In order to avoid the summer doldrums on my usual fishing grounds, the midlands reservoirs like Blithfield Reservoir, I decided to spice up my summer fly fishing and try one the many Welsh reservoirs which, with the benefit of altitude, is cooler and hopefully more active. Lake Vyrnwy / Llyn Efyrnwy has all of the key ingredients I was looking for: at 255 m altitude it is undoubtedly cooler, a dominantly brown trout venue with a natural head of brown trout, a few stocked rainbows to 9 lbs in weight thrown in to spice things up, is less than a 2 hour commute, is off the beaten track with only 10 boats available, is abounding in natural beauty as well as having the enchanting Victorian architecture of the dam wall as well as the Hotel and Spa that overlooks the lake.
My eldest daughter was also keen to give it a try, especially as I had agreed that she could navigate and drive the boat for the day. Having reviewed the ticket options we decided to make a day of it and opt for the day fishing package which includes breakfast and a picnic lunch. As planned we started the day with a bacon butty and cup of coffee in the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel and Spa restaurant overlooking the lake. While this was a good way to start the day after a 1.5 hour journey it was somewhat bitter sweet as having viewed the lake we couldn’t wait to get started. Paperwork all done and lunch ordered we started the process of loading up the boat motor and batteries.
This sounded simple enough but proved to be a significant drawback to fishing at this venue. Loading the electric motor into the car and the boat was easy enough compared to the large accompanying batteries which must weight 20 – 25 kg each. Loading one battery would have been bad enough but we were advised to take a spare and with having limited experience of electric motors I was not going to ignore the advice and end up rowing a few miles back to the boat house. Loading these heavy batteries from a wobbly pontoon at Boat House Pool onto a boat loosely moored at one end by a chain and manoeuvring them to the right place (they were too large to slide under the seats) all while trying to avoid ending up in the lake and setting off my spinal compression fracture was extremely difficult. In addition, I didn’t read the white marker pen writing on the top of the engine I had selected which was a mistake as certain engines DO NOT fit all of the boats and as luck would have it the boat and engine were not compatible necessitating a return to the hotel to swap engines.
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There was the odd rise in the Boat House Pool itself as we set off and we were half tempted to have a dabble right there before passing under Pont Cynon and hitting the lake but decided this might be a good way to end the day or if the weather turned. With a south-westerly wind of around 7 miles/hour we decided to focus our initial efforts on the bank between the straining tower and the rocky point just before Pont Cynon. With no sign of trout anywhere at the surface we started with a 3 fly wet cast comprising a black humongous on point, zulu on the middle dropper and a bushy Kate Mclaren on the top dropper. Several drifts yielded nothing. We were working the area beyond and around the straining tower when a common cranefly (Tipula oleracea) came skipping across the water from under the last arch of the bridge joining the straining tower to the bank. I took this as a sign and switched to my favoured method of dry flies with a cream coloured foam CDC bubble daddy on the point and a CDC emerger on the first dropper. Within 5 minutes I was into my first trout of the day having cast close to the overhanging trees lining the bank. Applying side pressure to keep the trout from retreating back into the trees and snagging the line it wasn’t long before Neve had it in the net. A wonderfully coloured, albeit a little on the dark side, brown trout. After a few quick pictures, being careful to follow best practice for catch and release, the trout was released with a feisty flick of its tail, clearly fully recovered. There is nothing more satisfying than reading the situation and making the right fly choice, especially when you tied the fly yourself the night before.
Brimming with confidence we worked our way back along the bank towards the rocky outcrop just before Pont Cynon. The decision to stick with the dry flies seemed to be justified as we encountered a range of terrestrials on the water as we drifted. Another crane fly skipped passed, we photographed a wasp (Vespula vulgaris) caught in the surface film and fished a forest shield bug (Pentatome rufipes) out of the surface film to photograph it. While it seemed that terrestrials blown out of the dense vegetation that lines the lake were common we did not have any further success with the dries which we varied around a little as we went to test different colours. Having exhausted this section of the shoreline we decided it was time to move on.
We set off towards the bay where the Cedig flows into the lake, another hotspot according to Westropp, with a view to taking a break at the picnic site there before starting the afternoons fishing but it was slow going with the south westerly and it just seemed too far away to incorporate into the afternoon. So we crossed the lake to picnic site near Llechwedd-du farmhouse with a view to working our way back along the southern bank towards the lake wall. This crossing into the teeth of the wind took more than 20 minutes and we felt justified in our decision to not head off to Cedig. The electric motors seem to be propelling the boat quite quickly, however, you don’t go anywhere at pace on a large water like this even at full throttle. The picnic lunch supplied by the Hotel was provided in a cool bag and comprised a sandwich, piece of fruit, packet of crisps, chocolate bar and cool drink. When the sun ducked behind the clouds it was a little chilly in the stiffening breeze and the flask of hot chocolate really hit the mark. In fact this was a really key factor in getting Neve through the slow fishing afternoon providing boosts of sugar and warmth when her spirits were flagging. We had the odd take as we worked the bank back towards the lake wall, however, they always seemed to come short to the fly and I somewhat suspect that we were being bothered by chub rather than trout.
Once past the Cownwy Tunnel it was a little frustrating not to be able to fish along the dam wall towards the Marchnant tunnel, however, the rules state that when water is flowing over the dam spillway that fishing is restricted to beyond a line joining the two tunnels. This was frustrating as kids were paddling canoes and paddle boarding right along the dam wall yet we were unable to fish this stretch. There was one other boat out that we could see fishing at the mouth of the Marchnant Tunnel and it seemed that they were likely to be working the bank back to the Boat House Pool in the final hour of the day as we had planned. This necessitated a change in plan so we decided to head off to beyond the straining tower and drift back along that bank again, drifting through the middle arch of the bridge. Our luck didn’t change on this final drift. On entering the pool the trout that had been feeding when we set off in the morning were nowhere to be seen and our day ended without wetting the net again.
We returned to Boat House Pool tired but had the daunting task of unloading the boat ahead of us. Unloading the boat was made easier by the help that the two gents in the other boat provided and I was extremely grateful. They were also newbies trying Llyn Efernwy to escape the summer doldrums of their local waters and had been a little more successful than us with a bag of 5 fish between them. They had also been successful with daddies as well as montanas. Batteries and motors returned to the Hotel we were exhausted and decided to hit the road albeit a pint in the bar overlooking the lake at sunset was an appealing prospect. While a few more fish would undoubtedly have made the adventure a resounding success it was none-the-less a great day out. The scenery is stunning and catching a wild brown trout on a fly tied by your own hand is always special. Were it not for the loading and unloading of ridiculously heavy batteries into and out of an unstable boat tied to a wobbly pontoon by a single point this would no doubt be my new local water.
While on this occasion I decided to fish with the kids there is so much to see and do at Llyn Efyrnwy that I have included some of the things we enjoy or were keen to try while in the area. These might present some things for the family to do while you are off fishing . Child friendly things to do while at Llyn Efernwy:
Bicycle hire from the Old Barn Cafe and Artisans Cafe
Canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing and sailing with Bethania Adventure
Birdwatching in an RSPB reserve
Walking to cover a variety of abilities
Waterfalls, star gazing, horse riding and a whole lot more.
Tight Lines
Greg