer. We saw the biggest brown of the season caught at 13lb,released by Rhayader angler Roger Lewis.

May always heralds the arrival of the terrestrial insects with the warm sun getting things going we saw good numbers of Hawthorn fly on the water along popular side with the fish eagerly feeding on them. The biggest surprise of the month was to see the first Coch y bonddu beetles hatching around the 28th, around 10 days earlier than the year before.

June is often perceived as the best month on Clywedog with such an abundance of insect activity it becomes a feeding frenzy and seems to bring every fish in the lake to the surface. This is when we saw some of the real quality residents feeding. The hot weather we experienced during the month eventually took its toll on water temps and by the end of the month the majority of fish had dropped in the water column and we started to worry a little – would this be a hot dry year like season 2021?

July was not quite what we expected; with the rain returning and water levels rising and temperatures dropping the fish eagerly returned to the surface just as we hosted the Annual Fly shop Invitational with teams of 6 from all over the UK and Ireland competing over 2 days. With loads of laughs and lots of fish caught it really is one of the highlights of the calendar. With that out of the way we turned our attention to the Youth International which we were delighted to host for the first time at the start of August.

August saw the arrival of the 4 youth teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales a great few days was had and we have never seen so many people at the lake, with not only mums and dads wishing their son and daughters off in the morning, but nans and grandads too. We were absolutely rammed and cars were forced to park at rainbow corner. With the bag-piper playing it was a special time to see all the youths off onto the water with the Bigga arm being the place to be.

Team Ireland ran out as eventual winners with  every competitor catching fish, a first for the competition.

September normally sees the return of the fish to the surface after the heat of mid-summer, but this season after the brief hot spell in June the fish stayed in the surface all year,  one thing we noticed was a huge increase in the up-take of our 3 day holiday packages and so many new faces on the lake.

We saw a splattering of daddies on the water and hopes of something more spectacular seem to fade away there just doesn’t seem to be the amount of daddies around as there used to be!

By around the 15th of the month we started to see the start of the now famous Clywedog jacuzzi, with small black buzzer hatching out across the open water buzzer beds of Eblid basin and Dinas point. The Eblid bed seemed to go into total overdrive and draw the fish from all four corners of the lake, whilst the bed off Dinas only spluttered on the odd days! But with such numbers of fish feeding in the Eblid basin no one was complaining and we saw some truly fantastic bags of fish being taken on dries and washing line.

October was excellent apart from the disappointing sport around Dinas point, but due to high water levels the top end of the lake especially the top of the arms producing excellent bags of fish with bank anglers doing fantastic.

November as normal saw the arrival of cooler weather and this seemed to slow the buzzer hatch but the fish remained in the same areas but dropped in the water a little with the usual lures and bung tactics producing great bags in fact it was the bung that produced 2 of the very best fish of the year to Anthony Rees, firstly a Brown a shade under 10lb then about a week later the biggest rainbow of the year a staggering 13lb 3oz ( possibly the biggest rainbow from a Uk reservoir this year ?)

So as a summary I think we have enjoyed an excellent year with masses of fish being caught right across the lake and judging by the bookings coming in we are in for a very busy 2024 season which kicks off on the 7th March.

Watch out for our next video with a taste of what’s to come in the new season!

Thank you all for a wonderful season.

Team Clywedog

Paper Mill fishery, Swansea: Fish are on the feed and fighting hard, December has been a good month so far. To book call 07814741252. Below: Gavin Evans and Dave Morgan with fish of around 6lb, both kept for the table.

Stillwater Trout Fisheries:

After an appalling run of weather that has seen torrential rain, muddy banks and coloured water, we are finally coming into a cold and dry period, perfect for hitting the fisheries! The trout venues have been fairly quiet through November, as you would imagine with the poor conditions, but water temperatures have fallen and the fish are hard on the feed in many of them, making the run up to Christmas a good time to get out and show them some support.

Newport Reservoir FFA: Ynys-y-fro near Newport reports excellent fishing on both of their lakes, with a re-stock of fish from a new supplier providing great action. The venue is going from strength to strength, with a new boat pontoon recently installed, which along with a Clubmate booking system makes access much easier for members. Day tickets are available for non-members and membership is open to all.

Dare Valley Aberdare: Reports a generous stocking of rainbows, blues and golden trout from 5lb to 10lb plus last week. The fishery has also announced a new stocking policy – they will only stock trout from a minimum of 5lb upwards. A tagged fish is still at large, with a growing prize pot for the angler who eventually catches it.

Eisteddfa Fishery, Criccieth: Is running a winter fly fishing league. During the first round on the weekend a total of 45 fish were caught for a rod average of 4.5. Winner of first round Morgan Jones with 7 fish. Top methods for the day were pulling lures on an intermediate or bung fished with a squirmy or eggstacy worm set at around 4ft. Below: Finley Partington with a nice brown trout caught during the first leg of the winter league.

Llyn Clywedog, Llanidloes: With only just over a week to go until the venue closes at the end of November, there are some incredible fish coming out of Clywedog at the moment. Anthony Rees (below) caught and released this stunning 9lb 7oz brownie. Some boats are still catching over 20 fish. It’s without doubt the ‘bung’ method has been producing for the boat anglers, who are catching at various depths down to 10ft, even though there are large quantities of fish still feeding on the surface on the calmer days. Squirmy worms and egg flies all doing well.

Garnffrwd Fly Fishing Lake, Cross hands: The Cafe is open all week, and the fishing is good. Plenty coming out on the bung yesterday, but with the weather starting to settle we should start to see more fish feeding on the naturals. Another delivery of Exmoor Rainbows was stocked on 14th November.

Foxhill Trout Fishery: A new fishery near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. The 3 acre pool is stocked with quality rainbow and blue trout to 15lb. Plenty of fish between 6lb and 8lb 8oz are being caught, mostly on straight line buzzer (fish from the venue below) Chris Jones caught 13 fish at the fishery including one of 7lb and 9lb. The fishery offers free bacon rolls too, so well worth checking out!

Nine Oaks fishery, New Quay: Doing well under new management, the fishery has been re-stocked through November with rainbows, blues, tigers and brown trout in it’s 3 trout pools, with many fish reported of around 5lb in weight. Price is £20 C&R with an option to keep a single fish.

Wal Goch, North Wales: Despite the wet weather the fishery has been providing good action through November. Reports of up to 13 fish on C&R mostly to egg flies fished on bungs.

Graiglwyd Springs Fly Fishery, Penmaenmawr: has been well stocked through November, plenty of fish are being caught on sinking lines and lures.

Llanelli Angling Association: Has fishing on the upper Swiss Valley reservoir above Llanelli. Day ticket, full season and winter tickets are available. The 30 acre venue has been re-stocked through the early winter, and has fished well when conditions have allowed. We visited the venue recently, it is a real gem. You can watch the video here.

River Grayling:

As I write this it has finally stopped raining, allowing river anglers interested in catching grayling a glimmer of hope, after a wash out lasting well over a month. With settled weather on the horizon, some of our major grayling rivers should start to fish at the weekend or possibly earlier.

The Dee in North Wales is a fabulous grayling river, and a few hardy anglers have braved rare interludes in the rain and caught some nice grayling in terrible conditions.

The annual Hanak Grayling Festival, organised by Hywel Morgan and the local angling clubs is taking place on the first weekend in December, attracting teams from across the UK and Europe. It looks like the rain has stopped just in time!

Wales World Team international Kyle Cheshire has been on his local River Rhymney in a brief break in the storms, landing some immaculate grayling to Euro Nymphing techniques. Below Scale perfect Rhymney grayling, from Royal Oak Angling Club water.

The Rhymney falls quite quickly so is one of the first grayling rivers that should be fishable. Others that drop fast include the Irfon and the upper Wye, which is moderated by the Elan dams. The upper Severn also, which is regulated by Llyn Clywedog and can have stable levels in winter after a wet spell. The NRW river level gauge is a very useful tool when planning a day on a grayling river.

Prospects: December should offer favourable conditions for fly fishing enthusiasts after grayling or rainbow trout. Stocked rainbow trout remain active in cold weather, making small fisheries ideal for those seeking a winter retreat. Our many trout stillwaters in Wales offer a unique and peaceful angling experience during the colder months, with our grayling rivers providing world class fishing no matter how cold it gets.

Migratory

We have seen a surplus of water at the back end of the season, which has led to some nice salmon being captured. Colton Kelly below with some impressive Cothi specimens. Colton has also captured some good salmon on the Towy.

Overall it has been another slow season for salmon, with the prime Abercothi beat reporting 22 for the season. The weather extremes across Wales have not helped – its either been washout or drought, no happy medium!

The Wye has seen reports of salmon being caught at Wyesham including fish of 22lb on 28th September. Gromain & Upper Llanstephan saw an 18lb cock fish captured by Mark Purvis on 11th October.

Trystan Davies has experienced success in the final weeks on the river Teifi on Llandysul AA water, with some cracking salmon. Pictured below.

In North Wales Rob Redman has seen success with some back end sewin on the rivers around Dolgellau on the DAA water, image below of a cock fish from first week in October.

Grayling

With brown trout fishing now over, grayling are a target fish for many in the Welsh rivers that hold them. Rob Redman again below, wasting no time with a cracking fish of over 50cm from the river Dee a couple of days ago.

The upper Wye has also proved to be a grayling hotspot so far this autumn, the Craig llyn beat in particular. Below, Kyle Cheshire and beat owner Shaun Watkins with some lovely examples of upper Wye grayling.

The Irfon has also stated to produce, with Lyn davies reporting a 17 inch specimen on the Colonels Water. Melyn Cildu is another Irfon beat that is well well worth trying, with larger than average grayling present.

Grayling are also being caught on the river Taff, Rhymney and upper Severn, where day ticket access is easy and inexpensive.

River levels are crucial for grayling, so pay attention to the live river levels on the NRW monitoring website. Our blog explains how to read it for angling success!

Trout reservoirs

Clywedog reservoir fishery, Llanidloes – Season stock 41,900. The fishing has been excellent through October, on the calmer days we’ve seen literally hundreds of fish feeding on the surface right from the top end of the popular side right down to Dinas point on the emerging black buzzer in the last day or so we’ve also seen that the buzzer bed off Dinas point is now starting to produce fly with good numbers of fish showing from Dinas to vadre vawr and across sailing club  frontage. Bank anglers still doing very well from the Bigga arm Gronwen and popular side. Boat areas Bigga arm, popular side, Eblid basin cages and Dinas point.  Note Brown Trout are now out of season and  to be returned. Bags of up to 44 fish are being reported, the fishing will continue to be excellent for the next several weeks.

Llyn Trawsfynydd Lake, Trawsfynydd – The rescheduled 6th and final round of the Turrall Traws League was held on 14th October The weather having cooled a fair bit over the past few days. During the day there was a mix of sun rain and hail. Despite the cool conditions the lake fished well with all anglers catching. Congratulations to Morgan Jones with a credible 13 fish. The 13 anglers caught 69 fish for a rod average of 4.6. Traws is open through the autumn and can often be very productive on the milder, calmer days.

Llwyn On Reservoir, Merthyr Tydfil – Closes at the end of October. The lake has been fishing well through October after being stocked with around 500 fish every fortnight. Bags of 4 fish are common, with some anglers reporting 6 fish limits. Fly, spin and bait permitted here.

Ynys-y-Fro, Newport – Has seen an improvement with the cooler weather. Andy Hoffrock reports: The fish are still podded up. You might want to go out on the boat. There are fish moving in and out of the banks but it’s more consistent drifting on a boat covering more water. Whatever you decide, the fish are up in the water. Culls are working well, You’ll get interest and follows on lures but they seem to take dries and nymphs fished static high in the water much more confidently.

Small stillwaters

Dare Valley, Aberdare – The fishery is now open on a Monday, 8am to dusk. The lake is fishing really well now with the drop in temperatures. The lake was stocked on 6th October with some very large rainbows. Tiger trout have also figured in the recent catches at the venue. An open competition is being run at the venue on Saturday 21st October, head to the fishery Facebook Page for details. Below, a few photos from the venue taken over the past few weeks.

Nine Oaks fishery, Llanarth – Has been re-stocked for the winter with tigers, blues and rainbows and is now fishing well. The complex is now under new ownership. There are 3 trout pools, it is £20 for C&R with the option to keep 1 fish.

Pantybedw fishery, Carmarthen – Water is crystal clear and a good rise of feeding fish. Some cracking hard fighting fish being caught. Pant y Bedw also caters for bait fishing, although pegs are limited, and there are some really nice grass carp in the top lake ranging up to about 20lb

Abernant Fishing Lake, Port Talbot – The trout fishing lake is now open and fishing well in the cooler conditions.

Graiglwyd Springs Fly Fishery, Penmaenmawr – Was stocked on 6th and 13th October. There is a good head of fish in the lake and people are catching well. Fish are being caught on floaters and nymphs, as well as intermediate and lures.

Walgoch Fishery, Nanerch – The fish are feeding subsurface on natural fly, nymphs just subsurface seem to be the best method, or lures fished right in, or skated across the top. Below Robert Jones with a nice brown trout taken on a Pheasant tail nymph.

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – Update from Rhayader and Elan Valley Angling Association on 17th October: Last night the committee made the tough decision to keep Llyngwn closed for the winter season. We are not satisfied with the water conditions at the lake and we feel that it’s in the best interest of the club, it’s anglers and the aquatic environment to keep the place closed over the winter. We know this is disappointing and we will all miss fishing the lake. We will update you in the spring with any future plans.

Natural trout stillwaters

October 17th saw the natural wild trout venues close. These have seen a terrific season, with Claerwen and Elan Valley in particular producing excellent fishing. Nant y Moch, Teifi Pools, llyn Berwyn, Cambrian Angling and the Aberystwyth lakes have also been well worth fishing in 2023. We now must wait until March 20th for most of them to open. Below, a cracking Claerwen fish estimated at 3lb for Tony Howells caught last month. This is the largest fish we have ever heard of from the 900-acre venue.

Looking back at September so far and to late August game fishing in Wales has been really mixed; from wet cool conditions that were favourable for salmonids, to an intense heatwave lasting a full week which essentially cooked our shallower stillwaters making them very difficult during then and for the week afterwards as they cooled off. Likewise, the rivers were on form just prior to the hot spell, and only now significant rain is falling again which should help liven them up, before the season ends.

Once we get through the wet stuff this week, we should be looking at some excellent fishing going forward this autumn, especially for grayling after the trout river season ends on 30th September, and on the stillwaters in October. Migratory also should see an upswing up until October 17th season’’s end.

Small Stillwaters

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – is now open again after being closed for most of the season. The algae problems have been due to ammonia rich sediment in the lake. The club and committee have been working tirelessly recently to maintain the water quality of Llyngwyn to make sure the lake stays open and everyone’s enjoyment can continue. They have treated the lake with barley extract and now need to maintain the levels using barley bails which you will see dotted around the lake. The no fishing zones are clearly visible with yellow buoys. These are areas with ammonia rich sediment and it is vital we leave these areas undisturbed to keep the algae levels controlled.

Since re-opening on 1st September there have been good reports including multiple catches of rainbows, blues and brown trout. Below: Ian Shanahan with a llyn gwyn brown and a rainbow caught just after the lake re-opened.

Dare Valley, Aberdare – The fishery is going from strength to strength, with catch and release now possible for £25. The lake has been re-stocked with some large fish in double figures, plus ‘exotic’ blues, golden, tigers, spartic and brown trout. A tagged fish competition is now underway. The cooler water of the past few days has seen the fishing pick up, Andrew Bufton below with a nice blue.

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – The venue was re-stocked on 5th September. It was tough during the hot week, but thanks to cool water temperatures and rain it should fish well in the coming weeks.

Wal Goch, Mold – Was stocked on the 16th September. Fishing seems to be slow after the heatwave, but there are reports of fish starting to come out now, especially to buzzer fished under a bung. Rainbows, blues and tigers being caught.

Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery, Abergele – Was stocked on 22nd August. Some nice brown trout are being caught here on dry flies.

Graiglwyd Springs Fly Fishery, Penmaenmawr – New fish introduced on the 15th September. The venue should start to fish well into October.

Trout Reservoirs

Clywedog reservoir fishery, Llanidloes – Llyn Clywedog report 14th Sept. Weekly stock 1000. Season to date 38,700. So after what was a very unusually hot week last week which led to a difficult weekend just gone we’ve seen the fishing improve day on day this week with fish returning to the upper layers in the last couple of days.
In fact today we’ve seen reasonable numbers of fish rising in near perfect conditions mainly feeding on midge but there are a few daddies tumbling around also. Best boat areas are Bigga arm, Llwyd, centre of popular, Eblid basin right through to the area off Dinas point where the most fish are rising today. Bank areas Bigga arm, Gronwen field, The pipe and hedge end. Boat bookings 01686412890

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – Both reservoirs have been fishing slow due to the warm week, however on 15th September Andy Hoffrock reports: there are lots of fish in the inlet bay mouching around in the weed. Great fun as it was sight fishing. Lots of follows without hook-ups but if the ripple was there, they took my flies. Managed to land 3 and dropped a couple. Though late in the year I reckon they were taking damsels. Visit www.nrffa.co.uk for more details.

Llyn Brenig, Cerrigydrudion – Report from the Fishery: We have now come to an end of another fly fishing season here at Llyn Brenig with the last stock now in the lake we are starting to wind down for the coming winter months. Thanks to you all for what has been a great but also challenging season at times. We have seen all kinds of weather with extreme heat to cold, dark and windy days making for some interesting fishing throughout the season. With the success of numerous competitions including Llaniliar Classic and the Greys pairs we have many fantastic reports from anglers throughout the season complimenting both on the surface and sub surface tactics.

Brown trout @ Llyn Brenig – As many of you may be aware, we have introduced brown trout to the reservoir this season as extra species to catch for the anglers. We are still getting to grips with their different growth rates and behaviours, which has meant some unexpected changes to stocking patterns. The usual stocking of the Brenig includes 33 000 rainbow trout, however this season the Brenig has only had 21 000 rainbows due to the rest being made up of brown trout. As widely known the brown trout are slower growing species and this was evident this season with many browns only reaching approximately 1 1/2lb. Many didn’t reach stocking size until near the end of the season.  This being said, the impact of the introduced brown trout has had both negative and positive comments throughout the season with mixed feelings about their use for stocking at Brenig in the future. We will continue with the experiment for now and are more than happy to take on your feedback, good and bad, about how it is going. Ultimately, we are trying to make the fishing as interesting, diverse, and enjoyable as possible, but are discovering that there are some compromises that cannot be avoided when it comes to stocking brown trout!

Natural brown trout stillwaters – Have been tough going in September this year, although a few good reports are coming from Teifi Pools, Elan valley and Llyn Berwyn, which is a cracking venue for surface sport and wading. Lyn Davies and friend captured 25 trout between them on dries at the end of August on Berwyn, pics below.

Many of these natural venues (aside from Tregaron AA waters) are open until 17th October and should fish really well in the last couple of weeks when the wild brown trout switch back on. Venues such as Talybont reservoir, Llyn Gwyddior, Aberystwyth lakes, llyn Padarn and Ogwen Valley lakes are all excellent in October. The historic Tal-y-llyn is another lake for autumn fishing, but sadly we have just been informed that fishing has been stopped recently. We reached out to the venue and got this response: ”We have had to stop it temporarily due to not having enough access to fish the lake, due to one the road and secondly as the farmer does not want people crossing his land on the other side of the lake. We are hoping to get some boats on the lake for next season, so we don’t have to stop fishing all together.”

Welsh Rivers

Before the heat of mid September the rivers were fishing exceptionally for trout, especially the Taff, Sirhowy, Ebbw, and some of the West Wales rivers Gwendraeth, Taf and Cothi, where Charlie Corkrum and Gary Herman have also encountered a few salmon and sea trout using Rapalas.

The Dee also has started to fish well, grayling are now showing in the catches to dry fly tactics. With cooler weather this week the upper Wye has started to produce excellent numbers of trout and grayling, Lyn Davies with some lovely examples below from the Doldowlod beat on the Fishing Passport.

Trout season ends on 30th September for most rivers in Wales, but after then there will be plenty of choice on the rivers that hold grayling.

Migratory

The September hot spell saw water temperatures fly up in the Wye and Usk, therefore the Fishing Passport and WSA advised anglers not to fish from 7th September. Likewise, many other Welsh rivers saw less angling activity than usual due to the warmth. Fishing resumed after the suspension on 13th September, since then the Wye has seen 2 salmon reported at Wyesham. The Teifi has had a tough season, with extremes of drought then high flows, despite this there have been fair numbers sewin to 4lb reported by Steffan Jones captured by his clients, so fish are in the system.

