I often report on weather conditions and it’s not that I have an impulsive urge that the weather is sacrosanct to fishing. This last week we have had cold wet windy conditions which by the very nature has kept a few anglers away from the bank despite the bank holiday. I was pleased to see river conditions have improved and salmon are being caught and returned on the Wye and Usk.
The smaller trout fisheries were effected by the weather conditions. Only a few weeks ago trout were being taken on a dry fly, now sinking lines with lures seem to prevail. Coarse fishing has been steady with a number of fisheries reporting completion of carp spawning and readily taken bait from the surface.
You will have to travel Westward for productive sea shore fishing. Although the anglers are a hardy lot even they recognise that fish behaviour is often governed by the weather. There has been plenty of bass moving off shore and well out of range of the shore angler. Reports West of Porthcawl say that there are good runs of mackerel and sand eels.
Warmer weather in June should improve fishing, watch this space.


Llandegfedd Reservoir 01291 673722
Despite a very wet and windy end to the week Llandegfedd has continued to provide high quality sport for those who visited the water. Warm and fairly settled weather during the early part of the week helped encourage a few good hatches of buzzer and sedge. With water temperatures lifted to 15 degrees by the warm sunshine, the inevitable appearance of pin fry seems to have taken place almost two weeks early this season. The usual worries about the trout turning to feed almost exclusively on these very small fry and effectively putting an end to fishing for at least two or three weeks until they are large enough to imitate, seem to have been allayed as good numbers of fish are still being taken on nymphs and blobs. Marabou tailed Montana has been producing a good number of fish, again due probably to the number of tadpoles that are present in the shallow areas of the reservoir. Water clarity remains exceptionally clear with no signs of algae despite warm and calm conditions.
The shallower areas of the reservoir are still holding a good proportion of the fish with consistently good bags being recorded from Bill Smith’s, East Bank, Inlet and North Shore. Despite a few heavy stockings of fish near the dam in an attempt to improve fishing in the deeper waters, fish seem to have moved fairly quickly to the opposite end of the reservoir to produce some very easy fishing. Bank fishing in the above areas continues to be a little on the easy side, and boats venturing close to the woods in Bill Smith’s have been picking up limit bags in under a hour with the average size of fish around the 2 lb mark and smaller numbers of fish up to 7 lb being taken.
Prospects look a little uncertain for the coming week with the forecast mixed weather conditions. Wet and windy spells will produce coloured water on wind-blown shores effectively pushing fish out into deeper water. Increasing numbers of pin fry could also bring about a sudden end to the easy fishing. However, with fry having been present for at least two weeks and in smaller numbers than previous years it is likely that fishing will be just as easy as in previous weeks. Once again, try floating lines with teams of nymphs, Diawl Bachs seem to be the favourite at the moment, gold head marabou Montana, a variety of nymphs fished washing line style on intermediate should also work well in deeper water, but use nothing heavier than a Di3. Dries and emergers should work well down the centre of the reservoir, and sparklers may start to take fish close to any structures capable of providing shelter to pin fry.
Continued weekly stockings of fish will provide a good head of stockies for the lure fisherman looking for a few easy fish, but there are still plenty left from earlier stockings building into a good head of resident fish that will only be tempted by more imitative approaches. June usually sees fish starting to feed avidly on the surface, with small shoals visible from hundreds of yards away as they run the length of the lake in search of emerging insects and wind-blown terrestrial species. Boat anglers can capitalise on these fish by positioning the boat upwind of a shoal and waiting for them to come within range. A bushy dry, flashy lure or team of nymphs may tempt one or two to chase, but takes are not guaranteed, as these fish sometimes seem to ignore everything thrown at them! Good fun nonetheless.

Beanhill Trout Fishery 01594 529846

Spring fishing for midge feeders at Beanhill Lake has been about as good as it gets. Amazingly though, during these coolish days of wind and showers, very few anglers have visited the lake. Experience says they will be queuing up to fish, and expecting to catch what’s more, come the blue skies and hot sun of July and August, although It is hard to understand why. Good spring fishing isn’t necessarily easy though – you need to watch what the fish are doing and follow them. Oliver Burch fished the water and reported his day out.

Arrive early to find a post-dawn caenis hatch in progress. The lake surface is calm although a day of wind and showers is predicted, but trout are already moving slowly everywhere sipping in the tiny white flies. I waste an hour and half trying to match the microscopic creatures with various patterns, producing only a nervous twitch – which I miss – on a sub-surface Diawl Bach. A small Grey Duster might have done it, but I left that fly box at home in my river bag.

