Llyn Nantlle
A bright sunny day cannot be beaten if you fancy a day on the beach topping up your tan reading a good book and eating ice cream. However this was not the kind of relaxation I was looking for when I met up with a friend called Alun on the shore of llyn nantlle in mid June.
Llyn Nantlle is a beautiful shallow lake situated in the Snowdonia national Park and is controlled by the Seiont Gwyrfai and Llyfni AA. Some half way between Talysarn and Rhyd Ddu just off the B4418 you will find this little gem of a water, which holds brown trout but also has a run of Sea -Trout which get to it via the river Llyfni.
“ It doesn’t look good”, were the words which Alun greeted me with as I came across him preparing the boat for launch. He was of course right, the weather which most people love when visiting Wales, was going to make life difficult for us trying to temp a wild brown trout from the lake that afternoon.
We both opted for intermediate lines to try and get down to the fish which we suspected were lying deep out of the glare of the bright sun.
It would be a day of very few takes so we did our best to concentrate on the job in hand. I tried with three small black flies while Alun had a pheasant tail on the point and a couple of black flies taking up the other positions on his leader.
There were a few fish rising, whether they were taking anything was not obvious, or like the sunbathers on the nearby beaches they were probably just playing in the sun, there were some bigger splashes too, signifying the presence of some other summer visitors, the Sea Trout.
Alun positioned the boat for the first drift of the day and it was not long before he struck in to the first fish of the day, a fine brownie of about a pound. It came off though as he tried to boat it without a net. “Typical” he said, “It’s your camera that’s jinxed it, it did seem that way as drift upon drift ended fishless. Alun had a few more pulls but no solid takes and all I had to report was that I’d seen one fish following the fly.
As we motored across to start a slightly different drift Alun told me that the lake also holds some coarse species, roach, perch and even the odd bream.
A few changes of fly saw me adding a PTN to my tippet, as I was tying it on Alun had a good take and at last a fish was boated, this time with the help of the net. It was no monster, shall we say it was small but perfectly formed. But at least it was a fish, I had something to photograph.
The wind was dying as we fished and as we realised we would soon be fishing a flat calm the decision was made to have one more drift before calling it a day. All I had to show for 2 hours fishing was a slightly better suntan.
As I threw what would be my final cast of the day, I swore I’d return on a cloudier day, a quick figure of eight retrieve and tap tap a take, I tightened and yes I had one. Again no monster but enough to make my day. A beautiful well-fed brownie of 12 inches had taken pity on me and engulfed my PTN.
It doesn’t change a thing though; I will be back on a cloudier day and fish what is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful lakes in Wales if not the UK.