There was some good sewin fishing in September on some of the North Wales rivers, the Mawddach and Wnion systems produced some very nice Sewin to Rob Redman, pictured below.

Salmon have been seen in the Betws y Coed waterfalls area on the Conwy ,following the rain of late August.

Prospects look good for game angling as we head into the final part of the season, a wet few days should lead to much improved fishing!

Welsh Rivers

Well, what a contrast compared to the heat of June, the weather in Wales has been mixed to say the least for the past month, with plentiful water in the rivers which has led to some excellent migratory fishing for salmon and sea trout, as well as wild river trout, when levels allow.

River trout

Chris Flay and friends visited the Usk for some late summer action on a fishing Passport beat on the middle river. The recent rain has really topped up the river and Chris used a woolly bugger streamer to great effect, a tactic that works well in higher flows.

Small streams on the Fishing Passport have been well worth fishing with the high water, the many Usk, Wye and Monnow tribs are all worth trying, given water, with fish to 2lb 12oz reported along with high numbers of smaller fish. These can all be booked through the Fishing Passport site. Ceri Thomas captured the trout below of 19 inches from the Nant Bran, a remote Usk tributary.

Welsh rivers international Kyle Cheshire is no stranger to specimen wild trout on his local South Wales rivers, but this one is next level! 6lb 6oz of wild river Ebbw brown trout, weighed in the net and safely released. The superb capture is an example of the incredible trout fishing we have on Welsh rivers. Season ends on 30th September, so get out and enjoy!

Migratory

Gareth Dixon is enjoying some brilliant salmon and sea trout fishing on the Dyfi off the back of the rain throughout this month. With over 10 salmon to 12lb and sea trout over 4lb to fly and spinner. The river is fishing well.

The Wye has seen a fair number of salmon caught, including Airflo’s Colin Thomas (below) who caught a nice fish on the upper river.

Several salmon have been caught on the Rectory beat, Llangoed & Lower llanstephan and Spreadeagle, where Ed Brown landed a monster of 31lb and 41 inches!

The lower beats such as Wyesham and Bigsweir have also seen a run of salmon through August, helped by the ample water in the river. A rod on upper Bigsweir reported 3 in one morning on fly, 15lb, 6lb grilse and an 18lb fresh fish.

River Towy has been fairly slow according to some reports, although Dan Moore and Scott Topping (below) have found success with some nice sewin on Llangadog Angling LTD water. Jan Bobrowski has reported fish to 6lb on surface lures when conditions have allowed.

Scott Topping has also caught some cracking brown trout on the Towy, nice example below.

Colton Kelly captured a lovely fresh hen salmon on the fly at Golden grove on the Towy first week of August, pictured below.

The Cothi continues to have a good season, Charlie Corkrum reports some action-packed sessions with sea trout to 65cm on rapalas. Charlie also reports sewin on the Taf, Gwilli and Cynin, plus salmon to 75cm and some cracking brown trout over 50cm as well.

The Seiont near Llanberis has produced a good number of salmon and sea trout to 12lb 6oz recently, helped by the abundance of fresh water at the end of July. Robin Parry had a grilse of 8.5lb on a single hander and Ian Williams reports a 9lb sewin. The Ogwen has seen some sea trout up to 10lb plus some grilse.

Trout Reservoirs

Clywedog reservoir fishery, Llanidloes – Hosted round 4 of the OES Clywedog League on August 14th. The 72 anglers were met with overcast conditions and light winds with the majority of the competitors fishing dries or washing line methods on various tip lines. A total of 543 fish were caught (408 of which were returned) for a rod average of 7.54. Marian Davies landed a rainbow of exactly 10lbs. The youth international was fished on 2nd August, Congratulations to Team Ireland! Fantastic event rod average 10.7 fish. Ireland 175, Scotland 169, England 152, Wales 104 fish. Look out for a Fishing In Wales film covering the event in the near future. Boat bookings 01686412890

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – Both reservoirs have been fishing slow, but water is now cooling down and fish are feeding again off the surface. Visit www.nrffa.co.uk for more details.

Claerwen reservoir, Elan Valley – This wild 650 acre water has fantastic fishing for wild brown trout, the fish are free rising and there are plenty of them. It fishes well all summer. Joe Alexander reports some excellent sessions here, with over a dozen fish typically each visit to pulled wet fly. A good venue for anglers getting into wild lake fishing. Tickets in Rhayader at Daisy Powell Newsagent and at Hafod Hardware.

Nant y Moch Reservoir, Ponterwyd – Another wild water, Nant y Moch’s 500 acres are home to plentiful, hungry, wild trout that run to 1lb. Like Claerwen, you are almost guaranteed action, catches into double figures are common. Like all of these mountain reservoirs, keep on the move to find the fish. The lake has fished well all August, Joe Alexander and friends reporting some bumper catches. Day tickets at the filling station Ponterwyd. Look out for a future Fishing In Wales video on the venue with Alan Parfitt.

Aberystwyth Angling Association – For anglers looking for larger wild lake trout, less in number and presenting a bit more of a challenge than the mountain reservoir trout in the area, then these are the lakes for you. Jonathan Thomas (below) reports a beast of a wild trout around 4lb from the Rhosrydd and Glandwgan complex, as well as 8 other fish from 1.5lb to 2lb. Other lakes to try include Oerfa and Frongoch, both known for producing quality brown trout, and in the case of Frongoch, rainbows.

Small water Trout Fisheries

Dare Valley fishery, Aberdare – The new venue is now allowing catch and release, 1 fish kill and 5 to be returned for £40. Below: A 9lb rainbow from the fishery.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – reports of rainbows to 14lb at the fishery at the end of July. Always the chance here of a whacker!

Crynant fishery, Neath – Jason Williams (below) reports a good day with a bag limit of fully finned rainbows, which are bred on-site at the catch and kill venue.

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – Some good sport to lures, the fishery was re-stocked on 12th August thanks to cool water temperatures so should fish well in the coming weeks.

Wal Goch, Mold – Fred Green reports August 7th ‘‘Just had a great day’s fishing. It was hard but worthwhile. I had five to the net and lost one. I also had a good number of takes but missed them (my fault). There were a few showing on the top but I think that they were taking about two feet down.’’ Plenty of fish are being caught including some nice blues.

Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery, Abergele – Our One Day Fly Fishing Experience has proved popular this year. Keith who was with us last weekend was kind enough to leave a review on Google – “Amazing experience, never picked up a fly rod before and with the expert tuition I was fishing in no time. Beautiful pools and surroundings, hosted by the nicest people you could hope to meet. Looking forward to making the trip back as soon as possible” – for more information on the experience day click here.

Prospects look good for game angling as we head into the later part of the season, a wet summer should lead to a bumper back end!

Trout Reservoirs

Clywedog reservoir fishery, Llanidloes – It’s been superb in mid July at Clywedog, with the fish feeding high in the water, we’ve seen both boat and bank anglers catching on dries. Last weekend we hosted the Fly Shop Invitational which went extremely well with fish that went deeper in the hot spell at the end of June returning to the surface with a vigour. Areas have been Bigga arm, dead channel, mouth of the Bigga , popular side, Eblid basin to Sailing club and Bwlch y Gle. Flies daddies, hoppers, cdc Shuttlecock, small black boobies and cormorants. Boat bookings 01686412890

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – Both reservoirs have been fishing poorly in June, but now in July with cool weather it has picked up. Kieron Jenkins reports yesterday: ‘’Couple of hours on the boat this afternoon, water is slightly coloured due to the rain but the fish are still active. Managed 8 in 3 hours mainly from the boat moorings to the bay, fish pretty close in on damsel again through the Lilly Pads/weeds’’ Visit www.nrffa.co.uk for more details.

Llyn Brenig, Cerrigydrudion – Report week Ending 17th July 2023. The weather over the last week has been cooler and windier than previous weeks. We had some strong winds at the end of the week particularly on Friday and Saturday. This made for some difficult fishing conditions. However, the fishing has become easier this last week with the fish moving towards the top few feet of water making for some good sport.

There has been a marked improvement in the rod average over the last two weeks with this week’s average standing at 4.2 fish per angler. We were delighted to host the North Wales Police Competition here at the Brenig last Thursday with eight boats taking to the water, with the result being sixteen anglers caught 42 fish between them with an average of 2.6 fish per angler. Mr. Colin Jones, the organiser wrote that the conditions were near perfect for top of the water fishing, but the actual fishing proved to be tougher.

The top angler on the day was Steve Jukes with six fish from the ring of stones, followed by Steve Williams and Barry Edwards both with 5 from the same area. We also have the results from the Senior Welsh Trials which took place at the Brenig on July 1st. The top rod was Andrew Jenkins with a total weight of 27lbs 3oz, in second place came Richard Hooper with a total weight of 20lbs 1oz and in third place came Matthew Owen with a total weight of 17lbs 3oz.

Having a look at this week’s catch returns has certainly made for some pleasant reading with many anglers making very positive comments. The last few weeks was summed up perfectly by Mr. Geraint Hughes who had an ‘awesome’ day on Wednesday, catching eleven fish after struggling on previous occasions.

There have also been a few bigger fish caught this week, maybe they have been lying in deeper water and with the cooler weather have made their way up, with Mr. Richard Cheetham landing the biggest fish of the week, a 4lbs 8oz Rainbow. The biggest bag of the week goes to Mr. D. Humphreys who recorded a weight of 11lbs 8oz for five fish caught. The Top flies have been black bibio hopper, hare’s ear, black beetle, green sedge, daddy long legs, cat’s whisker and various other blobs and boobies. The hot spots for the boats have been Tower Bay, the Dam Wall, the Quarry, the Visitors Centre and around the cages. Bank anglers have had success in Tower Bay, the Visitors Centre shore, Hafod Lom and the girder North of the Visitors Centre. The main gates will be closing at 5.45 this week and therefore boats need to be back on the jetty by 5.15pm. Tight Lines, Jim Jenkins – Seasonal Ranger.

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – The club has now suspended catch and release, and it is thought the intense June heatwave may have caused a lot of fish to perish. It is likely that the fishery will be hard going until the autumn months when it will be re-stocked when the water is cold enough again.

Talybont reservoir, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park – Hard day time fishing now, with the lake at 19 degrees last couple of weeks. It is cooling down thankfully. Fishing here has now switched to the late evenings, expect good action to dries and on small lures as it gets dark. Day tickets with the Fishing Passport.

Teifi Pools, Tregaron – Great sport here in wet and windy weather if you can brave it! Wild browns from 8oz to 2lb or more. Llyn Berwyn is also worth a go on the same ticket. Details on Fishing Passport or watch our film with Hywel Morgan here.

Trawsfynydd Reservoir, Ffestiniog – Round 4 of the Cynghrair Traws Turrall Traws League 2023 was held on 15th July, with strong S.W. winds gusting to almost 30mph and heavy squalling showers. Due to the weather conditions, all the boats stayed within the channel, Home Bay, Islyn Bay and Carreg yr Ogof areas. Congratulations to the top 3, Robin Atherton, Peter Greasley, Gerallt Roberts, also to the top lady Marian Davies and top youth Dan Owen. A total of 90 fish were caught, rod average of 5 fish between 19 anglers with fish to nearly 3lb.

Small water Trout Fisheries

The June heatwave really slowed down action on the smaller trout fisheries, several of them suspended catch and release or even closed. They are now open again as water is cooling down with fishing improving. Fisheries to try include Papermill, Pantybedw, Wal Goch, Garnffrwd, Tan-y-Mynydd, Graiglwyd Springs. It always worth ringing before travel to see how they are fishing as it can be hit and miss in the summer months.

Welsh rivers

June was not a great month for river fishing for any salmonid species, and in some cases, certain stretches were closed on the Wye and Usk, due to water temperatures hitting 20 degrees.

Mid and late June saw river fishing for trout limited to late evenings, where the ‘spinner fall’ dry fly fishing has been spectacular, especially on the Usk, Taff, Teifi and Ebbw.

For summer spinner fall fishing it is best not to start fishing too early, 7.30pm till 10pm is the perfect time, given the late sunsets. Below are several large trout to 22 inches captured on dry fly at dusk on the Taff and Usk. Permits for both rivers can be purchased on the Fishing Passport.

After the searing heat of June and low, drought-stricken rivers, thankfully temperatures have fallen back in July and we have now seen a decent amount of rain throughout Wales, which has led to excellent day time fishing once more.

As such, trout fishing has once again picked up with Euro nymphing scoring well in the higher flows. Grayling, now in season, have started to figure in the catches on the upper Wye, Dee, Rhymney and lower Taff.

Small streams on the Fishing Passport have also benefitted from the rain, rivers such as the Edw, Clettwr, Ithon, Tarrell, Bran, Llynfi Dulais, Taff Fechan, Monnow and tribs are all worth a try while we still have water. ‘wild stream’ Permits are available on the Fishing Passport.

For a taste of daytime fishing a Welsh river using nymphs, check out our recent video with Hywel Morgan on Groe Park and Irfon Angling Club water. You will learn a lot about this deadly method, which is very easy for a beginner to river fly fishing to pick up.

The river Ebbw hosted a home nation international at the end of June; attended by teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and of course Wales. The home team performed magnificently, securing top spot and the Gold Medal. A total of 325 fish were caught to 45.7 cm, 118 of which by Team Wales. A testament to the remarkable productivity of the Ebbw, a post-industrial river. Welsh Team member Simon Barton took individual winner of the Brown Bowl. Congratulations Team Wales!

Migratory fish

The season had a terrible start due to lack of water, but now we have had rain as I write this salmon and sea trout are being caught in the rivers of West Wales. The Cothi has produced several cracking sea trout and salmon for Charlie Corkrum, who spins with Rapala’s with single barbless hooks as per the regs, he has had salmon to 88cm and sewin to 82cm (pictured below) weight well into double figures! Great fish care demonstrated too.

The Teifi has seen the arrival of school sewin, plus some bigger fish, Iswlyn Jones reports one of 6lb a few days ago on the Llandysul Angling Association water. The Tawe has also sprung into life with junior member Jacob catching a fresh salmon on the fly from PASAS water. A few others have been caught and seen. The club are also running free fly fishing lessons this summer.

Sea trout are also being caught in the day in North Wales off the back of the recent water, Rob Redman finding success on the Afon Mawddach catchment.

On the Wye the fishing for salmon was resumed on 3rd July, after the temperatures finally fell. Since then a couple of salmon to 16lb have been reported at Wyesham and on the Usk a 12lb hen fish was caught at Llanover.

A lot more rain is forecast for the coming weekend, which should improve things again.

Welsh Rivers

As I write this, we have just experienced 29 days of little or no rain in Wales, not good for river fishing. That said the nights have been fairly cool so water temperatures have been moderated somewhat.

Trout fishing has predictably become difficult in the day time, however evening fishing has been exceptional, with fish rising freely as the light fades. Rivers such as the Usk, Taff, Tawe, Ebbw, Upper Severn, Upper Wye and Teifi have provided first class evening dry fly fishing, with fish to over 5lb recorded. We really are lucky in Wales, our river trout fishing is truly excellent. Below big river trout captured by Steffan Jones to 24.5 inches on a variety of Welsh rivers.

Thunderstorms may provide a most welcome lift in water levels and should see improved fishing for a few days. It is always wise to keep an eye on water temperatures, as anything over 18 degrees is really bad news and fish struggle to go back.

Sewin (sea trout) numbers have been disappointing, due to the lack of water and fishing effort for them. Rhys Meilir Davies has put some time in on the Towy, in May he captured a fish of 77cm, which was estimated at around 13lb, a fish of a lifetime. It was caught on a Rob Redman Blue Widow/Tywi Special fished on a type 3 sink tip line. Rhys has also caught a brown trout of 4lb 2oz at night. Both fish pictured below.

Things may be picking up, Colton Kelly reports a 10lb sewin from Golden Grove river Towy on the weekend. Let’s hope they now start running in numbers. Steffan Jones reports the arrival of the first sewin on the Teifi, small schoolies are often caught while dry fly fishing for trout in the late evenings.

Charlie Corkrum, a lure fishing expert in West Wales has captured two salmon from the Cothi, as well as a few sea trout and numerous trout, some of which are over 4lb. It seems that West Wales rivers are now excellent trout fisheries, to rival the rivers of south and mid Wales. River’s such as the Taf, Gwendreath, Cynin, Cleddau’s, Nevern, Gwilli and Lougher are all now worth fishing for good sized trout. Lightweight spinning outfits are easy to use on these rivers, which are quite hard to fly fish. Charlie and other local spin anglers are setting a great example with the use of single barbless hooks on Rapalas and Mepps, practicing catch and release. A few pics below of Charlies catches and a Carmarthenshire stream.

Salmon have been few and far between on Welsh rivers, but the Wye has had a fairly encouraging start though, Wyesham beat reported 4 fresh fish yesterday morning, despite an algae bloom now affecting the lower river. A few fish have been reported on the lower Usk also. For Wye and Usk salmon catches, the Fishing Passport has a dedicated area, that is well worth a read.

With the hot weather fly anglers have enjoyed catching carp, with several fisheries such as Canada lakes providing excellent sport. Fly fishing in the saltwater is also excellent in Wales, Darren Jackson and Kristian Davies (below) have been catching some cracking Mullet recently on the fly.

Trout Reservoirs

Clywedog reservoir fishery, Llanidloes – Airflo Open Clywedog Heat on 11th June fished extremely well, to all methods, from Dries to 50 seconds down on the Booby Basher! A rod average of 10.48 made for an excellent match. It is dry fly paradise at Clywedog at the moment with the fish making the most of one of the best Coch y bondu hatches in some years. The bright sun in the afternoon and strong easterly winds have not dampened the sport one bit. One boat reported over 60 fish all to dry fly tactics and a rod average well into double figures. Bwlch y gle has continued to be the top area along with Eblid steep bank and basin Bank anglers have been catching in Braich y ffedew, popular side and Eblid Boat bookings 01686412890

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – Both reservoirs have been fishing well, mostly to buzzer and egg flies fished under an indicator. Dry fly fishing has been excellent in the evenings. Fish here are always of a very good stamp, fully finned. Members can now use clubmate to book boats on the venue. Visit www.nrffa.co.uk for more details.

Llanelli Angling Association – Upper Lliedi Reservoir (Swiss Valley top res) Fish are being caught on buzzers in the evenings. For more information go to www.llanelliangling.org.uk

Llyn Brenig North Wales – June 11th Report. We have certainly seen a few anglers this week with the Midas touch with Mr. Ian Buckley certainly enjoying the good times catching, along with his boat partner, over 25 fish on two occasions during the past week .This has definitely boosted the rod average for the week which stands at 3.6 fish per angler including fish returned. The very warm weather and bright sunshine has played a big part in the fishing this week making conditions difficult for the anglers with a number finding it hard to catch more than one or two fish. However, overall, there has been some excellent top of the water dry fly fishing especially in the early morning when the sun hasn’t been so strong, and we have had a bit of cloud cover. On Sunday we were delighted to welcome some of the anglers who were practicing for the upcoming Disabled 2023 International which will be taking place at Llyn Brenig this coming week. Unfortunately, their day was cut short by a fierce storm which forced the boats off the water due to the thunder and lightning, lets hope for some calmer weather this week. The heaviest fish this week was caught by Mr. Les Lawton and weighed in at a hefty 6lbs 2oz whilst the biggest bag of the week for six fish caught was recorded by Mr. Bob Gibbon and weighed in at 11lbs 4oz. The Top flies have been Midas, black and ginger, Cormorant, green beetle, black hawthorn, diawl bach, daddy long legs and various blobs and boobies. The hot spots for the boats have been Tower Bay, the Dam Wall and the Quarry. Bank anglers have had success in Tower Bay, the Visitors Centre shore and Sailing Club Bay. The main gates will be closing at 5.45 this week and therefore boats need to be back on the jetty by 5.15pm. Tight Lines, Jim Jenkins – Seasonal Ranger.

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – The club has now suspended catch and release, due to higher water temps of over 18 degrees. Members will be allowed to take 15 fish per visit, full day tickets are allowed 8 fish and evening tickets are allowed 4 fish. This seems a lot, but these fish die anyway in summer due to lice issues and low oxygen. Bags of up to 15 fish have been reported. Corixa patterns are working well. Lures and sub surface buzzer also.

Cantref reservoir, Brecon – Continues to fish well this year for wild brown trout. Levels are dropping so take care on the mud. No rainbows have been stocked this year, but there are a few still in there from past seasons. Dry flies are working in the late evenings here. The lake can be fished if you join Merthyr Angling Alliance club for just £67 a year.

