Epic West Wales fishing weekend

Took myself off to Wales in search of it's wildest trout this weekend and managed to find a few. I was entirely self contained; the back of my old Shogun (my specialist fishing and pigeon shooting machine), converts into a flat bed and I'd plugged in a portable fridge, luxury...! I got to Llyn Bugeilyn late on Friday

evening, a drizzly fog was descending as the light failed and half an hour later, it was blowing a gale and lashing down with rain.

 A mile or so from the nearest road in horrible weather, it felt very desolate indeed. Happily it had blown out by the morning, so after a cup of coffee and hastily cooked egg and bacon roll, I was ready to go and on the water by 720am, then delighted with my first fish after a fair few missed takes at 745am. I managed to catch and return eight in total, up to about half a pound, before I set off for Nant-y-moch at around 11am.

Arriving at Nant-y-moch

Tony, a season ticket holder turned up in the morning, he'd been fishing it for years so it was good to have a chat and hear some of the stories. Sure enough, he was fishing exactly the same team as me! I'd heard it said before, but the fish do seem 'fast' at Bugeilyn, I had a lot of missed takes, maybe they just weren't committing. Fish came to all three flies in my team, a Gold Bead Bibio on point, a Black and Peacock spider on the dropper and a Claret dabbler on the bob, the latter taking the most of them.

I then set off cross country to Nant-y-moch, as it was about 20

miles shorter than the very indirect road route, but got thwarted by a locked gate into the forestry about two miles in. So unfortunately I wasted two hours retracing my steps, then taking the long route. Nonetheless, I got to Nant-y-moch and was delighted to be rewarded with a fish second cast. I went on to catch twelve in total, but they were mostly quite small and all returned but one; for my supper. I found Nant-y-moch a hard place to judge, as all I could find was a barren stone bottom, so it was a case of just fishing where the wind suited. Again the fish liked small and black, with a few on the claret dabbler.

After a delightful supper overlooking the water, I set off late down to Llyn Teifi. But arriving as darkness fell, I was confounded by my directions, so I parked up down a remote lane and settled in for the evening, weary from the excitement of the day. In the morning, I found the straight forward road route to Llyn Teifi and was on the water by eight.

Having walked round the other side, my first fish soon followed, with what proved to be a trademark, energetic take in the big wave. The fish were a better stamp here than at Bugeilyn or Nant--y-moch; all half a pound and upwards. I had a good few hours, totalling five fish to a Coch-y-Bondus, the Dabbler again and they quite liked the black Zulu on the point. I then headed over the hill to Llyn Hir, but unfortunately the wind didn't suit it, so I only fished for 20 minutes or so without a take. Then it was over again to Llyn Egnant which looks a great water, but I couldn't seem to get to grips with it.

After fishing it fairly well for three hours, on the windward and leeward banks, I hadn't even moved a fish. Sadly I had to give it best and head back to the car, but I was glad to see another fisherman eventually land one before I left. They're in there, but I don't know what I was doing wrong! Finally it was back home after a thoroughly enjoyable, but very tiring, proper fishing weekend. I shall definitely be back. Bugeilyn was a delight in it's remoteness and I'm sure there are some better fish to be had in Teifi. Exquisite fishing all.