Healthy trout play big part on a good Friday

Apr 1 2008 by Moc Morgan, Western Mail

WHEN I was in college I read a long thesis written about Tregaron, my hometown. It was a really well written piece of work and made interesting reading – as indeed you would expect of an essay that gained a PhD.

I was particularly intrigued with one chapter that catalogued some old customs that existed in the area in bygone days. One was the custom of getting the gardens dug and ready for sowing by Good Friday, in the belief that if sown on such a day, the seeds would resurrect in a few days.

Scarcely believe!

However it is a fact that my father always did the garden on Good Friday! Another Eastertide custom saw anglers out on the riverbank, fishing.

Unfortunately the weather this Eastertide was not conducive to either gardening or fishing because of the cold, unpleasant north wind, and yet most of the big reservoirs in Wales were busy and fished really well. I visited Clywedog reservoir near Llanidloes and had a great time. All the boats were out and, as always the boat fishers had the best fishing!

When reservoir fishing, it is imperative for the angler to find the right depth at which to present the flies. We are fortunate today that we have fishing lines that sink very quickly and this helps to keep the flies at the required depth.

I was using a fishing line from the Airflo factory in Brecon, a Di3, and it worked a dream. Within a quarter-of-an-hour of starting I had a brace of trout – a rainbow and a brown. When the first trout of a season are caught it is important to see what condition they are in. The brace I had over-wintered well – both were solid and firm.

People often wonder what fish find to eat in the long winter months but you must not forget that the Environment Agency, the angling clubs and the river trusts add lime to the waters of rivers and lakes to kill any acidity in an effort to sustain the invertebrate population – and of course these creepy-crawlies are the food of fish.

Other reservoirs in Wales enjoyed good opening sessions too. Llandegfedd reservoir near Pontypool had some spectacular fishing on the top shore with the fish having over-wintered well and in great condition. They were deep in the water,. Llysyfran reservoir in Pembrokeshire was also on song with fish of good quality being caught and one or two jumbos in their midst. The fish had not been too deep in the water and not too far out.

Many anglers travel great distances to be out on their favourite reservoir during the opening days of a new season.

I wonder if we really appreciate the injection into the Welsh economy generated by our reservoirs. Llysyfran near Haverfordwest has really had a good opening spell. It is a gem of a fishery and will soon host the first leg of the Welsh National Fly Fishing Trials.

An important reservoir in Wales this year is Llyn Trawsfynydd in Gwynedd which has been voted to host the Autumn Fly Fishing International match. Here again the quality of fish has been good. Llyn Trawsfynydd has a good stock of wild brown trout and some anglers love fishing for these, as opposed to stocked rainbow trout.

Another reservoir that has had very good reports is Llyn Alaw on Anglesey. This is something of a secret reservoir as it is rather remote but I can assure you that the quality of the brown trout is second to none. The Elan Valley Fisheries have also kicked off well and Llyngwyn has produced some great fish.

Fishing calls for concentration and perseverance and one can be forgiven for taking the occasional break. After a short break when I generated some body warmth by having a bite to eat and sipping some hot coffee I resumed fishing.

I put a Booby on the point and a specially devised fly patterned by Terry Thomas on the dropper. The Booby’s buoyancy helped to ensure I fished at the correct depth and I soon took another brace.

My day was made!

I then motored along the road alongside the reservoir stopping occasionally to chat with other anglers. It was interesting to note how different each angler’s story was – but the important and uniting factor was that we had all enjoyed our day.

On my journey home I saw a number of people out gardening. Good luck to them – I hope their seeds will be as active in the deeps as the fish were for me at Eastertide.