Talybont reservoir, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park – Has been fishing exceptionally through May, plenty of smaller fish around this season about 3/4lb. Mostly pulling traditional wets. Fishing here has now switched to the evenings, expect good action to sedge and on small lures as it gets dark. Day tickets with the Fishing Passport.

Teifi Pools, Tregaron – Great sport here, all of the lakes have been fishing off the top, Coch y bonddu beetle really gets them up. Fish to over 2lb can be caught here, especially on Egnant and Hir. Llyn Teifi holds some surprises and is rarely fished. Stay on for the evening rise if you can.

Trawsfynydd Reservoir, Ffestiniog – Plenty of coch at llyn Trawsfynydd at the moment. Also Large sedges, alders, damsels, buzzers and daddies hatches. Fishing is excellent and fish are near the surface. 2,000 fish stocked in the last week. Book your boat for fly fishing on 07501080788.

Trout Fisheries

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – Jonathan Evans age 13 fished a corporate day, he caught a monster of a rainbow which weighed 15lb 10oz on a snake. A new PB. Despite how warm it has been Dennis Morris was rewarded with this cracking rainbow which weighed 14lb 9oz, he caught it on a damsel well done Dennis what a stunning rainbow! Booking essential on 07814741252

Pantybedw fishery, Carmarthen – As the water temperature is well over 20 degrees fishing for trout will be on a catch and kill basis only. Call 01267290315 for prices and details.

Wal Goch, Mold – Daniel Trickett reports ‘’Had an amazing day today caught 12 in total including 3 beautiful tigers 2 being around the 3/4 lb range and one being around 5/6lb mark all put up a hell of a fight and well rested before allowing them to swim off for someone else to catch. Caught mostly on lures today. Plenty of takes and lost fish fishing really well at the moment’’

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – Some good sport to lures, silver humungous with white tail working well for Evan, pictured below. Dry fly also very effective here during the evening rise.

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – The lake will not be opening up in the near future. The club is still not happy enough with the condition of Llyngwyn. There are several issues including blue green algae present and ammonia level is high. the lake will be closed for the rest of the season.

Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery, Abergele – Plenty of new rainbow and blue trout added to all the lakes this week (June 10th) weed has been cut and despite the weather being hot fish are being caught.

Graiglwyd Springs Fly Fishery, Penmaenmawr – Is offering evening fishing. Plenty of fresh stock has been introduced past week. The lake is deep so temperature does not rise too high. Fishing deep is often the way to catch fish, but dry flies will work well even in the heat. Bookings only 07486568179

Trout Reservoirs

Clywedog reservoir fishery, Llanidloes – The big fish are certainly on the move at the moment. Roger Lewis (below right) with the seasons best brown trout a massive 13lb. The fish was weighed and witnessed by ranger mark before being released back into the lake. Keith Cadogan (below left) had a cracking rainbow around 10lb which he returned taken on a midge tip off Dinas point. Over 11,000 fish have been stocked to date. Boat bookings 01686412890

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – Andy Hoffrock of NRFFA reports: In March we had 399 visits by anglers, who caught 1092 fish giving a rod average of 3.2. The fish have been caught using a wide range of methods and flies. Tip lines and floaters, fishing nymphs on a washing line or buzzers straight lining have been very productive. Plenty of fish have been rising and dry flies are catching when the conditions are right. A lot of anglers have used sight indicators to great effect, suspending Egg flies, buzzers and Apps-worms. Pulling lures on sinking lines has also been effective, especially for the recently stocked fish. The fish are well spread out, so all areas of the bank are catching. Visit www.nrffa.co.uk for more details.

Llanelli Angling Association – Has the upper Lliedi Reservoir. Fish are being caught within 10 metres of the bank on the dropper flies, a UV Muskins and Black Diawl. Some of them are overwintered and grown-on rainbows. Advice for anyone fishing from the bank “DO NOT WADE” the fish are very close to the shore. For more information go to www.llanelliangling.org.uk

Llyn Brenig North Wales – April Report. Overall, Llyn Brenig fishing well and fish being found in most parts of the lake. The water is still cold, and the wind has a chilly feel to it which has kept the fish lower in the water although they aren’t particularly deep with an intermediate or slow sinking line producing positive results. Anglers are catching some fantastic fish and the brown trout are now starting to make an appearance. Kyle Hutchinson caught three brown trout for example and all of them taken along the Visitors Centre shore and all weighing in at 3lbs. A great day for Kyle. Mr. John Davies also had a great day catching 18 fish with his boat partner which included an 8lb Rainbow, one at 7lbs and one at 6lbs. He also hooked what he believed to be the biggest fish that he’d seen at the Brenig but unfortunately it bent the hook and escaped to fight another day. The top flies have been hot headed black tadpole, cats whiskers, white zonker, green and black Montana, black pennell, appetizer, and various blobs and boobies. The hot spots for this week for boat anglers have been Hafod Lom, Duck Island, Nant Glyn Shore and the Coves. The hot spots for Bank anglers have been Visitors Centre Shore, Tower Bay and Hafod Lom. We are continuing with the tagged fish this year with the same fantastic prizes as last year which is a £1,000-pound first prize, a season ticket for the second prize and a half season ticket for the third prize. The main gates will be shutting at 4.45pm this week and all boats need to be back on the jetty by 4.15pm. Tight Lines- Jim Jenkins – Seasonal Ranger, Llyn Brenig.

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – The popular evening ticket is now available for 2023. It is £12. It starts at 4pm and you can keep two fish and C&R up to 10 fish. You must stop fishing when you dispatch your second fish and all day ticket anglers must contact a committee member before going fishing to ‘book in’ regardless of whether they’ve already been this season. The calmer evenings are fishing well already, with good catches reported to shipman’s buzzer on the top. Snakes and sub surface buzzer also working well.

Cantref reservoir, Brecon – Lots of wild brown trout from 8oz to over 1lb in the shallower bays and roadside margins close in, these are taking mini lures and traditional wet flies. A few rainbows have been caught too. Cantref is a great option easy reach from Cardiff and mid-Wales and can be fished if you join Merthyr Angling Alliance club for just £67 a year.

Talybont reservoir, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park – Has been busy since opening day on 20th March, good numbers of wild brown trout from 12oz to over 2lb are being caught, some rods reporting up to 10 fish. Mostly pulling black lures such as woolly bugger, Humongous and traditional wet flies on floaters with sink tips or intermediates. Day tickets with the Fishing Passport.

Teifi Pools, Tregaron – Now fishing well despite the altitude, buzzers, small dark wet fly and mini lures working well. Hywel Morgan fished the venue last week in search of a wild trout from each lake, out with our film crew. You can watch the video here. After filming Ceri Thomas landed an exceptionally pretty fish on llyn Egnant, image below.

Trawsfynydd Reservoir, Ffestiniog – Bags of up to 10 fish being recorded on Round 2 of the Cynghrair Traws Turrall League 2023. Beginning of the match saw a few boats stay in Home Bay whilst the majority spread out throughout the lake. A few fish were caught early in Home Bay before boats began to move away. Buzzers were hatching periodically through the day, although the fish ignored the artificials going mainly for various blobs or boobies. Call 07501 080788 to book a boat.

Pant-y-Eos reservoir, Newport – This small 8 acre reservoir is fishing well to nymph and lure, it has been re-stocked by Islwyn Anglers with rainbows, blues and browns. Day tickets are available through the angling club website.

Trout fisheries

Papermill Fishery, Swansea –Plenty of fish being caught and anglers catching their bag limit. Craig Humphries (below left) with his personal best rainbow, which weighed 12lb 6oz. Caught on a black zonker. Bernard, (below right) had a clonker at 14lb 6oz, captured on a Damsel nymph. Booking essential on 07814741252

Llandegla fishery, Wrexham – The fishery has had another stocking in the fly pools, worming pool and also kids fishing area so plenty to have a go at if you’re planning on coming. Fish to 10lb have been reported, an example below of a nicely coloured rainbow from the fishery, taken on a black and green fritz.

Pantybedw fishery, Carmarthen – the pegs are clear and the lake is fishing well with over 20 pegs to choose from. Fin perfect specimens such as the fish below are coming out, to a wide variety of methods but in particular natural patterns.

Wal Goch, Mold – Philip Robinson reports ‘’Thanks for a great afternoon’s fishing at Wal Goch today. I had eight fish starting with a lovely 3lb Brown trout and then followed by six hard fighting Blue trout and finally a nice Rainbow trout. All caught on black buzzers fished beneath a Klinkhammer. The Brown and Blues were all carefully released to fight another day’’ Based on this, it sounds like the lake is worthy of a visit.

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – Fishing is starting to turn to buzzers and dry fly, with some fantastic rises happening in the evenings when the wind drops. There are good hatches of lake olives through the early spring, look out for them soon!

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – Still no update on if the lake will be opening up in the near future. The club is still not happy enough with the condition of Llyngwyn. There are several issues including blue green algae present and fish are not feeding as normal. They have employed experts to help with a way forward and have decided that for the time being Llyngwyn is to remain closed.

Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery, Abergele – fishery are pleased to announce that they will become a Troutmaster water again. For further updates follow their Facebook page.

Trout rivers

April has seen a strange start to the season, often wet, cool, and with river levels high and decidedly un-spring like weather throughout. Indeed, many of the larger rivers have been far too high for much of April, for example the lower middle Usk and Dee. Levels have now fallen, so the fishing has vastly improved recently.

The South Wales rivers do throw up some huge wild brown trout, indeed fish of 2lb to over 5lb are caught quite regularly. The Taff is well known for big fish and has produced a remarkable number of them in April, many of which falling to dry fly, with Olives and now Brook Duns brining the big boys out to feed. Picture below shows a 5lb 3oz Taff fish captured by Kyle Cheshire on a dry fly. For more about fishing the Taff, check out Steffan Jones article here.

Another ‘big fish’ river is the Tawe in the Swansea valley. Here wild and stocked fish can reach over 6lb in weight. Like the other South Wales rivers, fertility is high and insect life excellent because of the limestone geology in the coal bearing rocks of the valleys.

The Ebbw is a prolific wild trout river and it has produced big numbers of trout to nymph anglers this spring. We have a video coming out soon featuring Simon Barton, well known Welsh rivers team international angler and committee member of Islwyn Angling club.

The Usk has been excellent in the upper reaches on the Fishing Passport, beats such as Penpont, Fenni Fach and Dinas all producing good days, and many fish to dry fly when the March browns have appeared. Grannom hatches have been good lower down on the warmer days, although lower reaches have still been a tad high.

During the wetter periods the wild streams on the Fishing Passport have fished well, especially to anglers who fish nymphs deep, often using scaled down Euro Nymph methods. Fishing dry flies on these small high velocity streams early season with water pushing through rarely does well, you need to get down. We have heard of big fish from the Usk tributaries and reports of up to 10 fish from the Edw in Mid-Wales to 1lb 8oz. Below: Usk tributary trout, 2lb 10oz, taken on a heavy nymph fished deep.

As the weather has warmed slightly dry fly has been possible on some of the streams that have more gentle flows, Wales Rugby international no.16 Bradley Roberts, who scored a try against France in the 6 Nations, below, fishing and with a nice wild trout from the river Llynfi Powys which took a dry fly during a brief hatch.

In North Wales the river Alyn has produced some nice early season trout, while the Dee has produced some lovely browns to Andrew Overend on spiders in the Llangollen area and to Jon Roberts on dry fly during hatches of upwings.

Salmon and sea trout

A slow start on Welsh rivers but a few springers have been reported on the Wye and the Usk, which may bode well for a better season. A fish estimated around 27lb was captured at the Rectory on the Wye this week, a 17lb fish was also caught on this beat a few days earlier. 13lb salmon recorded at Llangoed & Lower Llanstephan and reports of several others through the system, thanks to the extra water.

No salmon or sea trout captures of note on other Welsh rivers so far.

Welsh rivers

Many of the Welsh rivers began the trout season on March 3rd. After a long cold snap the opening week saw the rivers exceptionally low with chilly conditions with easterly winds, although it was generally overcast and calm, which helped.

The river Usk started quite well, large dark olives hatched in good numbers and trout rose for them from the off. Many of the fishing Passport Beats and angling club stretches on the Usk such as Merthyr Tydfil AA, Brecon Town and Gwent AS were fished on the first weekend of the season, a few fish were caught, not huge numbers, since the feeding window is quite limited in early March when a handful of fish can be considered a good day. Still, catching a few fish on dry flies so early is always welcome and some decent fish were caught on the Usk.

Below: Brace of 19 inch fish captured on the upper Usk around Sennybridge, By Ceri Thomas and Rhys Morgan respectively.

The Ebbw is another star river of South Wales, and it fished well even in the very cold and low first week, local angler Kyle Cheshire (below left) was straight into some cracking fish, as did Luke Gator who has just taken up river fly fishing and is loving it as a change from ‘stockie bashing’.

The river Tawe at Swansea also recorded some big fish, with guide Kim Tribe landing a few big browns to over 3lb and 20 inches. Below, Kim with some of the Tawe specimen browns.

The upper Teifi (Lampeter bridge up) also opened on the 3rd March, there were some nice trout reported on the Cellan beat, which is Llandysul angling.

From mid March we entered a spell of snow and then heavy rain, which gave the rivers much needed water, but sadly impacted the levels and made them coloured. When the waters have receded briefly, the fishing has been quite good for the nymph anglers, although hampered by too much water and fluctuating levels; therefore, smaller streams and headwaters have been the best bet, for example the upper Sirhowy, Taff Fechan and Ebbw Fach, all of which hold a lot of smaller fish, providing great sport.

Also consider the many tributaries on the river Usk, which offer some really decent fish – a couple of examples below of some big Usk trib fish. A lot of these are available on the Fishing Passport, for example, the Senni, Crai, Bran and Grwyne Fawr.

The lower Taff has mostly been flooded out, but between the rain storms the upper river has done a few decent fish, Josh Clark (below) with some cracking browns from around the Merthyr area.

Likewise the Wye has been flooded for several weeks now, but in the lulls some of the upper beats such as Craig Lyn have produced some good trout. We have also heard of a 5lb wild trout caught by a salmon angler on the Wye at Gromain beat.

The Loughor near Pontardulais opened on 3rd March, here some surprisingly good trout have been reported, Lyn Davies had a lovely fish of 17 inches whilst nymphing, which for this river is a specimen. That said the trout here are getting bigger each season so one day it may rival the rivers of mid and southeast Wales.

There have also been some reports of some early brown trout being caught on the river Clywd in North Wales and on the Dee early in March, before the rains and snow melt hit.

As we look forward to April and better weather the West Wales rivers will open fully on April the 1s giving us more options. Fly life should further kick into gear, especially March Browns, which haven’t really been seen in big numbers on our rivers yet and also grannom, which can be an amazing hatch if you hit it right.

Trout reservoirs

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – Boat and bank anglers are reporting many 8 fish C&R limits. The smaller, top reservoir is now open, so you can fish here as well if you reach your C&R limit on the bigger reservoir. A bung with buzzers is successful off the bank, as are lures on intermediates such as humongous.

Pant-y-Eos reservoir, Newport – This small 8 acre reservoir is well worth a visit, it has been re-stocked by Islwyn Anglers with rainbows, blues and browns. Day tickets are available through the angling clubs website. Lures and buzzers are producing fish.

Llanelli Angling Association – has the upper Lliedi Reservoir. This has produced some quality fish to boat anglers to Di5 with blobs and diawl bachs, example below. For more information on how to join go to www.llanelliangling.org.uk

Llyn Brenig North Wales – 18th March 2023 saw the season start, with Llyn Brenig’s fish tag competition now open. The season long event concludes with an end of year prize draw, using details of the tags collected throughout the season. 1st prize – £1,000 cash. For this season brown trout will feature in the Brenig stockings along with quality rainbows. Note, the fishing shop has now been moved into the activities hub for improved accessibility.

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – Fish are starting to switch on to the buzzer and fish are spread out now from the short wall and right up the BOC wall. Matthew Jones reports 10 to the net to a mixture of orange eggs under a bung and pulling a di3 sweep with black and white lures. The boat anglers are doing very well, Matthew Owen and Michael Roberts had 16 fish to the boat in one session, all superb quality. Some anglers are reporting fish on dries, including Ben Wilson of NRW. Most fish at short wall across the nature reserve bay and in front of the sailing club jetty.

Cantref reservoir, Brecon – This reservoir is now open, with reports of lots of wild brown trout from 8oz to over 1lb in the shallower bays and roadside margins. No reports of rainbows yet. Cantref is a great option easy reach from Cardiff and mid-Wales and can be fished if you join Merthyr Angling Alliance club.

Talybont reservoir – Brecon Beacons. Opening day was Monday 20th March, lots of anglers fished the lake, good numbers of wild brown trout from 12oz to over 2lb were caught, some rods reporting up to 10 fish. Mostly pulling small black lures and traditional wet flies on floaters with sink tips or intermediates. Conditions were good, mild, light breeze and at times rain. The lake has fished well all week since, even in very windy and wet conditions. Day tickets are with the Fishing Passport. We shot a short video at the venue on open day, you can check it out here.

Clywedog reservoir fishery, Llanidloes – Opening day should have been 9th March, but snowfall pushed this back to 13th March. Season to date has seen 5500 fish stocked already. Geoffrey Hogg reports ‘’First trip of the season today and as usual the fishing was fantastic despite the hail and snow showers. 22 fish to the boat and a few more lost.’’ The banks anglers are catching on lower popular side, a few anglers catching up to 20. Martin Ebbatson below left with a cracking 5lb fish off the bank and Derek Duckett with a 6lb 7oz Rainbow off the bank on a Montana at Hedge End.

Trawsfynydd Reservoir – the lake is already in full swing with just under 4,000 Trout stocked to date and providing top of the water sport. Fish average weight of just over 2lbs. The fishery has decided to continue stocking with larger fish due to better survival from predation where as some other fisheries have reduced size with costs. Should be a fantastic season.

Trout fisheries

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – The lake was stocked with hard fighting Exmoor trout on 17th March. As an example of what you may expect, Ioan Jones landed 16 fish including rainbow, browns and spartics. Best rainbow around 7lb. Fishing is starting to turn to buzzers and dry fly at Garnffrwd rather than pulling lures. There are good hatches of buzzers through the early spring.

Llandegla fishery, Wrexham – Fishing is superb now the snow has gone, rainbow trout to 12lb 2oz reported (below) The fishery is very well stocked and should fish well all spring.

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – The club is still not happy enough with the condition of Llyngwyn to open. There are several issues including blue green algae present and fish are not feeding as normal. They have employed experts to help with a way forward and have decided that for the time being Llyngwyn is to remain closed.
Pantybedw fishery, Carmarthen – The water is warming up slowly and this is bringing the fishing along nicely with some 4lb – 5lb lumps being caught. Remember you can book the whole fishery for the day exclusively for you and your friends any time of the year.

Wal Goch, Mold – Richard Hutchinson reports ‘’Excellent day at Wal Goch today had 7 to the net and lost 4. Was fishing a 3ft sink tip line with a 10ft leader had 2 on a hothead damsel and 5 on a mixture of dial Bach, yellow owl and a red buzzer. Very few fish on the top and found a slow retrieve worked well.’’ Other recent reports include Adrian Stanton, who with his son and a mate ended the day with 22 fish between them and more lost. It sounds like to is fishing well and is worth a visit.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – Fishing has been great lately at Papermill with plenty of fish being caught and anglers catching their bag limit. It’s been fishing well all over the lake and fishing is steady all day, with anglers reporting back how hard the fish are fighting. Fish are being caught on various flies at the moment such as buzzers, blue flash damsels, bloodworms, blobs and snakes. Also the fish are starting to feed off the surface and are starting to take dry fly off the top. Booking essential on 07814741252

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.

Trout Fisheries and Reservoirs

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – The lake was stocked with hard fighting Exmoor Rainbows on 3rd February and has been producing top quality fish including browns, tigers and spartics. Pink or white Eggs under a bung are a killer method here, as are buzzers or apps bloodworm fished slowly. On milder days don’t rule out fishing dry buzzer patterns in the surface film for rising fish.

Llandegla fishery, Wrexham – Fishing well now the ice has gone, Tiger trout to 9.5lb reported. (pic below) The fishery had a catch report last week of 38 fish on a 6hr sport ticket so nice to know there is a great head of fish.

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – fishing much better after successive re-stocking. Boat and bank anglers are reporting many 8 fish C&R limits. The bung with egg flies being successful off the bank as are lures on intermediates such as blue flash damsel. The quality of the fish here is second to none.

