Fishing Beacons Reservoir

I've been searching for something similar to the big and fairly wild brown trout reservoirs in the south west, but a little closer to our home in the Cotswolds. My search has centred around Wales and I found the various 'wilderness' reservoirs Welsh Water have. Beacons reservoir looked a great bet,

View from the far bank

primarily wild brown trout with the odd rainbow, so I booked a ticket through the Wye & Usk Foundation. We arrived and given there was a road right next to it with bikes howling up and down, it wasn't very wilderness at all. The two fishable spots on the near bank already had anglers on them and so we headed to the far bank. However it was very bright with not a cloud in the sky, plus very gusty, with the wind not settling in any direction. It made for very difficult fishing, especially with a #5, so I never really got going properly.

A Beacons reservoir brownie

Nonetheless a 3/4 pound brown trout was decent enough to attach itself to a Bibio on the point once I'd switched to sink tip, so we didn't go fishless. Later on in the day when anglers on the near bank left, it was then busy with passers by stopping to sunbathe or sit around, so by 2pm I decided to call it best and head the two hours back home. The water would be good fished from a boat, but it doesn't lend itself to bank fishing very well. There were about five people fishing there in total which given the condition, filled up most fishable spots. It's not a very pleasant experience with lots of people and litter about and its obviously not secluded. Good to tick another one off, but I probably won't be rushing back. Llyn Bugeilyn looks a much better prospect, shame it's so far away... Back home for Fernworthy or maybe Colliford next weekend, can't wait!

Opening the season at Clatworthy

Father and I headed down to Clatworthy at the weekend against our better judgement, it was a cold day with a cold wind. Nonetheless we wanted to kick the season off so over we went, the wife elected not to fish...

Fishing from the far bank I started with a floating line, twitching back a small gold head GRHE on the point, a red buzzer next up and a PTN on the dropper. To my surprise I was into a fish within about 15 minutes, the fish took the buzzer,
probably about 7 - 8 feet down (right).

After that it was a fairly slow business until I missed a good thump fairly deep on the point fly, then got a savage take close in on the GRHE twenty minutes later to yield a second fish. Meanwhile Father had headed up the bank and caught two in quick succession fishing a Black and Peacock on a floating line. A couple of hours passed with not much doing and the after a brief spell of sunshine the weather refused to lighten up, so I changed to an intermediate, pulling a mini white booby on the point (felt a bit dirty), and a Zulu variant on the dropper. Was into a fish first cast on the point. so that seemed to work. Then on the third cast bang again and was into a another fish, which once I'd played it in a bit, turned out to be two fish, one on each fly! I must have just hit a pod of them and being early season, they were probably less wairy of lures, which everybody seems to drag in all day round there. So that was me, Father picked up one more fish but really by 3.30pm, it was colder, the fish were done for the day, so we were off home to the fire. A good day given the conditions, it seemed less a case of using a specific fly and more a case of being at the right depth and finding a pod of fish. The fish were all between two and three pounds, so seemed smaller than previous seasons at Clatworthy, but it was only one day so if I'm there again this season, we'll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I hear Roadford and Colliford have made a strong start, so look forward to getting down there as soon as I can.