Readers Report
Llandegfedd Reservoir October 8, 2004.
When the rainbows turn their attention to late season coarse fish fry, there is no better place to be than drifting on a boat across Llandegfedd Reservoir. In the right conditions the fishing can be frenetic with fighting fit rainbows chasing and snapping at flies dragged across the surface. Fry imitations, cats whiskers, montanas or any large lure with a tail or a bit of fritz in it will bring the fish in. It is always worth experimenting with smaller imitative nymphs – my favourite being the diawl bach, or even static dries. Varying the pull speed and depth should find them, but the on-site wardens are always more than happy to advise on tactics and locations. The fishing also represents really good value when compared to similar venues in England.
A phone call early in the week confirmed that the fishing was good, with bag limits being taken on dry flies, but the weather forecast indicated a change in the wind direction and a drop in temperature that did not bode well.
Sure enough, we started off in a strong, cold north-easterly wind drifting towards the dam and using floating lines. The “montana hatch” certainly didn’t appear to be happening, but we persevered with floating lines and a quick tour through the fly boxes, to no avail. After an hour with only a single pull and nothing visible on the surface apart from the odd lunatic fish leaping clear of the water, we switched to intermediates and started getting a bit of interest. I have to admit that I find fishing intermediate lines somewhat uninspiring, but the challenge is to catch fish and the fish were definitely not up in the water. The drift took us right up to the walls of the dam in double-quick time and it was there that we found a couple of fish. Our spirits rose despite the inclement weather, and we stuck at it through a couple more drifts with a misbehaving drogue to boot until eventually the lack of any pattern to the bites and the strengthening wind led us to motor up the reservoir in search of some quieter water (and hopefully some fish).
Conditions appeared perfect around the fish cages with a mild wind breaking up the surface nicely under cloudy conditions, but we had further trouble finding any fish. A lone bank angler set off for home with a heavy looking fish bag, so we anchored up near the north shore and picked up a couple of good fish on a slime line with a stripped cats whisker. The takes soon dried up however and we spent the last hour anchored near the dam taking the full brunt of the wind’s strength side on. We picked up a few more fish here, with one memorable moment when both Rob and myself were fighting fish at the same time, but the wind did its worse leaving us both feeling somewhat weather worn and sea sick. As a result of the rocking of the boat I had also managed to deliver a priest across the back of my hand instead of on its intended target. In contrast to previous years, we did at least feel that we had worked hard for our fish, and for us office dwellers the feeling that we had been out facing the elements for the day was strangely satisfying.
Total for the day was nine good trout between us, with another 4 hooked, lost and free to fight another day. Not a classic autumn day on Llandeg’, but still enough action to make it better than even the best day at work!