Llyn Brenig – has been open over the winter months, but fish stocking from the spring will be at a rate of 1000 per week, mostly around 1kg, but some much larger ones as well. There will be sizable pre-stock ahead of the season start, on the 18th March 2023.

For this season brown trout will feature in the Brenig stockings, some lovely fish have been reared by Jack Finney and the team, hopefully we will see some of these quality fish in the reports. The tagged fish competition, with a £1000 end of season prize, will be running at Brenig again this year. Image above of one of the brown trout reared for 2023!

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – The venue has been stocked and is fishing really well now. More fish will be stocked soon, which will stir up the residents. Fish are being caught quite close in, mostly to lures, but also killer shrimp patterns. Ian Shanahan (below) had a good session with his father in law, with 11 between them on  a slow glass line and olive humungus.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – Has been stocked on 6th February. Lots of big fish being caught, fish taking Olive Damsels, Pheasant tail nymph, Squirmy worms and Black/green fritz lures. Image below of a couple of fish, 6lb 8oz and 7lb 6oz. C&R is very popular here, so is advisable to book.

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – The lake is still closed due to a toxic algae issue and winter tickets have been refunded. We hope the situation impoves there soon.

Graiglwyd Springs, Penmaenmawr – Good fishing currently. Blue Flash Damsel is working really well on an intermediate line. White blobs fished under a bung are also working a treat.

Pantybedw fishery, Carmarthen –This fairly large ‘small’ smallwater of 5 acres is a bit different, it has a lot of natural food and plenty of space to roam. It can be tough going, but the fish are in tip top condition. Remember you can book the whole fishery for the day exclusively for you and your friends any time of the year.

Cantref reservoir, Brecon – This reservoir opens March 1st with MTAA. This is stocked with 600 rainbow trout of excellent quality by the club through the season, membership is only £65 for the year including Talybont reservoir for wild trout. Cantref is a great option easy reach from Cardiff and mid-Wales.

Llandegfedd reservoir, Pontypool – this will be opening in March. We have heard it will be stocked with about 300 trout per week this coming season. Boats will be available, but the fleet will be around 10. This reservoir deserves support from local anglers to help keep the trout fishing going here, as it was once a premier fishery and still has potential to be one.

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes – Opens 9th March. Should be fantastic boat or bank, the lake is now full again after low levels last season. Lost of 6lb+ fish ready for stocking. Expect fish to be taken on lures, especially snakes and Humungous on Di3 and Di5 lines.  On calm mild days deepwater buzzer can bring fish up to the top. Bookings on weekends is advisable.

Trawsfynydd Reservoir – Opened 1st February, has been stocked heavily. No reports yet, but fish seen to be moving in sheltered areas when the wind drops. With a mild winter fish have been feeding well throughout, so overwintered stock should be fighting fit – expect March to be a bumper month on Traws when it warms up.

Wal Goch, Mold – Daniel Trickett reports a good day on 28th January, ‘’Good day here today with Alex Hill , I caught 32 in total and missed a lot more all caught on a selection of flies mainly lures and a white blob under the bung everyone was catching today and is fishing it’s socks off all fish gave a great fight’’. Sounds like it’s well worth a visit.

Grayling Rivers

As I write this we are now into February and in a calm, settled dry spell. This has meant anglers are now active again after the freezing cold and then washout conditions of the past couple of months. It seems we go from extreme to extreme – so we should really make the most of conditions while they last!

Our grayling rivers have now settled down and have been consistently fishing well over the past week. The Rhymney near Caerphilly really is a star grayling river and has produced many grayling of 2lb or just over this season. Fishing here is with two clubs, Royal Oak and Caerphilly AA. The Rhymney is also a very good wild trout river which will come to life in March when the fly spring hatches start. Below – A Rhymney Rugby ball!

The upper Wye has been fishing inconsistently – some excellent days have been reported at Builth Wells whereas other days very slow. It is a large river so locating the fish is key here as they are often shoaled up in mid winter.

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, mostly from the middle beats.

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. Below – an Ithon grayling.

The Taff at Cardiff has had a good grayling year, 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.

As the waters have calmed and dropped the Dee has fished well, there really are exceptional numbers of grayling here on the Corwen and Llangollen beats. Upper Severn has been a little slow, but we have heard of some good grayling on the Caersws AA club water recently.

As the grayling fishing draws out this month most river anglers will be turning their thoughts to the wild trout season opening, which on a good number of Welsh rivers is on March 3rd.

Rivers that fish well for trout in early March include the Ebbw, Sirhowy, Lwyd, Upper Taff, Upper Teifi, Usk, Tawe, Wye, Upper Dee and Alwen. Expect limited insect activity with a brief hatch of Olives or March browns around mid-day, so it is best to fish around that time. Otherwise, fish heavy nymphs deep with a ‘French leader’ for best results.

Grayling

As a write this report conditions are very favourable for river grayling fishing! After almost non-stop rain last month the levels have now dropped and all of our famed grayling rivers are now in perfect condition. If you can bear the extremely low daytime temperatures then you are in for a treat.

Rivers such as the Taff, Severn, Rhymney , Wye and Irfon should be on your list, as well as lesser known rivers such as the Ithon, Vyrnwy, Cynon and Ewenny.

The famous river Dee is perhaps the jewel in the grayling crown. On the first weekend of December the river hosted the Hanak European Grayling Festival, which this year attracted 36 teams and 108 anglers from the UK and Europe. A total of 911 grayling were landed, a phenomenal number, the biggest of which was 49.1cm landed by up and coming angler Rob Redman. The event was won by team ‘Wet Your Knot’, who caught an impressive 49 fish, a fantastic effort, da Iawn!

This well run event is a credit to the local angling clubs, who along with orangiser Hywel Morgan and sponsor Franta Hanak, consistently deliver a world class experience for the competitors each year. The video below by Lindsay Simpson gives a great insight into the river and the festival.

Euro nymphing is perhaps the most popular and effective method to winter fly fish, with weighted flies trundled close to the river bed. Another would be fishing a ‘bung’ with a team of nymphs drifted beneath, in the slower deeper areas of the river. As long as the rain holds off, grayling prospects look good! Below, Welsh Rivers Team Manager Shaun Watkins on the Dee.

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

Trout fisheries and reservoirs

Early December fished well, with many small stillwaters re-stocking and anglers enjoying some settled, cold weather for a change. However, we are in a very cold snap now, so a lot of the smaller venues have frozen over, making it essential to check in advance to see if the fishery is open, with clear, ice free water.

Llandegla fishery, Wrexham – Rainbows, Blues and Browns are going in across the two fly lakes, so expect good fishing, especially to lures.

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – If ice free, the lake will be well worth fishing now as it has just been re-stocked. Buzzers are hatching during the day, so floating line and imitative patterns are often all you need, or eggs fished under a bung.

Pant-y-bedw, Carmarthen – some good, naturalised fish coming out before it iced up. An example at 5lb 4oz below.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – was fishing exceptionally and now there is a catch and release option. Plenty of larger fish present here. Fish are fighting hard and are being caught on various flies such as, green buzzers, goldhead nymphs, bloodworm. Always Advisable to book on 07814741252 as space is limited.

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – Is closed currently due to a potentially toxic algal bloom, NRW have confirmed it is Blue green algae. Check the Rhayader and Elan Valley Angling Association Facebook page for updates.

Graiglwyd Springs, Penmaenmawr – Lake is fishing well with these amazing Exmoor Rainbows giving a great fight.  Buzzers and Damsels still the fly of choice but a few being taken on top too.  Open from 8 am 7 days a week. The Fur and Feather comp with Craig Barr on 11th December went well, winner was Kev Morris, 2nd Rob Allen, 3rd Gareth Forge.

Wal Goch, Mold – Michal Last reports eight to the net, all on damsel long leader floating line. Late afternoon seems to be the best time of day here currently.

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – the lake will be re-stocked this month with 2000 fish from 15th December. When it is stocked you can expect great fishing from stirred up residents and fresh stock fish, to lures and nymphs. Keep an eye on the TATA game angling Facebook group for membership offers.

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – After re-opening the lake has seen several stockings to build up a good head of fish and is now fishing much better. From 4th – 13th December, 172 fish were caught from 51 anglers, giving a rod average of 3.37 The bung with egg flies being successful off the bank, floater, tips, intermediates are all you need, despite the cold, as the fish are still high in the water. Charles Jardine visited the venue last week and had a great day. Look out for an article in Fly Fishing & Fly Tying Magazine!

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes – Some really good fish around as the weather cooled at end of the season, which closed November 30th. Here is a season review from the fishery Facebook page:

As the dust settles on another season it’s time to reflect on some of the highs and lows of the season gone.

The season opened in early March with the opening of our new lodge and Loop Field Centre and it was very pleasing to have such great feedback from you all with all the new tackle and facilities. The fishing itself didn’t disappoint once again a very busy period with some terrific fish being taken in this early season period. What was heartening was to see so many over wintered fish caught in the first few months, at one stage anglers reporting more overwintered fish than stockies and our feeling that next spring this will be even better.

As the spring passed and we saw more terrestrial insects hit the water the dry fly sport really got going with the climax a fine coch y bonddu hatch in mid June. The Beetles add to an already smorgasbord of insects on the water and create what can only be described as a feeding frenzy, fingers crossed we have a good hatch in 2023.

As we entered July we saw the record temperatures starting to take a toll on the water levels but despite this the fishing continued to be excellent with the annual Fly Shop Invitational match once again an outstanding success. The falling water levels made for difficulty not just for our boat jetty but also bank anglers, who had to move from the favoured top end of the lake to the steeper shingle shores that were exposed along bwlch y gle, where we concentrated the stocking. Once the level of the water fell below the end of our concrete ramp we had to create new walkways to get down ,hopefully we won’t be seeing the “zig zags” for a while.

As September came the fish once again hit the surface with gusto leading to some incredible surface sport with many anglers commenting they had never seen so many fish rising. Water levels started to rise sharply at the end of September which for a couple of weeks coloured the water and slowed the sport but by the middle of October normal service was resumed with fish feeding hard on the surface during this period we had many reports of over 60 fish to the boats and bank anglers once again starting to catch at the top end of the lake. November falling temperatures really brought the fish to feed more aggressively with fish smashing into lure such as snakes and tadpoles, but the bung was absolutely devastating.

Once again, we have work to do over the closed period from maintenance and phase 2 of the lodge the building of our new toilet block. As usual watch out for some videos of next year’s fish in the next few weeks they really are something strong nylon will be needed in 2023. Below: some Clywedog slabs!

Trawsfynydd Reservoir – is open till 20th December. For the hardy soul there is some good fishing to be had here, on calmer, mild days expect good buzzer hatches and some grown on fish to feature in the catches. Otherwise lure fishing with sinking and intermediate lines.

Llys y fran reservoir, Pembrokeshire – Llys-y-fran is now offering limited bank fishing whilst the reservoir continues to be replenished. Stocking has taken place with some spectacular Blue Trout included in the delivery.

November often sees our stillwater trout fisheries at their best, along with ‘back end’ sport on some of our reservoirs, that have remained open. For the river angler, trout season is long gone, but the grayling ‘ladies’ offer superb fishing when conditions allow.

Trout fisheries and reservoirs

Llandegla fishery, Wrexham – recently had another great stocking across the fly and worm lakes even though they are continuing to fish well, a little booster to ensure ongoing sport. A 9lb tiger was caught this month, image below with captor Chris.

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – The lake will be well worth fishing now as it has just been re-stocked. Buzzers are hatching during the day due to the mild weather so floating line and imitative patterns are all you need, or eggs fished under a bung.

Pant-y-bedw, Carmarthen – a naturalised water and something a bit different at 7 acres. Some nice fish are being caught here, especially to anglers using more natural patterns targeting the hard fighting resident fish. The venue was stocked recently from Exmoor fisheries.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – Is fishing exceptionally and now there is a catch and release option. Plenty of larger fish present here. Fish are fighting hard and are being caught on various flies such as, green buzzers, goldhead nymphs, bloodworm and also some dry fly in the mild weather. Always Advisable to book on 07814741252 as space is limited.

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – On calm late autumn days nymphs and CDC buzzer dries work well, especially around the island which provides shelter from the wind. Fishing should continue being excellent well into winter.

Graiglwyd Springs, Penmaenmawr – Lots of fish coming out to buzzers. Look out for the upcoming ‘Fur and Feather’ comp on 11th December, hosted by Craig Barr. Some great prizes on offer. Head to the Facebook page for more details.

Wal Goch, Mold – Mark Russell reports: Good day at Walgoch for Dave Jones and myself today, Dave finished with 9 to the net, including a nice blue trout around 3.5lb, I finished with 11 fish to the net, a good mix of blues and rainbows. Lake was also stocked today with another 100 trout, including a brown around 5lb and some good size rainbows around same size. It sounds like the fishery is on fire, so pay them a visit!

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – the lake will be re-stocked this month, as soon as water temperatures fall to 10 degrees or less. When it is stocked you can expect great fishing from stirred up residents and fresh stock fish, to lures and nymphs. Keep an eye on the TATA game angling Facebook group for details.

Ynys-y-Fro reservoir, Newport – After re-opening the lake has seen several stockings to build up a good head of fish and is now fishing much better. Boat and bank anglers are reporting many 8 fish C&R limits. The bung with egg flies being successful off the bank, washing line on the boats as the fish are still high in the water. A typical Ynys Fro rainbow caught by Dan Walker below.

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes – Some good fish around as the weather cools. Emil Moffit (below) took this cracking 6lb 10oz rainbow on a black hopper. Bags of 15 fish reported pulling snakes. Fishery is open until November 30th, so get up there while you can!

Trawsfynydd Reservoir – is open till 20th December. For the hardy soul there is some good fishing to be had here, on calmer days expect good buzzer hatches and some grown on fish to feature in the catches.

Llys y fran reservoir, Pembrokeshire – According to a post a few days ago by Welsh Water Dwr Cymru after withdrawing angling for safety reasons over the summer, Llys-y-fran is now offering limited bank fishing whilst the reservoir continues to be replenished. Restrictions remain in place for approximately 500 metres of the eastern bank between the bird hide and Velindre Wood. Maps showing the restricted zone are available from the Visitor Centre. Regretfully, fishing boats remain suspended for the time being. Welsh Water look forward to reinstating these at the earliest opportunity. Stocking has taken place with some spectacular Blue Trout included in the delivery.

Llyn y Dywachen, Snowdonia – Seiont Gwyrfai and Llyfni Fishing Society’s Llyn y Dywachen (below) is now available to book through the Fishing Passport and is open until 30th November, thanks to quality stocked rainbow trout being present at the venue. A place steeped in myth and legend it is well worth a visit!

Grayling fishing

The terrible weather for the past few weeks has seen limited activity on the rivers for grayling, with flood water ruling out fly fishing. However the past few days and weekend of pleasant, mild weather has seen a flurry of activity as river levels have finally dropped enough to allow fishers to enjoy catching this wonderful fish. Many excellent catches were reported from the Dee, Upper Wye, Severn and the Rhymney rivers. Below a selection of sizable grayling captured by Rob Redman and Kyle Cheshire, of which several are close to or over the magic 50cm mark, considered a specimen grayling wherever you are in the world!

As usual these fish are caught using heavy nymphs ‘Euro nymphing’ style, which as a method is very easy to learn and pick up, whether you are from a fly fishing background or not, or as a beginner.

Fish of this calibre are there to be caught on many of our celebrated grayling rivers, for an overview of where to find them and how to access the fishing check out our grayling article by Louis Noble here.

With more rain forecast it really pays to learn how to read river levels using online services, NRW have a very useful website, which provides real time and historic information so you can ensure you can hit the river at the right time.

Salmon and sea trout

The salmon season has been very poor in Wales, given lack of water and dwindling salmon stocks on most rivers. Guy Mawle has written his annual report on the river Usk salmon catch status. It is an interesting, if depressing, read on the plight of this iconic fish on what was one of the better salmon rivers in Wales. To access the report click here.

There is perhaps a glimmer of hope for the future of salmon and sea trout in Wales; an emergency meeting was held at the Senedd on October 18th, to raise the plight of these species, with speakers including NRW, Afonydd Cymru, Swansea University and Dr Nigel Milner, with questions and issues raised by the audience, which comprised Welsh angling clubs, Wye Salmon Association, Atlantic Salmon Trust, Angling Trust and others, to inform assembly ministers Hugh Irranca-Davies MS and Cefin Campbell MS, who as ‘species champions’ are keen to keep up the accountability on Welsh Government and push for urgent action to be taken, to preserve and restore our migratory species. The meeting was a good starting point, which we hope will lead to speedy and necessary measures ASAP.

As well as catching some incredible double figure sewin, Afon Tywi based Colton Kelly has been working on a short video with Dan James Photography over the summer, covering the declining figures of sea trout, how anglers and the public can help short and long term. You can view a short trailer on Instagram here.

Colton says: I have wanted to make this video for some years and we are thrilled it’s finally come together. I believe the content can help to raise awareness and protect what we love for generations to come. All filming took place at the Golden Grove Estate and Abercothi Estate. Look out for the film in December this year.

End of an era: Sweets Tackle Shop Closure and Auction

An iconic fishing tackle shop, Sweets, in Usk town has closed. Sweets Fishing Tackle traded on Porthycarne Street for nearly 100 years and was regarded as a unique experience, a time capsule into another age, with many historic items and angling antiquities displayed in the shop.

Originally founded in the 1930’s by Harry Powell, inventor of the Dogsbody Fly, Sweets took its name from later owners Molly and Lionel Sweet, servicing anglers fishing the Usk and Wye for trout and salmon.
In the 1960’s Jean Williams began working in the shop, and in 1978 Jean became the new owner. She tied superb flies, provided tickets and warmly welcomed customers for many years, with a cup of tea and the latest fishing reports from the area.

Jean has now retired, the shop has closed permanently and all display items and curios will be for sale – including the front sign and cased salmon. These will be available in an online auction on 23rd and 24th November with Mullock’s Specialist Auctioneers & Valuers.

River Fishing

Looking back to September, the trout fishing on our rivers was generally slow, which was in part because of extremely low water. The rivers with dam water releases benefited the most, for example upper Usk around Sennybridge, upper Wye around Elan junction and the Severn near Caersws, which produced some nice late season trout.

Towards the middle of the month we did have some rain, which benefited the South West Wales and North Wales rivers the most. Anglers Steffan Jones and Charlie Corkram landed some very large trout on the Cothi and some of the other rivers around Carmarthenshire and South West Wales, which historically have not been known for big brown trout. In recent years (perhaps linked with decline of sewin and salmon?) some of these rivers have begun to produce fish that rival the celebrated rivers of South and Mid Wales yet are barely fished for brown trout. Below, some examples of fish captured by Charlie (left)  and Steffan (right) this season.

Rivers in this area include the aforementioned Cothi, Gwilli, Teifi, Taf, Lougher, Towy, Gwendraeth, Cynin and the Cleddau’s, literally mile upon mile of unfished trout water to explore, often controlled by local angling clubs at a reasonable rate to join, or on a day ticket. So much water to go at for next season!

On the migratory front, it wasn’t a classic year by any means. September onwards saw some improved sport, with the Towy producing some late sewin, including a double figure lump for Colton Kelly at Golden Grove. (below) His persistence this year has been rewarded with some excellent fish, well into October thanks to the mild weather.

The Cothi also, where Charlie Corkram had a bumper end to the season while spinning Rapalas, with sewin to over 12lb and salmon to double figures being caught regularly on some of the upper beats. Charlie is a Committee member & Bailiff for Abergwili Angling Club.

The Ogmore also saw some late sewin captured, as did the Neath and Afan, although for most of the season these rivers were unfishable due to the lack of rain.

North Wales rivers Elwy and Clwyd certainly benefitted from rain at end of September with members of the Vale of Clwyd and Rhyl and St Aspah clubs reporting late salmon and sewin in fair numbers.

The Conwy had a disappointing season, with reports of a lack of sewin even when compared to last season. The Wnion and Mawdach had a reasonable season, especially in September when some nice fish were caught by Rob Redman. Rob also fished the Welsh Dee in October, landing the cock salmon (below) of around 16lb. Andrew Overend also saw success on the Dee, with his first of the season a few days ago.

On the river Wye Salmon front, it has been a poor season, with the high temperatures resulting in mortality in the lower and mid stretches. Wye Salmon Association are asking anglers to finish their season early on the Wye to give what fish that have survived the low, hot, deoxygenated and polluted river a fair chance of spawning. A sensible piece of advice given the disastrous conditions.