At 7.30 I give up in disgust and tie on a Red Copper Jim. Hardly an imitative fly, even if it’s small and has a nymph like profile, this one on a size 12 hook, from the front, goes copper bead, fringe of peacock herl, red copper wire, orange
pheasant tail fibres. It’s bright, it’s red, it enters the water with a plop, and it says “come and get me.” You guessed it – on the first cast there is a solid lock up as a rainbow takes on the drop. What’s more, a second rainbow takes it on the next cast, once the first fish has been released.

At around that time, the predicted westerly wind gets up, dark clouds blow over the hills from the Wye valley and a short shower of icy rain begins. When I get back from zipping up the tackle bag, though, I can see that rainbows are still moving in the ripple, but the rise forms are more definite now. Despite the wind and commotion, proper midges are in evidence. I try a CDC Shuttlecock on the dry fly rod . As an experiment, I am using the Greys Missionary 10ft 4/5 weight which I usually use for wet fly fishing in the rivers, but it sends a small dry fly beautifully down wind. More to the point, this is a very soft rod which needs a slow casting action, but it means I can hope to get away with a very a light nylon tippet. A couple of fish swirl at the Shuttlecock without taking. I change it for a size 14 Grizzle Emerger, which is a sort of marriage of Buzzer and Griffiths Gnat tied on a Kamasan B100 grub hook. Above the water it’s a light confusion of barred fibres with two tiny Badger hackle tip wings, but very prominent is the curved black midge abdomen protruding below the surface. A rainbow takes it confidently at a distance on the first cast, the leader tightening gradually as the fish goes down before I play and release a fish hooked in the scissors. The little fly fished on a slow retrieve accounts for three more fish in the next half hour. As the fish are fit and full of spring-time energy, there are a series of jumps and sizzling runs, which I have to accommodate carefully on this light tackle without breaking the tippet or straightening the hook.
The wind drops and the sun comes out. The fish go deeper and with the surface now calm, the Grizzle Emerger no longer seems to pull them up. I go back to the Copper Jim on the second rod, casting it in front of fish which I can see moving quickly three or four feet down, likely mopping up midge pupae on their way to the surface. One more rainbow falls for it, but after that the fly seems to have lost its effectiveness. In the clear water I can see a number of fish follow it down without taking.
A new approach is required, so I change the Copper Jim for a size 12 Flexifloss Black Buzzer, but tied on a light wire hook (B100) so that I will not be fishing too deep, even with a long fluorocarbon leader. I have learned that getting a fly to work at the right depth is perhaps more important than anything else on such days. This single buzzer rig seems about right and four rainbows in quick succession take it confidently. I lose a couple of fish due to the fine wire hook opening out under the strain of head-shaking against the stiff-tipped rod. I change the buzzer for a version tied on heavier wire (B110), but a size smaller at 14 to keep the weight around the same. This I can rely on, however hard the fish pulls.

Dark clouds come scudding over to obscure the sun again again, the wind and rain come back and the surface is once more covered by ripples and speckled by falling droplets. Quite soon the rainbows are higher in the water again and rises can be seen like oily slicks against the wave pattern. The dry fly rod and Grizzle Emerger, which produces more good takes as it fishes slowly round with the wind. One fish takes it on top, but a second, interestingly, takes the fly drowned, just a couple of inches under the surface.

BRISTOL WATER Tel 01275 332339
TOTAL FISH NOW TAKEN 24,571
A very unsettled week. This week has experienced changes from hot to cold, flat calm to strong winds, dry to continuous rain. Wind direction has changed from SW to NE. Water Levels have risen slowly during the past week and the winds have coloured up some areas at times. Both main lakes now have some algae present and the weed is beginning to grow in places. The colour in Lower Litton is now going. The water temperature at the surface has risen to12°C.

Chew Lake The varying weather conditions have affected sport this week. At times fish have been on the surface and taking dries. But severe changes in conditions often turned the fish off and made fishing very uncomfortable in the strong winds and very heavy rain. The warmer water has encouraged good fly hatches when conditions have allowed and there has been a couple of good evening rises. The south-west eliminator was held on Sunday in very cold and windy conditions. 25 anglers entered and between them they caught 88 fish, a good result considering the poor weather. Two limits were taken but several anglers came ashore early suffering from the cold made worse by the continuous rain and north winds. Winner on the day was KEITH GOLLOP closely followed by RICHARD COBBLEDICK. Other qualifiers were TONY BALDWIN, DEREK STENNER and JOHN BOWEN. On the day the rainbows failed to feed after the first couple of hours but plenty of browns were taken boosting bag numbers. Keith took he biggest fish of the day, a 5.11 rainbow while John Bowen also captured a 5.07 fish. A brown of 5.14 was reported from boat angler S. Dixon earlier in the week.
Blagdon Another good week for the bank fishermen when conditions have allowed. Most areas are fishing well with Long Bay, Green Lawn and Wood Bay producing lots of fish. When the wind turns north try the seat along to Orchard
Bay. Boats have struggled to find sheltered water on many days. Cheddar Water, Butcombe and Top End have all fished well when the wind has decreased.
Barrows A disappointing week at the Barrows. Neither lake has fished well with few fish showing and the water stirred up by the constantly changing winds.
Litton As with the other lakes things have not been so easy this week. Few fish are moving and at times shelter from the wind has been hard to find. But the good fish are still being caught with two more 5+ fish taken this week.
This Weeks Catch:
Chew Valley: 545 fish to 290 rods, an average of 1.9 per rod.
Blagdon 399 fish to 226 rods, an average of 1.8 per rod.
Barrows: 238 fish to 120 rods, an average of 2.0 per rod.
Litton 23 fish to 11 rods, an average of 2.1 per rod.
Total fish taken from all waters: 24,571 fish to 6,773 rods, average 3.6 per rod.

