Feedback & Reports

I was teaching my son to fish - none caught but a few fish moving and wonderful setting with a light wind. One other fisherman, who encouraged him to keep going and build his experience. So a really worthwhile day as part of a couple of days' camping. My first time back at the reservoir since my own fishing there in the late 1970s, hope to come back sooner!

The previous day had been spent on the middle Usk with a salmon hooked and lost early on. This visit to Taybont was a response to the fairly thick look of the river at Glangrwyney after breakfast (though one Crickhowell member was fishing the fly there). The lake looked good from the road with a steady to fresh wind coming up from the dam end under good cloud cover. Despite a modest succession of fish raised, pricked, hooked and lost - to dries or a small hackled middle dropper - finally all went well with a handsome cock fish net weighed at 2lb 11oz. It was worth the BH traffic home. On its day what a place.

2 Trout

Three brown trout, 9", 10" and a superb fish of 18", impossible to tell if the latter was a grown on stock fish from 2014 or completely wild, but either way an indication that the water supports trout to rival those in the Usk itself. Very windy, blowing down towards the dam, so fishing the right bank I was restricted to the more sheltered bays where the wind didn't push the fly line back around my head. As a consequence I fished heavier than I would have preferred with a 7wt ghost tip, GRHE gold head, Diawl Bach on the mid dropper and orange hopper on the top. One fish on each with the best to the Diawl Bach. A great way to spend a short afternoon and worth a whole day next time.

3 Trout

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Washed Off from The Breaconshire (no policy so wasted the opportunity) with water the colour of diluted chocolate.
Switched to Talybont Reservoir and the high winds and driving rain made it very hard to be enthusiastic.
Couple of fish caught after much thrashing of water and gnashing of teeth. Middle of summer was not like this in the old days (as I recall). Global warming needs to hurry up I think.

2 Trout

1 Trout

3 x trout 11-17 inches, Bibio and Pearly Harry. Another stormy evening on the shores of Talybont, with a big wind pushing white horses down the lake and a rather lurid sunset reflecting on the underside of clouds. Threatened rain, however, never quite came. Regulars are talking about the condition of some of the Talybont fish, which are really quite superb this season. One wonders what it is they are doing so well on: snail, corixae, sticklebacks? One of the disadvantages of rarely using a priest, these days, is that you don't get to use a marrow spoon either.

3 Trout

2 x trout, 16 and 18 inches, Pearl-Bellied Hare's Ear and Hatching Olive. A wet and windy evening on Talybont, with pearly grey cloud blowing through the valley, step and casting along the shore with a team of wets. Nothing at all happened for the first hour, so that I wondered if once again I had managed to show up at exactly the wrong time. (The previous evening I had arrived on the Towy to find plenty of sewin in the river, but the water up and full of debris - never much good for night fishing although I persevered until 1 AM. And the afternoon before that I had arrived at a much-loved beat on the Monnow, to find a mink hunt in full cry up the river channel. You can put all this down to bad timing).
However, on this evening when a good fish finally moved, I laid the flies a couple of yards upwind and got a very nice brownie. The same thing happened again a few minutes later and this time it was a really superb hen fish in the peak of condition and thick in the body. I had hoped to make it a hat trick, but after another long gap leading into dusk another heavy black shape rolled onto the Kate occupying the top dropper position and neatly amputated it from the leader with barely a pluck. I must have had too much line out. A memorable evening and a lovely brace of fish.

2 Trout

No fish were caught on the day. One good fish was lost. Conditions too hot.

All fish taken on surface flies (dry midge pattern). 1 fish taken (36cm in length). The rest were undersized and returned.

4 Trout