The Usk also had a lacklustre salmon season, with a few fish being reported right at the end, for example Dave Lewis at Llan farm near Chainbridge had an 8lb hen a few days ago, followed by another one of 6-7lb on 16th October. (below)

The Towy has seen some late salmon appear in fair numbers through the system, Barry Hale managing to land a 7lb hen on 12th October, with many more fish seem in the beats around White Mill. With the season ending in tomorrow, lets hope next year will be considerably wetter and with better conditions overall.

We now have grayling fishing to look forward to all winter, with excellent catches already being reported from the upper Wye, Irfon, Severn, Rhymney, Dee and Taff. All of these rivers can produce specimen grayling of 50cm or more.

Stillwater Fisheries

Our stocked stillwaters now come into their own. The ever-reliable Garnffrwdd fishery has again been planted with spartic trout for the winter. In addition, expect quality blues, browns and rainbows here, some of which reach double figures. Blue flash damsel, diawl bach nymphs, buzzers and egg flies are patterns that will bring success here.

The nearby Pant y bedw fishery is open and has been re-stocked. Fish of 3.5lb and 4lb reported here a couple of days back. Expect some great winter fishing here on the 7 acre venue.

Llyn Gwyn near Rhayader is a scenic fishery in Powys that has rainbows, blues and browns, it is well worth a try this winter for something a bit different.

Abernant (Crynant) farm lake near Neath is one to try for larger fish, with doubles and fish of 6 to 7lb caught regularly on this catch and keep venue.

Papermill fishery near Swansea is fishing well with fish up to 10lb being caught regurly. This venue is now running catch and release, booking is essential.

In North Wales the ever-popular Graiglwyd springs has re-opened after being closed most of the summer. Old stock has been removed and new fish are in peak condition with lower water temps. Dry flies scoring well.

Other lakes in the area such as Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery are fishing exceptionally well after being stocked at the end of September. Wal-Goch fishery near Mold is producing some fin perfect rainbows, despite low levels and weeds. Surface tactics such as dries and buzzers fished shallow under a bung have been best bet.

Some good news for Cardiff and Newport area. Ynysyfro reservoirs, Newport, will re-open for fishing after being shut for repairs for nearly 2 years. The fishery has been stocked with 500 fish and catches have been excellent already. Day tickets are £17 and there are membership options with Newport Reservoirs Fly Fishing Association. More details here.

Autumn into winter can be the best time of year visiting a Welsh fishery, rainbow trout thrive in cold water so expect good sport as it gets colder. Even if you only fish for wild trout, salmon or sea trout on the rivers and natural lakes we’d urge you to give a stocked fishery a try for a day or two over the winter. It’s not only for an enjoyable day out but will help support them after what has been a very hard summer.

Large Stillwater Venues

Llyn Clywedog has been exceptionally low this summer and is now coloured as well, due to recent rain washing some mud in. This is starting to clear now and fishing is improving with the lake rising by 3m. Rainbows to 6lb 4oz are being reported. The lake is open till November, so plenty of time yet to get some back-end fishing done there.

Llyn Trawsfynydd has fished very well, The Autumn International end of September saw Scotland 112 fish, Wales 92, England 77 and Ireland 74. A total of 355 fish caught and released with a rod average of 6.3. Autumn fry bash on 8th October saw 13 anglers fishing with a total of 70 fish caught for a rod average of 5.4. Congratulations to Anthony Cartwright for a magnificent 14 fish for a total of 27lbs 5oz. Expect good fishing to continue well into autumn.

Latest report from Jim Jenkins at Llyn Brenig – Spring celebrates new life, the dawning of hope, a fresh start but Autumn is a symbol of a darker force, the shortening of the day, natures colors slowly fading, the sleeping of the earth, creatures seeking warmer climes or a quiet refuge, the sun snaking low across the frosted sky. Natures natural rhythms, set in stone over time heralding in these changes. For the Llyn Brenig angler it is also a time of change as the sun begins to lose its warmth and the water temperature drops, the feeding patterns of the fish begin to change. The fly life starts to diminish, and the fish will seek deeper water.
We haven’t quite reached that point yet as there is still plenty of opportunity for a good day of fishing and to catch some great fish. It is a strange phenomenon that, at this time of year, you tend to find that the bigger fish come out of hiding and are more likely to be caught. Mr. Tony Banfield for example caught a fantastic 10lb Rainbow last week, the biggest fish of the week and there have been several fish of 4lbs and over caught. Other notable catches this week were Mr. Ken Wall who caught six fish for 16lbs 8oz which was the top bag of the week and included a 4lb 8oz Rainbow, Mr. Andrew Calvezy who caught six fish including a lovely 4 pounder and Mr. Tim Preston and his angling partner who caught fifteen fish between them.

Boats will be coming off the water on Sunday November 27th until that time the cost of a boat will be £10. We will be holding the draw for the winners of the ‘Tagged Fish’ competition on November 5th at 2pm. in the Visitors Centre café. We have some fantastic prizes which include £1000 for the winner, a season ticket for second place, and a half season for 3rd, as well as some bonus prizes for the most tags caught etc. The café will be offering a soup and roll for a discounted price for all who turn up for the prize giving.

Our Commercial manager Mr. Dave Tudor will be doing a random name generator, so we will all find out who won at the same time. On Saturday October 29th the lake will be closed due to the Cambrian Rally taking place here.

The top flies include cats’ whiskers, humongous, UV white zonker, snakes, black buzzers and various blobs and boobies including a coral booby.

The hot spots for the bank anglers have been the Visitors Centre shore, Hafod Lom, Tower Bay and Ring of Stones. Boat anglers have had success along the Dam Wall, near the cages, Hafod Lom and Visitors Centre.

Make sure that you give your vehicle registration number to a member of staff in the Visitor Centre foyer on arrival.

This will be the last fishing report of the year. We would like to thank all the anglers for their custom and for their cooperation during this season. I think we can all agree that it has been an excellent season and our thanks go to our fish farmers Jack and Stefano for making this possible. Don’t forget that you can fish right through the Winter months when the price for a day ticket will be £13.00 for a three fish kill starting on November 28th. We shall look forward to seeing you all next March when the new season will begin and the swish of the line, the creak of the reel, the splash of the water and the sounds of silence shall begin once more. And, in time honoured fashion, you can put that sign on your front door, ‘GONE FISHING!’

The main gates at Brenig will be closing at 4.45pm this week and therefore boats need to be back on the jetty by 4.15pm.

Wild trout lakes and reservoirs

The wild reservoirs have been very low this season, Brecon Beacons area especially and the Elan valley, as such, sport here hasn’t been the best, although Elan valley has produced some nice wild brownies in October as levels have risen somewhat. The higher natural lakes have been a better bet with some of the Cambrian AA, Ogwen Valley AA and SGLL (Seiont club) waters providing excellent wild trout fishing. Ogwen Valley have Llyn Ogwen, which has rainbows and will stay open beyond 17th October, as does SGLL with Llyn Dywarchen, which has produced some cracking stocked brownies and rainbows.

Llyn Frongoch (Aberystwyth Angling Association, below) is extending the season to 31st October. Tickets are available via The Fishing Passport and local outlets. The lake holds some excellent blue and rainbow trout, in addition to a head of resident brown trout.

As I write this significant rain has just started to fall, with the river levels responding with a slight rise, a most welcome change in conditions after what has been the toughest summer for game fishing for many a year.

River fishing has been predictably tough over the past month or two, with the larger rivers in mid and south east Wales suffering the most from low levels and high temperatures.

That said, certain stretches have been fishable – these include the Upper Wye and the river Elan, which supplies the upper river with cold release water from the Elan dams. The Craig Llyn beat in particular. The Usk has been fishable in the Sennybridge area, where it is shaded by trees with deep, cool, bedrock pools, while the upper Taff around Merthyr Tydfil has benefited from dam water from Ponsticll reservoir, which has kept the temperatures down. These rivers have produced wild trout to nearly 3lb. The River Severn in the Caersws area again benefits from dam water from Llyn Clywedog, so this has fished well and will continue to do so, as has the river Dee in North Wales. Both of these latter rivers have started to produce big grayling.

Below is a selection of fish captured from the rivers mentioned above. As temperatures drop and the rain falls we can expect a bumper back end to the river trout season, which ends on the 30th September.

Several Welsh rivers have reported Sewin in August, there are fish in the Towy, decent numbers in the Teifi and North Wales rivers such as the Wnion, Clwyd and Elwy have a good head of sewin in residence, holed up in the deeper holes. If we have a good spate that should liven them up, but be aware many clubs have a C&R rule on all sewin after 1st September and should really be returned at this time of year.

Salmon sadly have struggled in our rivers this season, there are reports of good numbers in the lower reaches of the Towy, waiting for a rise. The lower Wye and lower Usk have seen dead salmon due to lethal water temps last month, it remains to be seen how significant this is. Hopefully we will see a good back end salmon run if conditions allow.

On the reservoir front we are seeing exceptionally low levels, the Brecon Beacons waters are on their bones – including Beacons, Cantref, Talybont and Crai, which will be very hard going if not unfishable. Likewise the Elan valley reservoirs are nearly empty, exception being Claerwen which although low is fishable. North Wales hasn’t fared as badly, with Brenig having a good level. Here it has all been dry fly, with quality fish taking on the surface. Scierra pair comp last week was very successful, and the stamp of fish was superb. Clywedog, although extremely low is still fishing really well, with the fish looking up as we head into September. Below 11lb 4oz Clywedog trout for Karl Paine on a black booby.

The natural llyn fishing is still good, these have not had the issues of low levels and will provide great sport between now and the end of the season, especially for wild brown trout to surface tactics such as daddy long legs, hoppers and Sedgehogs. Venues to try include Cambrian AA, Aberystwyth AA and Artro & Talsarnau Angling Association, as well as the Sgowrs Ogwen waters in Snowdonia. Teifi Pools and llyn Berwyn (below)  are another great venue for back end wild trout, season here ends on 30th September.

The smaller trout fisheries have suffered in the past month with several closing. They are now re-opening as temperatures fall, but always best to check how the fishing is. Next month is likely to be when the small stillwaters come back into their own. A lot of anglers have been trying their hand at carp on the fly, in the absence of good trout fishing this summer. Specimen below by Luke Gator at Canada lake. Carp on fly will continue to be good into September if you fancy trying it. Our blog by Steffan Jones explains how.

Migratory Game Rivers

As I write this we finally have rain in the forecast and indeed some of the North Wales rivers are already in spate, with reports of sea trout coming off the Ogwen, Conwy and Glaslyn rivers, great news given just how low the rivers have been the past 5 to 6 weeks.

The Wnion and Mawddach catchments have also started to fish for sewin a few weeks ago, with Rob Redman (below) reporting success on the fly at night.

The Towy has been producing the odd large sewin throughout June, Colton Kelly having some crackers from Golden Grove and this water in the forecast should really stir things up.

The Teifi has been very quiet until past couple of weeks, but now school sewin from 1lb to 3lb have arrived in good numbers and also salmon, fishing guide Steffan Jones catching a fresh silver tourist at dusk yesterday (27/06/22) plus a number of school sewin.

Below: Steffan Jones migratory fish captures from the Teifi

The Wye has had a fairly good start to the salmon season, with fish being reported from the lower beats such as Wyesham, Wyastone Leys and as far upriver as the Rectory. Better yet there hasn’t been an algae bloom so far this year and the weed is starting to grow back. This rain in the forecast should help push the salmon upriver to populate the beats between Glasbury and Builth Wells. The Usk has also seen a few salmon, with reports from Swan Meadow and Abergavenny of salmon to 35 inches (around 18lb)

Trout rivers

June for the most part has been dry and incredibly low, making fishing for wild trout hard to say the least. However, evening fishing has been excellent, with falls of Blue Winged Olives providing superb dry fly sport. All of the usual South Wales rivers have been brilliant on the calm, warm evenings, The Taff, Ebbw, Usk, Tawe being the primary rivers to try. Below – Some Cracking dry fly caught fish by Josh Clark (right) and Pheon Radford (left).

The Severn, Vrynwy and Banwy are fishing well, these are prolific rivers with good sized trout and grayling in them to rival the South Wales rivers and in the case of the upper Severn at Caersws and the upper Vyrnwy benefit from dam release water, therefore keeping temperatures at a good level. The Dee also benefits from cooler lake and reservoir water releases and has been fishing well for trout.

Grayling are now back in season – and have been caught wherever they are present. However, bear in mind these are a coldwater loving fish so handling out of the water should be kept at a minimum in warmer temps. Great image below taken by Josh Clark, showing a graying resting in the water, in the net.

With July being probably the hardest month, the best advice is to fish in the evening or if we are lucky enough to have rain as promised just as the rivers fine down.

Reservoirs, lakes and fisheries

The ever-reliable llyn Clywedog has been producing some great fish. Its depth and altitude mean it stays cool in the warm months and can fish well all summer. The Coch y bonddu beetle made an appearance in mid June and the dry fly fishing has been frantic. Expect dry fly to dominate the fishing methods here well into the summer. The same applies at Llyn Brenig, where surface sport can be almost guaranteed and the legendary Heather fly should be making an appearance next month.

The natural hill lakes and wild trout reservoirs kicked off at the start of June and now with Coch y bonddu reported it will be a great time to try them. Talybont AA, Teifi Pools, Elan Valley and Nant-y-Moch in particular. We’ve heard the Ffestiniog lakes are fishing well, including Cwmorthin, as are the Dalgarrog AA lakes such as Llyn Eigiau. Looking forward, July is a good month if you are evening fishing or if you can go on a rough, wet and windy day. Below – Llyn Eigiau

On the fisheries, things have slowed down due to the higher water temperatures of late. Even so, we have plenty of spring fed waters in Wales which fish well all summer due to their cold water. These include Garnffrwd, Graiglwyd Springs and Bigwell fishery.

River trout fishing

We have had an excellent spring so far on Welsh rivers, despite the low water and the easterly winds that were blowing hard at times. Despite almost no rain, our rivers have been fishing exceptionally well through the whole of April and now into the middle of May, as I write this report.

River Usk

The mid to lower river Usk began to fish well in April, with huge Grannom hatches, late March Browns and now Brook Dun and Yellow Mays. For the dry fly angler this is the prime time to hit the river, with most action being still in the afternoons at the warmer time of day.

Usk fishing has been prolific on the various WUF beats, Brecon Town, Glanusk, Gliffaes, Merthyr Angling AA and Gwent Angling stretches.  The water above Brecon is extremely low for the time of year, making things tough, although for the stealthy angler some of beats in the Sennybridge bridge area have produced some good fish. Abergavenny Town downstream and around Usk town/Chainbridge are ever reliable, where the river is bigger, therefore not as affected by low water levels. Here fish 1.5lb to 3lb are being caught regularly, with the odd 4lb plus specimen. It is possible to come across Danica mayfly on the lower part of the Usk in the deeper still pools, when these come off expect some very big fish to come out to play.

River Taff

The upper Taff has really picked up in late April and now in May. The Brook Dun hatch is in full swing and this really brings the better trout out of hiding. Lots of fish from 2lb to 3.5lb reported, especially on Merthyr Tydfil AA water. Water levels are very low however, so a careful approach is needed. It wont be long until we see the Blue Winged Olives, which from the end of May bring the evening fishing into life.

The lower Taff from Pontypridd to Cardiff has improved a lot this season, with good numbers of trout of all sizes recorded, as well as high numbers of out of season grayling. Several fish of 3lb to 5lb plus have been caught, some incredible wild trout. Many of these have been taken on dries, with the fish on the Brook Duns and now Pale Wateries and the odd Yellow May.

Glamorgan Angling club water and Osprey club stretch’s will be worth fishing, even in low water. Below – a few lower Taff specimens.

River Ebbw

The Ebbw and the Sirhowy tributary are both exceptional rivers. The Ebbw is low but still plenty of flow, however the Sirhowy is now on its bones. The Olive hatches have been superb this season so far, and so have the Brook Duns. Trout of between 2lb to 3lb are being captured on Islwyn Anglers Fishing Club waters.

River Rhymney

Often overlooked as a trout river the Rhymney is well worth a go, with trout from 15 to 18 inches recorded, also lots of little ones. Here Brook Duns and Yellow May are making an appearance on Caerphilly AA and Royal Oak water.

River Tawe

The Tawe is in fine fettle despite being low. Fish are being caught on a mixture of dry fly and nymph fishing. Wild fish to 4lb have been caught and stocked grown on fish to over 6lb. Tawe Angling and Mond Angling Society both club water on the river, easily accessible and good value.

River Teifi

This river is coming back strong as a trout river, Olive Uprights are appearing now with Brook Duns. Llandysul AA water is producing fish 14 to 20 inches, especially in the slower glides and pools. It is almost like ‘Chalk stream’ fishing at the upper river, with luxurious beds of water weed. Well worth a try in May. Below – typical Teifi trout.

Other rivers

The Lougher is making a name for itself as a trout river, with fish between 14 and 18 inches reported on several club stretches. The Towy also has big wild trout, not many try for them, but the fly hatches of spring can bring them up on the runs in the Llandeilo area. Some of these fish are over 3lb.

The river Monnow has also produced some lovely early season trout, although it has generally been a slow start. Fish to 17 inches have been reported recently though. The Mayfly hatch here is superb and should kick things off in late May. The upper Monnow and tribs on the wild streams Fishing Passport have produced a lot of small fish, great fun on light tackle. These however are now really suffering from low flows.

The Dee around Llangollen has fished well for trout and will continue to do so through May. The Clywd has seen some good trout action too. The Alyn near Wrexham is a wonderful stream to try in late spring, it is quite alkaline due to limestone, unlike many of the other North Wales rivers which tend to be acidic. The upper river Severn around Caersws has been excellent, with trout to 4lb recorded, here the flow is usually good in dry weather due to dam release from Llyn Clywedog.

Salmon and sea trout fishing

The Wye has started to produce early spring salmon, with springers being caught despite the falling levels, beats such as Wyeastone leys, Wyesham and Bigsweir producing fish from 9lb to 22lb. Below: Saul Roberts with a 9lb fish at Wyeastone Leys.

The Usk has produced several salmon now, with the run appearing in late April. There are reports of more fish waiting in the estuary. A cock fish of 35.5 inches was reported on MTAA water on 7^th May by Richard Hillman and several others in the Chain bridge area. If only it would rain heavily now!

We have also heard of a few sewin in the Towy and Neath systems, but probably not in number worth targeting unless we get rain. The Conwy has produced its first night caught sewin of the year to Stuart Llewellyn of Llanrwst Angling Club – a full month earlier than normal.

Trout fisheries and reservoirs

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – The lake will be well worth fishing at the moment. Olives are hatching during the day and strong buzzer hatches in the evenings. Below – these are just some of the cracking fish to have been caught in the last week. Plenty of fish around 8lb, with doubles always possible.

Llandegla fishery, Wrexham – some nice fish being caught, including brown trout. Remember, the fishery will be hosting FREE coaching days for CADAC Juniors this year, click here for details.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea –  despite recent warm and bright weather cracking fish are coming out. For example, Phil Bevan who travelled down from the Forest of Dean caught a superb 5lb 6oz rainbow on a black buzzer and a lovely 4lb 4oz rainbow on a olive buzzer. Dave Blake caught a 6lb rainbow on a damsel, with many other fish 6lb plus about. Ceri Jones had a stonking brown, not far off double figures on a dry fly. Advisable to book here on 07814741252

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – On calm late spring days nymphs and CDC buzzer dries work well, especially around the island. Lynn Evans had 17 fish with for 33lb 10oz in a C&R comp in late April. Fishing should continue being excellent well into late May.

Graiglwyd Springs, Penmaenmawr – A good stocking was made on 6^th May with more going in every week. Has been producing on small buzzer in the evenings, it seems that the smaller flies size 16 to 18 are having the biggest impact recently. Double figure fish have been caught, one was landed using a quill buzzer about 10 ft below the surface on the back bank.

Wal Goch, Mold –  Michal Last reports: ‘’Afternoon fishing today lovely day fishing hard but the fish were down deep white cormorant and fab got me going, 7 to the net lost about the same’’ plenty more fish are coming out, cats whisker and buzzer being reliable flies.

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – Fish quality is possibly best in Wales, these fish are proper reel screamers! There are now 5000+ fish in the lake, and the boat fishing is back on which is good news for bank anglers as well, since the pressure spreads to fish about. Recent report from William Seward: ‘’Quality rainbows on Eglwys with rays on tails and fighting like tigers. My grandson had 10 and myself 4 yesterday on Borg wall. The one fish that Nathan kept 3lb 12oz was full of sticklebacks and snails. Get a ticket and hold on tight and use at least 8lb breaking strain when nymph or lure fishing.’’ Nathan Seward had 10 fish, all on snake lures the other day. See image below, what a cracking fish!

