I fished at Llynnau Gamallt Lakes over the late May bank holiday weekend … the sunny spells that were forecast were few and far between and instead the wind was brisk and cool, we had spells of rain and low cloud clipped the top of Graig goch. However, sitting and taking in the scenery and looking for signs of surface feeding when I arrived at 9:30 am, it was wasn’t long before the insect life was apparent and the few forecast sunny days during the week had obviously livened things up. Alder fly were buzzing/crawling about the fringes, freshly hatched damselfly were drying out in the grass and a hatch of dark reddish “cogyn” (ephemeroptera duns) that would last all day was just getting underway and sailing their way across the lake to the awaiting brownies feeding actively in the margins where the duns were collecting and wind lanes in the middle of the lake. At about 13:30 the first sedges were skittering across the surface at the lake edge. Don’t under-estimate how big these sedges are, they are probably 2 or so centimetres long! The water temperature was 15 ºC at 20 cm depth so good for catch and release with a good oxygen content.
I missed my first opportunity with my second flick of the line as I was still sorting out my line and finding me bearings. It was the start of a fab day with some slow periods but many intense periods where almost every few casts or every 10 -20 m of shoreline a fish was having a go at the flies. The takes were hard and confident with the fish practically launching themselves out of the water in the process at times. I missed loads but caught a stack, so much so that I am left in no doubt how many fish are in the lakes, so when things are quiet and you aren’t catching it isn’t owing to a lack of fish. I had a little play and am convinced that I brought more to the net when I offset the gape of the hooks which were either barbless or debarbed to facilitate catch and release. I caught on hawthorn flies, yellow owls with a red butt, plain yellow owls but the most successful fly of the day was a classic Goddard caddis pattern worked in close to the shore that by the end of the day it was so sodden it was practically skimming under the surface of the water but that seemed to work even better and the brownies smashed it within seconds of it hitting the water on the first skittering draw back to the bank.
I think the following video compilation best summarises an absolutely stunning days fishing where I caught some cracking trout ALL on dry fly. Apologies for the quality, I shot the footage on my camera on my own so it might be a bit wobbly in parts. I should also note that in most cases the barbless hook came out in the netting process or the fish was unhooked while still in the water, was then rested in the net and was out of the water for no longer than 3 or so seconds to capture these images during the release process.
Tight Lines
Greg