Garnffrwd Fly Fishing

Great day...
Arrived around 8am to see fish heaving all around the lake obviously feeding just under the surface or in the film so set up a floating line with a size 14 flash back black beetle on the dropper and a size 16 cruncher on point. Fish following every cast and managed 1 brown and 2 rainbow in the first hour all to the black beetle.

As the morning progressed it was obvious that the fish were preoccupied with something in the surface film so changed to dries, an olive hopper on point and a dark claret shipman's buzzer on the dropper both size 14. Nothing on the shipman's but picked up a few rainbows on the hopper, however you could see that it was primarily browns taking on the surface and they were actively avoiding the hopper. By this time I had landed the 1 brown and 7 rainbows all around the 2lb mark, each one fought hard but happily the all slipped back and swam away strongly.

So it was time for a change and in recent years I've found small klinkhammers in various drab colours tied with an antron tail as a shuck have worked well particularly with the browns so on went an olive one on the dropper and a dark claret (almost black) one on point, both size 16, then the fireworks started....

.... I hooked 10 browns but only landed 6 as 4 rolled off, all on the dark claret. I swapped the flies around at one point to see if the dropper presentation was putting them off, but no they were fixed on the dark claret. 3 of the browns were in the 3lb plus bracket but the best was between 4.5 and 5lb and magnificently marked. It was hooked perfectly in the scissors but the fight was unbelievable... it was the first fish for a couple of years to strip me down to the backing and beyond. At one point I had to apologise to an angler in a swim way to my right as the fish careered through at his rod tip. As I unhooked it I discovered a tiny (size 20) pale yellow dry in its mouth with about 6 inches of line attached which is now in my fly box as it was in perfect nick and from the looks of things had not been there very long.

It went quiet in the afternoon, which was a good thing because I needed a rest by that time but I did manage 2 more rainbows on a dark claret buzzer with orange cheeks just before I packed in for a grand total of 16 fish including a fabulous brown.

Did I mention that it was raining... well it was but to be honest I didn't really notice when the sport, appearance, condition and fighting qualities of every fish I landed was just simply superb.

Great information, thanks very much. `i am down on Friday for the weekend and can hardly wait.