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes –  Llyn Clywedog Report 5th May (from FB page). Weekly stock 1000. Season to date 13750. Clywedog has fished extremely well this week with a marked increase in surface activity with an increased amount of buzzer coupled with more terrestrial insects starting to show as the weather finally warms up. Good numbers of fish are showing across Gronwen to carters and mouth of the dead channel. Eblid basin continues to be one of the best areas as does open water off Dinas point with Bwlch y gle producing some good bags.  Fish are high in the water with tip lines small cat booby and black diawls doing well, dries have also done well with black shuttlecocks and black daddies doing well. Bank anglers have caught well mouth of the Bigga Gronwen and popular side with a few fish starting to show in Braich y ffedew. Jason Williams below with a cracking rainbow from the boat, weight 7lb.

Trawsfynydd Reservoir – The lake is fishing well in the calmer, warmer weather. When fish were moving on the surface they seem preoccupied on very small dark buzzers and challenging to tempt. Most of the fish are being taken on static tactics on washing line method, with tip lines on either black diawls / buzzers or booby on the point.  Congratulations to Marian Davies who weighed in a good bag of 10 fish for 19lbs 2ozs in the Welsh Police Regional Championships on May 5th. Senior Trials took place on Llyn Trawsfynydd at end of April. Darren Williams had a great result, for an excellent 1st place. The venue will continue to offer great fishing through May.

Llyn Brenig –  End of April report: The wind has been predominantly from the Northeast which has meant that there has been a chilly breeze blowing across the lake driving the fish over to the Western shore. Interestingly the fish farmers were saying that they stocked a number of tagged fish in the Nant Glyn/ Ring of Stones area, and these have been turning up in the Brenig Arm and in Sailing Club Bay, illustrating that the wind has been a major factor in the location of the fish. It also shows us the distances that the fish travel after being stocked, going from one side of the lake right across to the other side. Although the water temperature has increased since opening day, standing at around 10 degrees C on the top of the water, the fish are still about two to three feet deep. This has meant that snake flies and lures have worked well during the week. With the water still on the cool side the fish have been a little less active than previous weeks pushing down the rod average to 3.5 fish per angler. Although one or two have struggled fishing from the bank others have prospered such as Mr. R.O.Roberts from Holywell who caught eight whilst fishing from Tower Bay including a 6lbs 2oz Rainbow and Mr. Kevin Whitley who landed sixteen Rainbows whilst fishing in the Brenig Arm. The boat anglers have also had a varied week with Mr. Clive Gilbert remarking on a ‘rubbish day’ although his boat partner Dave might not have agreed with him after landing a lovely 7lb 8oz Rainbow. On the other hand, the biggest bag of the week was recorded by Mr. Chris McCloud from Wrexham whilst fishing from a boat who landed 5 Rainbows for 19lbs and released eight. Not a bad day indeed. The big fish are still there with Mr. Weatherill catching a 7lb 12oz Rainbow, Mr. Jim Connell landing an eight pounder, Mr. Mike Archer with another 7lbs 0oz Rainbow and Mr. Scott Pozzi recording the biggest fish of the week, an 8lbs 9oz whopper. The hot spots for the boats and bank have been similar this week with the Brenig Arm, Sailing Club Bay and Watersports bay all fishing well. The top flies this week have been snakes, cormorants, diawl bach, buzzers, nomad, and various blobs and boobies particularly a coral booby. A reminder that if you catch a tagged fish then present the tag at the Visitors Centre and your name will be put into an end of year draw. First prize is £1,000, second prize is a full season ticket, and the third prize is a half season ticket.

Usk Reservoir, Trecastle – The reservoir has been stocked by Welsh Water with rainbow trout and good bags of fish being reported on the Fishing Passport through April in to May, this is a great fishery to try from the bank in a lovely location. Book tickets online.

Llwyn-on, Merthyr Tydfil. This 150 acre reservoir is the largest of the Taff reservoirs. It is a favourite amongst local anglers and is a fly, spinner and worm fishing venue. Anglers are reporting lots of action in April and early May. This is a great venue to take a young angler due to easy access and the multi methods that can be used. Book online with the Fishing Passport.

Llys y fran reservoir, Pembrokeshire – a regular delivery of fish has arrived once again to replenish stocks. The average catch return per angler throughout March and April was a strong 3.1 fish per angler. The best fish was a beauty at 5lb, caught on worm. The best 4 fish bag weighed in at 12lb 4oz caught on the fly. Fishing in May has been good, with bank anglers also reporting wild brown trout in with the rainbows.

Natural brown trout venues

These are just waking up after the cold start to spring, with some good fish to 2lb reported on Talybont to buzzers and small lures. Teifi Pools are also fishing well, Llyn Egnant especially, with good catches of fish to 1lb 12oz on wet flies. Llyn Ogwen is reporting lots of wild brown trout, as is Llyn Idwal. Expect the Aber AA, Talybont Angling and the Cambrian AA lakes to start fishing well in May and June, as will the Elan valley reservoirs when the Coch-y-bonddu beetle arrives in late May and early June. Claerwen Reservoir has been visited a few times, with lots of small fish to 10oz reported recently. Below – typical Llyn Egnant wild trout.

River trout fishing

March the 3rd is the long-awaited date in the river anglers calendar, with many of our best trout rivers opening for fishing on that day. Despite high water, the early fishing didn’t disappoint, with quality wild brown trout coming to nymphs and dry flies on the various rivers that opened. A lot of rain put paid to the fishing in early March, but as the rivers dropped back the fishing has been superb and continues to provide great sport.

River Usk

The opening few days were high water, but there were reports of fish from the upper reaches on WUF beats in the Sennybridge and Brecon Town stretches, with spiders and euronymphing producing fish to over 2lb. Dry fly also scored early, with good hatches of March Brown and Dark Olives. Tim Hughes with a cracking Brecon trout below.

As the weather settled and warmed up, the mid to lower river began to fish, with brilliant dry fly action on the various WUF beats, Glanusk, Gliffaes, Merthyr Angling and Gwent Angling stretches. Despite bright blue skies and easterly wind, fly hatches have brought good fish to the surface. The hatches are at their peak 12pm to 2pm at this time of year, so whatever you do don’t take a lunch break or you will miss the action!

We expect April to continue to be exceptional dry fly fishing, with the lowest beats coming into their own as the water drops. For some Usk catchment inspiration and beat ideas check out this feature by Denise Ashton.

River Taff

The upper Taff has been fishable from 8th March, the Merthyr Angling water has produced some big fish of over 3lb, most of these to dry fly by selectively stalking the rising fish using March Brown or Olive patterns. Nymphing blind has been very slow.

It must be noted it takes the Taff a while to wake up, with a few big fish usually the first to show. So, if you have patience and fish the river at lunch time you might be in with a chance of a real specimen, but it is not easy by any means.

Glamorgan Angling club water on the Taff has also thrown up some big early March trout. Dave Phillips below with a 4lb plus fish that took a swung spider in the Gabalfa area.

River Ebbw

The Ebbw and the Sirhowy tributary are both exceptional early season rivers and quick to fall after rain. The March brown and olive hatches have been superb this season so far, with many trout between 2lb to 3lb captured this month. Fishing here is mostly with Islwyn Anglers Fishing Club. Kyle Cheshire, below, with a stunning example from the Ebbw.

River Tawe

The Tawe is another great south Wales river, with a mixture of wild and stocked fish, some of which are very large, up to 6lb, example pictured below, caught just a few days ago by Richie Howells. Fish are being caught on a mixture of dry fly, nymph fishing and with streamers during spells of high water. Tawe Angling and Mond Angling Society both have great water on the river, easily accessible and good value.

Other rivers

We have heard reports of trout being caught on the upper Teifi above Lampeter (the lower part doesn’t open till 1st April) on the Welsh Dee and the upper Severn, which opened on March 18th. The river Monnow has also produced some lovely early season trout. The Clywd has seen some early action too. The upper Wye around Rhayader has been surprisingly good for trout this early, Kyle Chesire landed a monster fish for this part of the river, check it out below. Wye beats such as the Rectory have also recorded good trout fishing this month.

Prospects for Welsh rivers look great into April, thanks to fairly settled weather continuing on the long-term forecast. If it stays as predicted, with just a drop of rain to help, then expect April to be the cream of the season.

Salmon fishing

The Wye has started to produce early spring salmon, with water levels now just about perfect height in the lower Welsh reaches and in the upper river between Glasbury and Builth Wells. 21st March saw a massive salmon of 41.5 inches from Gromain & Upper Llanstephan, captured by Brian Skinner. It was estimated at 30lb. A fair number of other captures reported including 24lb at Caemawr on 7th March, which was the first recorded Wye springer. We have not heard of any other rivers producing spring salmon yet.

Trout fisheries

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – The lake was stocked with hard fighting Exmoor Rainbows on 8th and 16th March, so it will be well worth fishing at the moment. Expect the resident fish to switch their attention to buzzer and olives as the water heats up, with spring dry fly fishing being successful on the fine calm days. Otherwise, a nymph under a bung is a good bet.

Llandegla fishery, Wrexham – with improved weather some nice fishing being caught, including brown trout, big specimen caught by regular Daniel of 14lb, below. This was a PB and a Trout Master entry for March! Remember, the fishery will be hosting FREE coaching days for CADAC Juniors this year, click here for details.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – lots of big fish being caught on the Winter League Competition, fish of 6lb 4oz, 7lb 5oz and 9lb 2oz reported recently. Flies to try are green buzzer, blue flash damsels, and snake lures.

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – Ben Evans below with a 6lb rainbow. This venue is wonderful in early spring and is kept well stocked by the local club. It is primarily a lure water in winter, but on clam spring days buzzer and spiders work well, especially around the shelter of the island.

Graiglwyd Springs, Penmaenmawr – Has been producing big bags of fish on catch and release tickets. For example, Martyn Rae had a good day with 13 fish falling to a tadpole imitation and black buzzers. Another angler reported 16 fish. The location is stunning, with easy access all around the lake. There is always the chance of a double figure trout here.

Pantybedw fishery, Carmarthen – This fairly large ‘small’ smallwater of 7 acres is a bit different, it has a lot of natural food and plenty of space to roam. Remember you can book the whole fishery for the day exclusively for you and your friends any time of the year. Water is still a bit cold, but it is picking up now and a few quality fish are coming out.

Wal Goch, Mold – Neil Hubbard reports a good day on 19th March, ‘’Great day on Friday 15 to the net and 2 lost . Catching on slow retrieved buzzer and PTN. Wonderful fishery with lots of wildlife and bird song. Very little traffic noise just the working farm and sheep’’ Fish are also taking lures at this gem of a fishery, David Humphreys used a small beadheaded Cat’s Whisker on an intermediate line to success recently.

Trout Reservoirs

Llandegfedd reservoir, Pontypool – this venue opened in March. It will be stocked with about 10,000 trout this coming season, and an initial trout stocking was made on 8th March and a double stocking was made on 24th March. Boats will be available, and the bank fishing should also be excellent heading into April.

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot – Fish quality is second to none. There are now 4600 fish in the lake, which have hardly seen any pressure, more fish have been stocked on March 16th so the lake should be fishing well and will now start to switch onto the buzzer hatches.

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes – Opened 10th March, 6000 fish have been stocked already. It has been windy and sunny so tough on the boats early on, with bank anglers enjoying the best action with some big catches made. Rainbows have been captured to 5lb 12oz, with a brown of 12lb 7oz the biggest reported yet for Keith Row (below) on a white minky. The wind dropped in late March, with warm and calmer weather fish are starting to rise freely to spring buzzer. So there should be fantastic boat or bank sport to come in April. Bookings on weekends is advisable.

Trawsfynydd Reservoir – Opened 1st February, has been stocked heavily. If the calm and mild conditions continue as the temperatures rise during the mornings buzzers will start to hatch and get the fish on the feed. Otherwise sinking lines and various lures will be best approach. Round 1 of the Cynghrair Traws Turrall Traws League took place on 12th March. At the weigh in a total of 187 fish were recorded for a total weight of 359lbs 5oz with a rod average of 9.4. Morgan Jones had best bag of 24 fish, for a total weight of 47lbs 2oz. A great example of how good the spring trout fishing can be on Traws!

Llyn Brenig – The new season began on Friday March 18th. Stocked fish average at over 2lbs and with a mixture of bigger fish, some around the double figure mark. Around 4000 have been put in, with early reports of bank anglers doing very well, with one angler (below) having 17 fish up to 9lb. A new competition is being launched this year with tagged fish being released into the lake every week. If a tagged fish is caught, then the anglers name will be put forward into an end of season draw and the winner of the draw will be given a £1,000 prize. Rhyl & St Asaph AA member Derfel Williams had a day to remember on the Brenig recently. Bagged up by lunch time with several more fish returned during the afternoon. The highlight was this 10lb monster from the deep.

Usk Reservoir, Trecastle – The reservoir has been stocked by Welsh Water with rainbow trout and good bags of fish being reported on the Fishing Passport already, with 8 or 9 fish being caught by some anglers despite wind and sunny conditions. This is a great fishery to try from the bank in a lovely location. Book tickets online.

Llwyn-on – Merthyr Tydfil. This 150 acre reservoir is the largest of the Taff reservoirs. It is a favourite amongst local anglers and is a fly, spinner and worm fishing venue. It has now been stocked and anglers are reporting lots of action, with some bags of 22 fish recorded (C&R after limit), lots of catches of between 4 and 8 trout. This is a great venue to take a young angler due to easy access and the multi methods that can be used. Book online with the Fishing Passport.

Cantref reservoir, Brecon – This reservoir opened March 1st with MTAA and moving forward there will be no close season for rainbows on the reservoir. We haven’t heard of anyone fishing it yet, but it has been stocked pre-season with rainbow trout of excellent quality by the club. No day tickets on Cantref, but membership is only £65 for the year including Talybont reservoir for wild trout.

Natural brown trout venues

Most of the wild trout lakes opened their doors on March 20th. Early spring on the wild waters can be hard, and we started the season with bright blue skies and howling eat winds. Not ideal! Nevertheless, it was good to see so many anglers enjoying opening day on Talybont reservoir in the Brecon Beacons, where despite the poor conditions most anglers caught fish, up to 1lb 8oz and in stunning condition. Small black lures and nymphs such as black ‘muskins’ were the order of the day. As the winds fall and clouds come back expect great buzzer fishing here in April.

Some hardy anglers have tried the north Wales lakes, in the Ffestiniog area, not much to report yet, but it is still very cold water and bright sun, not a good combination. Mid-April is when these lakes start to fish well. We have heard of a march trip to the Teifi pools, where a 2.5lb brown trout was captured on llyn Teifi, which is a proper specimen for this lake.

Trout Fisheries and Reservoirs

Garnffrwd fishery, Cross Hands – The lake was stocked with hard fighting Exmoor Rainbows on 20^th January and has been lightly fished ever since, due to the weather (and rugby games!) so it will be well worth fishing as soon as we get a break in the conditions.

Llandegla fishery, Wrexham – Despite horrible weather some nice fishing being caught, including some very nice brown trout (George Clarke with an example below) The fishery will be hosting FREE coaching days for CADAC Juniors this year, click here for details.

Eglwys Nunydd, Port Talbot– It has been slow recently, with moderate numbers of fish being caught, however quality is second to none. There are nearly 4000 fish in the lake, which have hardly seen any pressure, when these switch on it will be incredible fishing. More fish will be stocked soon, which will stir up the residents. For a feel of the place check out our recent video here.

Papermill Fishery, Swansea – lots of big fish around 9lb to 11lb being caught, fish being caught on flies including Olive Damsels, Pheasant tail nymph and Black/green fritz lures. Image below of Gavin Evans with 11lb 4oz rainbow.

Llyn Gwyn, Rhayader – The winter league is fishing well, a match went ahead on 19^th February where 37 fish to 6lb were caught. Christian Jones was top rod with 9 fish. This venue is a real gem and is kept well stocked by the local club. It is primarily a lure water in winter, but on clam days buzzer and spiders work well especially around the shelter of the island.

Graiglwyd Springs, Penmaenmawr – Has been producing doubles. Dave Stavros Jones reporting a 10lb rainbow that took a green damsel lure fished down around 12 feet depth. On February 8^th Dave Jones had a very good day fishing at Graiglwyd with 16 fish to the net with a great mix of blues and rainbows averaging 3-4lb with a bonus double. Pete Jones brought 8 rainbows to the net caught on Damsel Nymphs on a floating line and white and black snakes, fished on an intermediate line

Pantybedw fishery, Carmarthen – Another delivery of Exmoor cracking rainbows was made at the end of January. This fairly large ‘small’ smallwater of 5 acres is a bit different, it has a lot of natural food and plenty of space to roam. Remember you can book the whole fishery for the day exclusively for you and your friends any time of the year.

Crynant Fishery, Neath – Has fished well all winter. 5lb to 6lb fish being caught regularly, mainly on lures at this catch and kill venue.

Cantref reservoir, Brecon – This reservoir opens March 1^st with MTAA. This is stocked with 600 rainbow trout of excellent quality by the club through the season, membership is only £65 for the year including Talybont reservoir for wild trout. Cantref is a great option easy reach from Cardiff and mid-Wales.

Llandegfedd reservoir, Pontypool – this will be opening in March. We have heard it will be stocked with about 10,000 trout this coming season. Boats will be available, but the fleet will be reduced to about 10. This reservoir was once one of the best in Wales, it deserves support from local anglers to help keep the fishing going here.

Clywedog Trout fishery, Llanidloes – Opens 10^th March. Should be fantastic boat or bank. Expect fish to be taken on lures, especially snakes and Humungous on Di3 and Di5 lines.  On calm mild days deepwater buzzer can bring fish up to the top. Bookings on weekends is advisable.

Trawsfynydd Reservoir – Opened 1^st February, has been stocked heavily. The weather has meant it has not seen much pressure yet. Fish seen to be moving in sheltered areas when the wind drops. With a mild winter fish have been feeding well throughout, so overwintered stock should be fighting fit – expect March to be a bumper month on Traws.

Llyn Brenig – has been open over the winter months. The quality and quantity of the fish caught over the winter has been remarkable, with Mr. Fred Salt, catching two stunning fish, one at 7lbs and the other at 9lbs 3oz. Brenig will be closing the lake to fishing on Monday 28th February whilst restocking takes place, with 3,300 fish going into the lake and the new season will begin on Friday March 18th. Stocked fish will average at over 2lbs and with a mixture of bigger fish, some around the double figure mark. A new competition is being launched this year with tagged fish being released into the lake every week. If a tagged fish is caught, then the anglers name will be put forward into an end of season draw and the winner of the draw will be given a £1,000 prize.

Wal Goch, Mold – Michal Last reports a good day on 15^th February, ‘’7 to the net few moves around the lake to keep in touch with the fish. Yellow dancer, black leech, shammy worm all taking hits’’. Fish are also taking buzzers fished under bungs at this gem of a fishery.

Natural brown trout venues

Most of the wild trout lakes open their doors on March 20^th. Early season on the wild waters can be hard, but small black lures fished on 12 foot intermediate tips can work well. Good early waters include Talybont, Tal-y-llyn, Elan Valley, Beacons, Lake Vyrnwy and Nant Y Moch.

Teifi Pools near Tregaron opens earlier than most, on March 3^rd. So if you are craving a mountain escape they are worth a go, we have had fish here with thick snow on the ground, it is a long winter and the fish are hungry, they will take if your flies if presented deep in the water, larger flies in sizes 8 or 10 score well, for example Mallard and Claret, Black Pennell or black woolly bugger.

River Grayling

As I write this, we have just been hit by storm Franklin, which has caused serious flooding in Wales, therefore the rivers are blown and will be for at least a few days, and that is IF the rain stops.

Prior to the recent spell of stormy weather grayling fishing on the rivers in the first half of February was good, we had low water conditions and fairly mild weather, we even saw some early hatches of large dark olives, and the grayling responded, with Dale Parsons of Pontypridd making the most of a good hatch with 8 in quick succession on CDC emergers on the upper Taff Osprey Fly Fishers water.

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.

Brothers Kyle and Cory Mason fish the river Taff a lot around Abercynon, they have had a great graying season, just look at the stunning fish below caught by Kyle, a real beauty.