Cwm Hedd Trout Fishery 07980562876
On calmer days fish are moving on top and taking a variety of flies. Buzzers, hares ear and dries, hoppers, daddies and sedges. Intermediate lines worked well with small lures such as cats whisker, Montana and bloodworms. Terry Cameron landed a nice 3½ lb brown on a PTN. Shaun Hawks took 2 fish for 5 lb on hares ear and buzzers. Carl Williams 4 - 10 lb on a cats. Please note that the fishery will close on Sunday 17 th June until the end of September, date of re-opening to be confirmed.

Ravensnest Trout Fishery 01291 689564
Blues going well with good bags recorded. Richard Jenkins, Cardiff 6½ lb blue, Brian Clarke, Langstone 6¼ lb blue, Ian Holloway, Cardiff 6½ lb blue plus a 5 lb 14 oz rainbow. Collin Sutton, Cardiff 13 lb 6 oz rainbow, Brian Jones, Newport 12 lb 14 oz r/bow, both fish returned. Released fish were; All returned 20 fish, Towy Hancock, Caerleon, R. Cox Caerleon, S. Sutton, Cardiff and J. Edwards, Gilwern.

Seven Oaks Fishery 01446 775474
The week has been rather quiet although good fish were taken. Gareth Evans, Caerphilly had a good day with 5 rainbows for 19 lb bf 5 lb r/bow all taken on a rubber legged daddy. Anglers have been successful with daddies and buzzers fished with a slow retrieve figure of eight. Rainbow to 5 lb are coming out on a daily basis.
Big Well Trout Fishery 01600 772904
A mixed week the weather played an important part in catches. Wind and rain reduced anglers visiting the fishery. Abergavenny angler Harry Meadows took four fish for 10 lb. Dev West, Abertillery 2 - 5 lb,Hugh West Abertillery 4 - 9½ lb. A group from the Monow day care centre, ‘Hook Line & Sinker’ had a very enjoyable day and all went away with one fish, including Graham Cooper, Gareth Humber and Coralie Danton all were assisted by their carers. Anglers whoe released fish were; R. Aubrey 7, R. Bancroft 6, A. Jones 7, B. Phillips 4, and R. Pandy 5. Daddies did well and most patterns were catching.
Proprietor of the fishery, Colin Evans took a day off from his duties and fished the Wye on the upper bigsweir beat. His day was made when he caught and returned a salmon of approximately 14 lb on a yellow condom.


Eglwys Nunnydd Glamorgan 07791 429672
Still very difficult at the moment with very few limit bags being caught there are numerous fish rising which can be infuriating but the few fish that are being caught when spooned are full of very small insects which are practically impossible to imitate.
Hopefully with the change in weather it may stop the fish being so finicky.
Day tickets are available at £15.00 a day. Season tickets £150 plus social club fees £15.60

Eglwys Nunnydd Glamorgan 07791 429672
Still very difficult at the moment with very few limit bags being caught there are numerous fish rising which can be infuriating but the few fish that are being caught when spooned are full of very small insects which are practically impossible to imitate.
Hopefully with the change in weather it may stop the fish being so finicky.
Day tickets are available at £15.00 a day. Season tickets £150 plus social club fees £15.60



Glyncorrwg Ponds 01639 851900
Report as of 21st May 07
Heaviest Bag: M .Gale, 3 fish, 22lb, bf 18lb .
T. Lewis 4 fish 15lb, D. Bell 4 fish bf 6lb 8oz, G Patrick 3 fish, 11lb, L. Davies
2 fish 7lb.
Floating lines with Goldhead daddy, Diawl Bach, Hawthorn, Gray Sedge, Mayfly, Black Peacock and CDC worked well.
Fishery is open from 8.00 am until 8.00pm Monday – Friday and Sunday, 8.00 am – 6.00pm Saturday.