Llyngwyn

Llyngwyn Lake, run by the Rhayader and Elan Valley Angling Association.

This was the second time I visited Llyngwyn in the last couple of weeks (I have one post on the Fishtec blog), having now taken a summer permit to fish the lake I’ll be spending more time fishing there.


A view of Llyngwyn trough the trees (boat house side)

Llyngwyn holds fond memories for me being the place I caught my first fish on the fly.  The previous visit  was difficult, the wind was high and it was bitter cold.  This time round it was a milder day and there was barely any wind, however, there was still a bite in the air.

I was fishing with a good friend Dan Graham, we met up by the lake and went to get Dan’s day ticket and also get the keys to take out a boat.

At the lake, as is common practise given the weather, I put on my Simms freestone waders, Guideline jacket and Buff. I tackled up 2 rods. A 6wt Flextec with an Airflo ridge intermediate line to pull the lures, I added 10ft 8lb G3 leader and a black Zonker. I also tackled up my 4/5wt Sreamtec Nantec rod with 15 ft 7lb G3, with a bloodworm on the point and 2 black buzzer imitations on the droppers. To be fished under a strike indicator.

We loaded the boat, and made out way from the boat house out into the lake.  The water was smooth as we set anchor about 30-40 ft from the boat house.  It was safe to say we weren’t the best boatmen! Having finally got ourselves sorted, we cast out. 

Boat House

I was casting with the wind behind me, towards the bank whereas Dan was casting into the light wind out into the middle of the lake.  All around us there were ripples on the surface, the fish were obviously up on the top and taking but we couldn’t work out what.  Even on close inspection of the water we were at a loss.  I carried on with the lure, stripped back on a short, fast retrieve having given the fly only time to get wet once it hit the surface.  Before long I was in, a good rainbow of 2 ½ lbs.  Catching him was the easy bit, as neither me nor Dan had ever really fished from a boat, landing him was an issue – a bit of teamwork finally did the job.  After a couple more casts another fish, this time a blue trout (unfortunately the pic I took didn’t come out!).  Both fish were spooned but they were empty – didn’t really help us did it.

Having had 2 and Dan none, we switched places and Dan was soon into fish.  His 2^nd of the day was this gorgeous blue trout.
 

In from that spot I had 2 and Dan had 4 before the wind really picked up.  Despite the anchor being down, we kept drifting and drifting.    We bobbed around on the boat until just after lunch when we decided to head back to dry land a fish from the bank.

By the time we set up on the bank, most of the other anglers had left for the day having not been too successful.  We decided to fish the lure again.  Within minutes I was in, and again, and again! Things were going crazy.  Dan moved up to where I was fishing and immediately caught.  The fish were probably relatively fresh stockies patrolling along the bank close to where they were put into the lake but I didn’t care… it was so much fun.  Dan casually asking how many I had caught, I was up to 6 (he was on 5), suddenly things turned into a friendly competition.  Fish after fish after fish came to the net.  I took this gorgeous 4lb rainbow, the pic doesn’t do him justice but he went back in to grace other anglers net.

We worked out the fish were moving in shoals.  Things went quiet for us both, then an angler at the one end of the bank had a fish, all of a sudden I was in and so was Dan.  I’ve never had sport quite like it but it really was seriously good fun.  I don’t care about having the biggest fish or the most I just really enjoy catching fish and as they were coming in so frequently it was bliss.  If you were wondering, I finished on 15, Dan 17.  Now to some people, this may not seem like a huge amount of fish to be caught in a day but from Llyngwyn you don’t see these numbers coming out all that often, especially given that 15 had been caught but the other angler down the bank the same afternoon. 

I don’t regularly take my bag limit of fish but due to the frequency of the stocking at Llyngwyn it is encouraged – here are the first 4 caught on the day.

Not just the fishing but the wildlife is great too.


Red Kite on the hunt

Im definitely heading back soon.  I bought myself an new 9’ 6wt Greys GRXI+  and a Greys GX500 reel from Fishtec in the week and I’m waiting on the new Airflo Super-Dri lines to come into stock so I’ll get a review written for them.  I’m buying both a wf4 and wf6 line so I’ll review them from both the river and a Stillwater.

Until next time…