Strangely the section of the Taff between Radyr weir and Treforest has been very hard, with grayling and trout conspicuous by their absence this season and the last. Some smaller fish have appeared, so we hope it improves in 2022.

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 Wye system has wonderful grayling and the upper reaches fished well, with Builth Town producing in early February. Craig Llyn is another great beat, which is usually fishable quite quickly after a flood. The upper Irfon continues to produce quality grayling, with the WUF beats doing well. It can be hard however, especially if low and clear, so expect to work for them. Rewards however can be spectacular, there are grayling pushing 3lb there, with a 2lb 14oz fish reported from the upper beats.

The Severn in the Llanidloes area has been fishing well for grayling – it looks like there has been a revival in numbers and average size judging from the catches being made on social media, Dan Cartwright and Thomas Leah fish the Caersws area regularly, grayling from 40cm to nearly 50cm figure quite often on their Instagram page.

The Welsh Dee has been ever consistent; however, it will now take a good week for it to fall to a fishable level. Instructor Phil Ratcliffe has been visiting the river a lot, check out the stamp of the fish he has been catching below.

We look forward to the trout season opening on March 3^rd – with the high levels the upper reaches of major rivers and the smaller rivers will be best places to try. Rivers that fish well for trout in early March include the Ebbw, Sirhowy, Lwyd, Upper Taff, Upper Teifi, Upper Severn, The Usk, Tawe, Upper Dee and Alwen. Expect limited insect activity with a brief hatch of Olives or March browns around mid-day, so it is best to fish around that time. Otherwise, fish heavy nymphs deep with a ‘French leader’ for best results.

Stillwater

Eglwys Nunydd reservoir at Port Talbot has been re-stocked for the winter ‘season’ with at least 3000 fish now in the lake. These mend fast and grow on well, thanks to rich feed including ‘killer shrimp’. For a taste of ‘big water’ trout fishing in south Wales the venue is well worth a try. Details here or join the TATA Game Angling group on Facebook. Below: Sport at Port Talbot.

The small stillwaters are in their prime at the moment, with clear water and cold water temperatures – just perfect!

Graiglwyd springs in north Wales has re-opened after weed control and essential repairs. It is fishing well now, with a good chance of a fighting fit double. Other lakes in the area such Llandegla and Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery are fishing exceptionally well, with tigers in particular featuring on Llandegla, nice example below left. The Wal-Goch fishery near Mold is producing some lovely browns, check out the fish below right, captured by Dave Roberstson.

In West Wales Garnffrwdd fishery has quality blues, spartics, browns and rainbows, some of which regularly double figures. Black Mamba, Blue Damsel, crisp packet buzzers and apps bloodworm are patterns that will bring success here. Pant y bedw fishery in Carmarthenshire is now open, with a net average per angler of 6 cracking hard fighting rainbows. Expect some superb winter fishing on this larger than average stillwater, which is unusual as it allows float tubing by prior arrangement.

Llyn Gwyn near Rhayader is a fantastic natural venue that is well worth a try this winter for something a bit different. It is well stocked with rainbows and blues. The club has been running a successful winter league recently with plenty of fish being caught.

Papermill fishery near Swansea is fishing well with fish up 12lb 8oz being caught. There is now a café operating on site, if you fancy a hearty breakfast. Booking is advised here. Below: Richard Rees, 8lb 4oz Yellow daddy fly, on the right Anthony Poole, 12lb 8oz on a black nymph.

Grayling

We have had some good spells of dry weather since start of December, which has meant that at times the grayling rivers have been fishable. The Dee has continued to fish well, with the annual grayling festival at Llangollen being a success, with nearly 400 grayling caught to 47cm, which was good going considering the mild temperatures which saw the grayling spread out and hard to find. Below: Dee grayling, Rob Redman and client.

Other rivers include the Rhymney, which has been producing some grayling of over 1lb 8oz on the Royal Oak and Caerphilly stretches. Below: Neil Ashman and Nathan Gittings on the Rhymney.

The Taff on Glamorgan anglers water and the upper Osprey AA stretches have seen some good grayling fishing, with fish over 2lb reported. Below: Cracking  2lb plus Taff fish caught by Kyle Mason and Ceri Thomas.

The Irfon has fished well with fish to 2lb 14oz reported, with average size being high, however for the fly angler it can be tough if the water is low and clear, so expect to work for them. The upper Wye at Craig Llyn and Builth Town has been ever consistent, and the Elan is worth a try, since it has stable flows due to the Elan valley dams. Other decent grayling rivers to try include the upper Severn on Caersws AA and the Monnow on the Fishing Passport at Skenfrith. Prospects for grayling look perfect for the coming few weeks.

Game fishing competitions

We have posted all of the major WSTAA game comps for Wales HERE. Worth taking a look should you fancy competing in a trial, which could lead to you representing Wales.

Game – Rivers

November has been a fantastic month for grayling fishing so far, thanks to a couple of weeks of dry weather which has allowed anglers to enjoy the many rivers in Wales that hold stocks of this delightful fish.

Of note has been the Dee, which consistently produces big grayling (Guide Rob Redman below 52cm) from Bala AA.

Llangollen AA club waters have also been ever consistent and offer good numbers of fish. The upcoming river Dee Hanak grayling festival on the 4^th and 5^th December should be a successful one this year, lets hope it stays dry and cold as forecast! There are a couple of team spaces, if interested contact Hywel Morgan.

Other grayling rivers that are fishing well include the Severn around Caersws on the local angling club stretches, and the upper river Irfon which is producing quality grayling over 2lb – especially on the Fishing Passport beats. Talking of the Irfon we recently shot a video on a new Fishing Passport beat; look out for this soon! One of the captures on film was an impressive 47cm fish captured by Terry Bromwell during the shoot (pictured below)

The upper Wye beats, such as Craig llyn and Rhayader AA are well worth fishing and have been in fine form this winter.

Some of the urban and semi urban rivers of south Wales have superb grayling fishing. The Rhymney is always worth a go, with inexpensive tickets available on Royal Oak Club water and Caerphilly AA stretches. The Rhymney generally produces small grayling, but fish to 2lb are being caught quite regularly this season.

The Taff, from Abercynon to Cardiff has seen a resurgence in grayling numbers this autumn after two fairly poor years. Lots of fish around 3/4lb to 1lb are being reported and the odd 2lb specimen.  The Taff has some good options on Glamorgan AA water in the City and the Osprey Fly Fishers at Pontypridd.

There are also quality grayling in the Ogmore and Ewenny rivers near Bridgend, controlled by local angling clubs, though for these we believe day ticket access is very limited so best to enquire for full memberships.

The Monnow is a real gem of a river and has excellent grayling on angling club and Fishing Passport water, right on the English border. A couple of scale perfect Monnow fish below.

Grayling prospects look perfect for the next few weeks – so get and make the most of it! One thing to note if fishing for grayling please avoid spawning salmon and take particular care not to wade on top of redds (gravel salmon nests) as this can disturb and destroy their eggs.

Game – Stillwater

Most of the major reservoirs will close the end of November. In the run up to closing great fishing is being enjoyed on venues such as llyn Clywedog and Brenig, where thanks to the recent mild weather fish were caught near the surface consistently, with intermediates and humungous lures being the favoured tactic. The cold snap this week may well necessitate the use of fast sinking DI lines for the final week. Below – Clywedog trout for Gaz Dixon and Wayne Jones.

Lyn Clywedog was reporting catches of 40 plus fish per boat with browns to 7lb just a few days ago, and during the ‘fry bash’ competition on 7^th November 264 fish were reported to 32 anglers. The fishery has a ‘Blue Light Fur and Feather’ match on 27^th November to see the season out, there are a coupe of spaces free as I write this. Details here.

A reservoir that remains open until the 20th December is llyn Trawsfynydd, which continues to fish well at this time of year. The fishery continues to produce large brown trout, for example the 12lb specimen below captured by Pryderi Hedd.

The Welsh small Stillwater fisheries will be at their best at this time of year, especially the ever-reliable Garnffrwdd fishery which has again been stocked with spartic trout for the winter. In addition, expect quality blues, browns and rainbows here, some of which reach double figures. Blue flash damsel, diawl bach nymphs, buzzers and egg flies are patterns that will bring success here.

The nearby Pant y bedw fishery is currently closed due to the owner being temporarily out of action but look out for an update on their Facebook page. Once this re-opens expect some great winter fishing. Llyn Gwyn near Rhayader is a fantastic fishery that has recently been re-stocked, it is well worth a try this winter for something a bit different.

Abernant (Crynant) farm lake near Neath is one to try for larger fish, with doubles and fish of 6 to 7lb caught regularly on this catch and keep venue. Papermill fishery near Swansea is fishing well with fish up to 9lb 7oz being caught (Adrain Baskervill below) black cormorant being the best fly to try.

In North Wales the ever-popular Graiglwyd springs has just been closed for a few weeks to manage weed and do some essential repairs. When this re-opens there the real chance of a Welsh double.

Other lakes in the area such as Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery are fishing exceptionally well, with spartics in particular featuring here. Wal-Goch fishery near Mold is producing some fin perfect rainbows to lures, especially white snakes on intermediate lines.

Prospects: Winter can be the best time of year visiting a Welsh fishery, trout thrive in cold water so expect good sport as it gets colder. Even if you only fish for wild trout on the rivers and natural lakes we’d urge you to give a stocked fishery a try over the winter – not only for an enjoyable day out, but to help support them after what has been a very tough year.

Stillwater trout angling

The wild trout lakes finished on 17th October. Many of these fished really well up until the end, including venues such as Talybont reservoir, Elan Valley, Beacons reservoir, tal-y-llyn and Cambrian Angling Association lakes. Rosebush reservoir (a syndicate) produced several cracking brown trout in the 3 to 4lb plus category – the biggest caught for 30 years. Vaughan Thomas with large Rosebush trout below.

Our wild trout lakes seem to be improving year on year with numbers and average size of fish increasing which bodes well for the future. Fly hatches have been good and the wild lake trout have been in mint condition – next season should be fantastic. Below: Float tube fishing on Llynnau Gamallt and bank fishing Tal-y-llyn.

On the large stocked reservoir front autumn is always a brilliant time. Clywedog has been consistent, despite low water, whether you bank or boat fish. The venue is very popular, so make sure you book a boat in advance. Fishing here carries on until 30th November with fish often keen to take dries on calm autumnal days.

Llyn Brenig and Trawsfynydd are also great back-end waters, the rainbows feed up well and are in fighting fit condition. Traws has reported rainbows and browns in excess of 10lb recently. Below: A Brenig trout caught by George Barron which shows the quality you can expect in autumn.

The small Stillwater fisheries really came into their own in October after the warm, unproductive month of September. Waters such as Garnffwrd, Pant-y-Bedw, Craiglwyd springs, Paper Mill Swansea and Crynant at Neath are all fishing well and are at their best in October/November. So look up your local water and give them a try.

River Trout

September was a very tough month for the river trout angler with almost no rainfall. This meant that for most of the month fishing activity was really limited, especially on the smaller streams and rivers which were on their bones. Larger rivers such as the Taff, Severn, Usk and upper Wye did continue to fish OK despite being low, although it wasn’t as good as previous years simply due to a lack of rain and distinctly summer-like weather.

Some rain did fall a couple of days before the end of the season on 30th September which did perk up the fishing somewhat, with some cracking trout caught, including upper Taff fish ranging from 2lb to 3lb 8oz, which will be part of an upcoming film on our YouTube channel.

Prospects are now excellent for grayling – we are really spoilt for choice in Wales, with the Dee, Severn, Taff, upper Wye and its tributaries being the main grayling rivers of interest. More on grayling fishing in Wales here.

River Salmon and Sea trout

September was really a write off for migratory fish, it was just so dry that most of our rivers were at almost record low levels and no fish were running. Right at the end of September we finally had a good hit of rain, and with the season just ending (October17th) it seems some salmon were caught in good numbers right at the end as levels fell. Salmon were reported on the Usk, Towy and Wye, although these were quite coloured. There were a lot of fresh fish waiting in the estuary’s and with a sudden flood most of these have run straight through. Below: Barry Hale with an end of season 9.5lb Tywi salmon.

Sea trout fishing wasn’t that memorable this year, rivers such as the Dovey and Towy being notably poor. We can only hope this is due in part to the overall dry conditions. The Teifi had an OK season and the Neath and Ogmore of south Wales produced good sewin after what limited rainfall we had. Some rivers did fish well in north Wales, the Wnion, Mawdach and Glaslyn especially. A single rod on the Conwy reported over 100 sewin this year on the fly at night. Below – an 8lb Sewin from Llandovery AA water from September 29th.

River trout fishing

July started well on the river trout front. The trout rivers came to life after an abnormally cold early summer, with fishing on-form on the Severn, Rhymney, Upper taff, Ebbw, Dee, Alyn, Teifi, upper Wye and many, many others. The blue winged olive spinner falls kicked in at this time, and evening dry fly fishing was superb. Below: Usk spinner feeder caught by Dale Parsons.

The smaller streams and brooks still had a lot of water in them in early July. This made for great fishing on the Fishing Passport wild streams and also the smaller angling club rivers, which tend to have abundant stocks of smaller fish, with the odd bigger surprise. Below: Fishing the River Edw.

The good fishing came to a grinding halt in the middle of July. Baking hot temperatures of 30 degrees for over 2 weeks killed the fishing for the rest of the month, with water temperatures simply being too warm for river fishing. Many clubs and the Fishing Passport closed their fishing temporarily for fish welfare, and thankfully most anglers also laid down the rods – high water temperatures equate to dead fish!

The effects of the heatwave were long lasting and despite some rain (not enough!) it has taken a few weeks after the searing temperatures for the rivers to return to ‘normal’. As I write the past week or two has seen a return to brilliant sport, with lots of trout showing on all of the well-known rivers and some good grayling too.

August can be a bit slow on the rivers – but not this year – the fish seem to be making up for lost time and feeding hard. It will be worth getting out and enjoying the rivers right until the end of the season on 30th September, It seems we are in for a bumper ‘back end’.

Stillwater

Welsh stillwater’s were fishing well in early July, especially the big waters such as Clywedog, Brenig, Usk res. and Traws. The small water fisheries were at their prime early in July. Then the heatwave hit. Many of the smaller stocked waters decided to close entirely or impose ‘catch & kill’ only – a sensible decision. During the heatwave some anglers took to the carp fisheries and tried the fly, carp being one of the hardy species that hot weather doesn’t effect – some great fish were caught. Below: carp on fly Jason Williams.

Some of the larger, deeper waters have cooler water and continued to fish OK during and after the heatwave – anglers had to fish deep to reach them, as much as 30 to 40 feet on waters such as Clywedog using Di7 lines.

As we went into August, the larger venues slowly started to fish better and now are pretty much back to normal with plenty of fish coming out near the surface. Below: Gazz Dixon with a Clywedog specimen from a few days ago.

Some of them (such as Llandgefedd reservoir) have just been re-stocked now the water temperatures are sufficiently cool. It’s now a great time for fishing dry fly – hoppers, crane fly and cow dung imitations will work well on our upland reservoirs from now until well into autumn.

The smaller Stillwater fisheries have now re-opened and we’d urge you to support them after being closed most of last month – so why not pay your local fishery a visit?

Wild trout lakes were pretty hopeless during the heatwave, and have taken weeks to cool down in the aftermath. Only now with wind, rain and cool temperatures are waters such as Talybont fishing well. Look out for the sedge on the lakes of mid and north Wales (Aber AA, Talybont AA, Llanbrynmair AA and Cambrian AA have excellent lakes) you can expect great sport dibbling a sedge back on the top dropper when there is a good wave on. The wild trout venues will continue to fish well al August and into September now we have some cool, overcast and windy weather. Below: 3lb 8oz brown Llanbrynmair AA taken on a sedgehog.

Salmon & Sea trout

Early July on the Wye was marred by an algae bloom, it was a shame as clearly there were plenty of salmon in the system, especially the lower beats such as Wyesham, Bigsweir and also further up at the Rectory at Boughrood. Despite the algae a fair number of salmon were caught from these beats. Following the bloom the heatwave put a stop to all salmon fishing on the Wye, and it is only a week ago that salmon have started to show up again in the catches on the aforementioned beats.

The Usk has produced some good salmon prior and after the heatwave – below left – an early July fish for Sarah Hodgkin and right – Alun Rees with an Usk fish from a few days ago.

Other rivers in Wales also suffered due to the heat – It was reported by various sources that a large run of Sewin had entered the Towy in July, but soon after the heatwave hit. Those fish have now disappeared into the system. Depending on who you talk too the Towy has either had a terrible or just ‘OK’ season. There are certainly fish to be caught though, with anglers such as Alun Rees catching a few recently. There is often a late sewin run in August and early September that will be worth fishing for, and if we have a good spate salmon, speaking of Which Barry Hale (below) landed a grilse recently whilst filming for a local venture, Shwmae Sir Gâr.

After the heat wave and a bit of water earlier this month The Teifi has reported a good number of smaller sewin plus some larger ones – see below caught by guide Steffan Jones of 8.5lb and 6.5lb from early August. Prospects for the Teifi for late season sewin and salmon are excellent.

The Neath and Ogmore have both produced some good sewin, especially after some rain around a week ago. The locals like to keep these under the radar for a good reason – they have a great run of sea trout especially late summer after rain.

The Dyfi had a slow start this year, with some anglers saying it was the worst season for many years. It has now picked up after recent rain, see fish captured by Gazza Dixon below. We’ve also heard of fish off the Rheidol, which can benefit from hydro dam releases in summer to bring fish up.

The Mawdach and Wnion system has been producing, guide Rob Redman (below) has been putting in some hard work and it has paid off with some quality fish.

The Dee has also been producing some nice sewin, as has the Conwy system. Prospects for both of these rivers are good for the rest of the month.

Remember up until 5th September you can ‘take a friend fishing’ and claim a free NRW rod licence – more details here.

Looking back at June it has been an unusual and at times challenging month for game fishing in Wales. We have gone from one extreme to another – from non-stop rain and cold conditions to the dog days of summer in just a couple of weeks. Despite this, fishing has still been excellent for our game fish species providing you pick the best times to try for them, which is usually early or late in the day.

Welsh Rivers

The rivers have been fishing well for trout, with a noted shift to evening fishing recently. The usual south-east Welsh rivers have been fishing well – the Ebbw, Usk, upper Taff, Tawe and the Rhymney have all been fishing productively, especially in the evening or early morning. The exception is the lower Taff from Pontypridd down to Cardiff, which hasn’t been great this season and some investigation needs to be done to find out why.

A cracking river Usk trout below,  a fish of 22’’ for Pheon Radford which is a giant for the river.

Moving west the Ogmore fished well after the rain early in the month. It’s now a lot harder as the levels have dropped, but the trout fishing is still good with grayling also figuring in the catches.
We’ve heard reports of good trout being caught in the Gwendraeth fach and fawr rivers near Kidwelly, as well as some unusually large trout from the Towy, which rarely gets much trout fishing attention – check out the 3.5lb brown caught be Colton Brett Kelly on Crosshands AA water.

The Teifi has been fishing well for trout. On 12th & 13th June Llandysul AA hosted an invite only event for fly anglers from all over the UK. This involved two days of fishing on various beats of the river. It was well organised and full credit goes to the club for their hospitality and quality of their beats. Despite hot and sunny conditions, the river produced countless small to medium sized trout (a great sign for the future!) and several good grayling, which appear to be well distributed in the whole river now. Many larger trout (some 4lb plus!) were seen and lost. The weekend was filmed by Andy Ford of BT Sport for ‘On The Bank’ – this should be aired soon. Below: Fishing on the Teifi.

The upper Wye has been a bit hit and miss or trout, due to some colouration from algae, which has thankfully now cleared above Glasbury. It has produced some good ones though. There are several ‘wild streams’ in the upper Wye catchment that are worth fishing, even in warm weather, due to their shady, gorge like nature. These include the Duhonw, Edw and Clettwr all of which come into the Wye just below Builth Wells. Do not expect huge fish (a pound is good) but expect plenty of them – great sport on light tackle.

The upper Severn in Powys is always worth a go in the summer – it gets a lot of cold water from llyn Clywedog so it usually fishes well even in the dog days. It produced some nice fish in June.

In north Wales, the Conwy seems to be producing some really nice trout, as is the ever reliable Dee, where good grayling are also starting to show in the catches.

With July being probably the hardest month, the best advice is to fish in the evening or if we are lucky enough to have rain just as the rivers fine down.

Salmon and Sea trout

The Ogmore near Bridgend produced with some great sea trout and salmon after the rain in early June. This has slowed down now, but bodes well for the rest of the season. Nathan Richards below with a nice chunky Sewin.

The Neath, well known for its sea trout and salmon has had a slow start, but as soon as we have rain this is expected to pick up, with reports of fish in the estuary waiting to run the river.

The lower Wye still continues to fish OK for salmon, with 4 caught at Wyesham on 29th June at 20,16,15 and 12lbs – all on the fly. Salmon are there in most of the noted pools through the river, but sadly the annual algal bloom has tinted the water on the lower beats which makes fishing a little harder. Rain is seriously needed to flush it away.

Sewin are now being caught in our major rivers – the Towy has produced some cracking fish, although the numbers are not quite there yet. The Teifi is starting to produce with good number of smaller fish, and the Mawddach and tributaries have started to fish well. We’ve also heard reports of sewin out of the Rheidol and of course the Dovey. The Dee in north Wales is also starting to fish for sewin, with some schoolies reported. Rob Redman below, who is a guide on the Mawddach with a nice June sewin.

What we need now is a big summer spate to bring the main summer run into our rivers and we should have the best sewin fishing of the season as we go into July – fingers crossed!

Reservoirs, lakes and fisheries

The ever-reliable llyn Clywedog has been producing some great fish. Its depth and altitude mean it stays cool in the warm months and can fish well all summer. The Coch y bonddu beetle is now making an appearance (a bit late) and the dry fly fishing has been frantic.

Llyn Brenig has been providing some excellent sport with catches of 20+ fish being reported to the boats. The banks are also fish well early and late in the day. Top of the water methods using intermediate tip and floaters are scoring well.

Llyn Trawsfynydd reservoir is going well, lots of rainbows and browns coming to dry fly, traditional wet fly or nymphing with midge tips. Cool water temperatures are helping due to its location in the rugged Snowdonia hills. Coch y bonddu has been reported there – good news for dry fly anglers for the next week or two.

We have heard that Llys-y-fran reservoir in Pembrokeshire is finally open to anglers again – tickets can be booked online via www.llys-y-fran.co.uk/fishing-llys-y-fran The lake has been re-stocked with rainbows and still has a good head of wild brown trout.

The natural hill lakes and wild trout reservoirs woke up at the start of June and now with Coch y bonddu reported it will be a great time to try them. Talybont AA, Aberystwyth AA, Elan Valley and Nant-y-Moch in particular. We’ve heard the Ffestiniog lakes are fishing well, as are the Dalgarrog AA llyns, where a few char have been reported as well as wild brownies. July is a good month if you are evening fishing or if you go on a rough, wet and windy day.

On the fisheries, things have slowed down due to the higher water temperatures. Even so, we have plenty of spring fed waters in Wales which fish well all summer due to their cold water. These include Garnffrwd, Graiglwyd Springs and Ravens Nest.

Another great Garnffrwd double below.

Reservoirs, lakes and fisheries:

Despite the unusually cold and wet weather this month fisheries and reservoirs have been fishing well for those that have dared to venture out.

Garnffrwdd has fished well, with our very own Ceri Thomas capturing a 16lb rainbow whilst filming at the venue. The film will be released early next month. Numerous other doubles from 13lb to 17lb have been landed this month at the fishery, some images below. The fish are mostly being caught on imitative patterns such as small dries and buzzers, rather than on lures.

Papermill near Swansea has also been producing some whopping rainbows, Gareth Morgan caught this cracking 12lb 1oz rainbow on an olive snake, well done Gareth!

Graiglwyd springs fishery in Penmaenmawr has also been producing quality fish, with doubles amongst them, as has Crynant fishery near Neath, which is producing a good stamp of fish.

On the reservoirs Brenig, Traws and Clywedog all fished well this month. Clywedog recently hosted the Scierra pairs comp, where 406 fish were caught by 33 anglers, a rod average of 6.2 fish. The venue has produced several doubles to 14lb 3oz. Llandegfedd reservoir has opened again for trout anglers and here there are reports of good bags of quality fish to boat and bank anglers.

The water is still very cold on these larger venues, so lures fished on intermediates and Di lines are still catching lots of fish. That said on warmer days dry fly action to hawthorn fly and buzzer is possible and can only get better.

In the Brecon Beacons, the Usk reservoir has been re-stocked and is providing good fishing, whilst Llwyn-on near Merthyr is also producing some nice rainbows and wild brownies.

Onto the wild lakes and Talybont in the Brecon Beacons continues to produce quality wild trout from 1lb to 2lb 8oz. Buzzers and traditional wet fly scoring well. Club water such as Beacons reservoir and Ystradfellte near Penderyn are worth a try. In Mid Wales Claerwen and the Elan valley reservoirs are waking up after a slow start. Aberystwyth area Talybont angling club lakes are fishing well, these have been re-stocked with browns and rainbows to supplement the wild fish. Aberystwyth AA lakes have been slow to start, but quality fish are now coming out of them also. The Teifi pools have also produced some nice fish, despite it being very cold and exposed up there.

Further north the lakes of Ffestiniog Cambrian AA have just started to wake up, as have Sgotwrs Ogwen, with nice fish reported from llyn ogwen. Llyn Cwellyn has also been fished and has produced some good action. On all of these lakes traditional ‘walk and cast’ with wet fly patterns is the way to do it.

As we head into June look out for improved surface activity on the wild lakes. Many of them have the coch-y-bonddu beetle in June, which is an important food source. If you can catch this hatch expect fishing of a lifetime, you can sometimes find almost all of the fish in a lake rising to them – something special to behold! So always carry some imitations, wet and dry.

Rivers and streams

May really has been appalling with river levels just too high for the most part. At the start of the month the Usk, Ebbw, Dee, Severn, Teifi etc. were all fishing well. The upper Taff on Merthyr AA also. As soon as levels drop expect super sport at the best time of the year.

In the mean-time, smaller streams and rivers are well worth fishing as they drop back. For example the Taff Fechan, Sirhowy, Llynfi (Bridgend), Clydach (Pontypridd) and the numerous wild streams on the ‘Fishing Passport’ many of which are upper Usk or upper Wye tribs and can potentially hold surprisingly big fish: see 2.5lb brown below, captured from a stream near Brecon.

Tactics wise its all been heavy nymphs in the high water, or even streamers when there is colour on. If it settles down expect the insect life including mayfly, olive uprights, brook dun and yellow may duns to appear in huge numbers, bringing dry flies to the fore.

Salmon and sea trout

The Wye has been producing some nice salmon this spring, the upper reaches around Erwood to Builth Wells on various Fishing Passport beats produced quite a few in May before the last deluge blew the river out. There have not been much other reports, aside from few on the Usk, Towy and Cothi that we’ve heard of, but conditions have hardly been ideal. No reports of any significant sewin activity yet. All will be revealed when the waters recede – hopefully salmon and sea trout will have populated our major rivers in good numbers.

Reservoirs, lakes and fisheries:

Reservoir fisheries were finally allowed to open at the end of March. Predictably, Llyn Clywedog led the way with some massive double figure fish coming out to bank and boat anglers – to 16lb 12oz. Some examples below. Lures such as humongous fished on Di lines are working well, but on calm days fish are taking spring buzzer off the top and dry fly is the order of the day.

Trawsfynydd has also kicked off with a bang – plenty of rainbows are gracing the net and some gigantic brown trout. There is some debate on whether the 24lb and 25lb fish reported this spring are indeed the same fish re-captured, or different fish that have grown on in the water. Either way long may the venue continue to throw up these huge browns.

Unfortunately Llyn Brenig and Llangdegfedd have not re-opened for fishing yet, but both will be opening on 26th April. Apparently Llys y fran reservoir will be opening for fishing again, sometime this spring.

At Port Talbot the Tata Game Angling Eglwys Nunydd reservoir is off to a great start, with some really good fishing on offer. With so many fisheries and reservoirs (for example Ynys y Fro) closed in south Wales then this well managed venue is a great option just off the M4.

The Brecon Beacons lakes have been good – the Usk reservoir has been stocked with decent rainbows reported to any method and fly anglers, the same goes for Llwyn Onn. Both of these can be booked with the Fishing Passport. Talybont reservoir has produced lost of wild brown 1lb to 2lb, tough on the calm and bright days but buzzer patterns are working well. Swiss Valley reservoir above Llanelli has fantastic fishing for rainbows, this is a well-stocked club water and it’s a great venue for those looking for something a bit off the radar. Pics below of Lewis Rumble at the reservoir.

Natural lakes have been slow, due to the very cold spring. Lakes in Snowdonia need a good month yet to get going The lakes of mid Wales have been a bit better – Teifi Pools and llyn Berwyn have produced some nice early season wild browns.

On the small Stillwater front Garnffrwdd is leading the way with some cracking fish, with rainbows stocked in excess of 20lb – including a new fishery record of 21lb 8oz! Plenty of doubles are also coming out. We plan to do a film there shortly, watch this space! Some of the recent lumps are pictured below.

Other small waters fishing well include Black Mountain Fishing and Camping, Crynant near Neath and Graiglwyd springs which has had great dry fly fishing.

Prospects: As we enter May we can expect the cream of the crop for lake fishing! With water temps still cool for time of year, the fish should be fighting fit and still willing to chase lures or wet flies. We can expect big buzzer hatches and falls of terrestrial insects such as Hawthorne flies to begin if the weather (as forecast) continues to be settled and increasingly warm.

Rivers and streams:

River fishing finally kicked off in Wales in time for the end of March, traditionally a great time with hungry trout willing to take nymphs fished deep or rise to dry flies during hatches of large Dark Olives and March browns.

The Usk fished well from the off, with trout caught all over the river from Sennybridge down to Chainbridge. Fish to 3lb have been reported. Cold, dry and settled conditions have helped, with few days lost to high water levels. The strong northerly or easterly winds have been a nuisance at times, but thankfully things are calming down. The fish seem to have overwintered well and are in great condition. As I write this report the grannom hatch is in full swing, with some anglers reporting 20 fish in a session on grannom emerger patterns. A few images from the spring Usk fishing below.

The Teifi is fishing really well – this river is going from strength to strength with improving fly life and larger fish from 17 to 20 inches now figuring in the catches. Look out for a Fishing In Wales video on spring fly fishing on the Teifi soon!

The Wye has started to fish in the upper reaches, Craig Llyn beat as usual producing some cracking early season fish. The upper Severn around Caersws is fishing well also, plenty of good sized trout coming to nymph and dry fly. Further north the Dee has had a slow start but is now starting to pick up, with trout and grannom hatches reported in the Llangollen area and CADAC stretches.

Other rivers that have been worth fishing include the Ebbw and Sirhowy, both post-industrial rivers with a big head of wild fish and some surprisingly big fish, especially the Ebbw in the Risca area. There have been good fly hatches on these rivers including olives and brook duns. Despite low water, the upper Taff from Abercyon to Merthyr has been fishing well, some nice fish being caught on dries. However lower river Taff has been very slow, with not much happening on the trout fishing front – yet.

Some of the Fishing Passport wild streams fished well early, surprising given how cold it has been. At the moment however these will be very low as we haven’t had rain for weeks.

River Prospects: Fly hatches will continue, bringing trout to the surface. Expect grannon, various olive species, brook duns and yellow may duns to make an appearance soon. Fishing should be excellent on the middle and lower reaches of all of our significant trout rivers. We do need rain though – a lot of the smaller streams and upper reaches are very low indeed, so fishing will be very hard if things continue as they are. No rain forecast for the foreseeable future!!

Salmon:

Salmon have started to show in the lower river Wye over the past few weeks, with some massive fish caught, seen and lost!! It seems a promising start, given how bad the past few years have been. These springers are truly magnificent,  recent examples below both weighed in at 22lb.

Prospects: The Wye should continue to fish well, especially if we get some much needed rain. We have also heard of salmon starting to run the Towy, along with a few large early season sewin. So migratory sport should continue to pick up into May.

STILLWATER TROUT FISHING

Most of the major reservoirs closed at the end of November, prior to this some great fishing was enjoyed on venues such as llyn Clywedog and Brenig, where thanks to the mild weather fish were caught near the surface and on dry flies right through to the seasons end.

Below is a stunning fish from Clywedog captured near the end of the season.

A reservoir that remains open until the 20th December is llyn Trawsfynydd, which continues to fish well at this time of year. The fishery continues to produce large brown trout – check out the enormous fish which was weighed at 23lb and is potentially a new Welsh record (The current record is 18lb 13oz from the now drained Wentwood reservoir). The fish was captured by a pike angler on a dead bait and was safely returned to the water so it is unlikely a record claim will be submitted.

There was some debate on social media as to whether this was a wild or stocked fish. Judging by appearance and condition It did appear to be a stocked triploid, which the fishery eventually confirmed. Although they do not stock them at this size. Wild or not it is a fantastic capture and one of the biggest grown-on reservoir brown trout ever captured in the UK. Who knows what else might be in there?

The small Stillwater fisheries continue to fish well, especially the ever-reliable Garnffrwdd fishery which has recently been stocked with spartic trout, a cross between a char and a brook trout. In addition, expect quality blues, browns and rainbows here often on dry flies even in winter. For more on spartic trout read our feature  by Ceri Jones here.

The nearby Pant y bedw fishery has just been re-stocked with hard fighting rainbows and blues from Exmoor fishery. It is fishing well. Blue flash damsel, nymphs, buzzers and damsel nymphs were flies most commonly used.

Abernant farm lake near Neath has opened its doors for trout fishing, with catch and release allowed over the winter and is fishing really well. Papermill fishery near Swansea is fishing well with fish up to 8lb being caught on lures (see image below) Humongous being the best fly to try.

In North Wales the ever popular Graiglwyd springs has just been re-stocked for Christmas with tigers, rainbows and browns – expect quality fish here with the real chance of a Welsh double. Other lakes in the area such as Tan-y-Mynydd Trout Fishery are also fishing well. Wal Goch fishery near Mold is producing some nice browns and rainbows to nymphs especially Diawl Bach.

Fishery prospects: Winter can be the best time of year visiting a Welsh fishery, trout thrive in cold water so expect good fishing especially to lures as it gets colder. Even if you only fish for wild trout on the rivers and natural lakes we’d urge you to give a stocked fishery a go over the winter – not only for an enjoyable day out, but to help support them after what has been a very tough year.

GRAYLING FISHING

The winter so far has been fairly tough for grayling anglers, with rain causing levels to rise unpredictably. However if you choose a window in the weather carefully, the results can be fantastic. A tip is to monitor the river levels before fishing, this new online river gauge tool from NRW is really handy for picking the best day.

During the drier spells we’ve heard of some cracking grayling being caught on the upper river Severn, the Dee, Irfon, upper Wye (craig llyn beat in particular) the Rhymney and the Taff in and around Cardiff on the Glamorgan AA stretches.

Nymphing with heavy jig flies (4mm and 3mm tungsten beads) with pink or red tags in the dressings will work well. Fish under a strike indicator or use on a French leader.

Recent grayling catches (L to R): Kyle Cheshire, river Wye. Simon Barton river Rhymney, Kieron Jenkins river Severn.

Prospects for January: provided we don’t have too much rain (and a full Covid lock-down!) things look excellent on the grayling front. All of the usual grayling rivers will continue to fish well. It does get harder to find the fish in January since they tend to shoal up. But when you find a shoal expect some great sport. The image below illustrates this – a three fly team of czech nymphs resulted in three fish in just one cast from the prolific river Rhymney.

October has been one of the best months we’ve seen for salmon fishing for a long time in Wales, with almost all of the major rivers producing well up until the season closed on the 17th October.

The Towy and the Ogmore were rivers that produced especially well, and also the Neath, Teifi, Usk, Mawddach and even the Taff in Cardiff saw a few caught. The Wye had a late run with reports of good numbers of fish being captured, one rod (Ed Brown) reported 21 salmon on the fly in 3 days at the Spreadeagle beat near llyswen.

The good news is thanks to the NRW catch and release regulations all of these great fish will have been returned to spawn, so the future is looking brighter than it has for some time.

Below is a gallery featuring some of the salmon catches from October.

The wild brown trout season ended on the lakes on 17th October. October was a great month for wild trout fishing and some stunning fish were caught, especially from the lakes of mid-Wales and Cambrian Angling Association, where we recently filmed a mountain trek llyn fishing film that will be out next month. Check out the wild fish below, from left to right: Talybont reservoir, llyn Rhosrydd, llyn dubach. Season starts again for most of the natural waters on 20th March.

Trout fishing action continues on our many fisheries and reservoirs that are stocked with rainbows and other trout varieties. The trout fisheries are all fishing well – October and November being some of the best months on waters such as Wal-goch, Graiglwyd springs, Pant-y-Bedw, Garnffrwdd and reservoirs including Brenig, Traws Clywedog and Ynys-y-fro, Lures will be most effective on the fisheries when water temperatures drop. Below is a nice Spartic trout from Garnffrwdd captured recently by Ceri Jones.

Grayling will of course now be on anglers minds, with all of the Welsh grayling rivers coming into their own including the Taff, Rhymney, Wye, Irfon, Ithon and Dee. Euro/Czech nymphing with heavy flies will be the best method, although dry flies will score on milder days if there is a hatch of fly. The image below is of a nice grayling, typical of the river Rhymney, captured by Kyle Cheshire who is a member of the senior Welsh World team.

Please consider that a national ‘Fire break’ lock down is being imposed in 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 unfortunately anglers from outside Wales will not be allowed to visit. More details can be found here.

September has been a great month for Salmon fishing in Wales, one of the best seasons for a good few years especially on the Usk, Teifi, Neath, Ogmore, Conwy and the Towy. Some say this is due to reduced trawler activity out to sea due to COVID, but we have also been fortunate enough to have had heavy rain at the right time to bring good numbers of fish up, unlike the past two years.

The images below show the stamp of Welsh salmon being caught, the fish on the left captured by 11 year old Steff Miles, his first ever salmon, from the River Usk.

Trout fishing on the reservoirs has been excellent in September and will carry on into October. With abundant hatches of buzzer, plus terrestrial insects such as daddy long legs being blown onto the water, the fish are really looking up at the moment – so remember to bring a box of dry flies!

Whilst August isn’t usually the best month for trout fishing, some of our rivers have fished well, particularly earlier in the month after a bit of water. Flying ants can be found on the rivers at this time of year, when it happens the fish can go into a frenzy – so always carry some imitations! Image below is from the river Usk, which was fishing well a few weeks ago after a drop of rain. One thing to remember is not to bother if the water temperature is over 20 degrees, its not good for the fish and they are unlikely to feed anyway.

The sea trout (sewin) rivers of West Wales have been fishing well this season. The Teifi and Towy particularly, with night fishing now well underway. There are plenty of fish about and the angler pressure is low. There are reports of salmon in good numbers in the lower reaches of some of our rivers, so it could be a bumper autumn (remember all salmon must now be released – regulations here). Night fishing for sewin should be good again when the weather settles down. Salmon below from the Towy, captured by Barry Hale in July on the fly, estimated at 16lb to 18lb.

The large upland lakes and reservoirs have continued to fish well – thanks to their elevation and exposed locations, oxygen levels remain good and temperatures lower. Llyn Clywedog fishery, Brenig and Trawsfynydd are all fishing well, with heather fly on Brenig which provided fantastic dry fly fishing. Traws has thrown up some real monster brown trout recently – check out the 15lb fish below!!

Some of the smaller fisheries are also fishing well, especially those that are spring fed such as Garnffrwd. This cracking double figure rainbow from the fishery was captured by Brian George on a size 14 blue buzzer.

The smaller natural lakes are also well worth a go – venues such as the Aberystwyth AA waters, Cambrian Angling lakes at Festiniog, llyn Fawr in the Rhondda and the Talybont AA lakes. These are producing a mixture of great quality wild and stocked fish. Look out for the great red sedge and daddy long legs later in the month – these can provide superb surface sport.

As we write this it is raining heavily and the rivers are on the rise – most welcome after the recent hot weather. As soon as the rivers fall expect brilliant fishing for trout, sea trout and salmon right through till the end of the season.

If you cannot wait for the main rivers to fall, then try a small tributary, these can produce surprisingly big trout at this time of year, the Usk and Monnow catchments especially. Fish below was caught yesterday from a ‘wild stream’ on the WUF Fishing Passport while the river was in flood. For more on fishing the wild streams pick up a copy of this months Fly Fishing & Fly Tying magazine which features 7 different beats to try.

The recent rain (week of 24th August) has indeed brought salmon into our rivers in good numbers. These great fish were caught by Barry Hale (River Towy) and Morgan Jones (River. Conwy). Remember to use barbeless hooks and return all salmon to the water.