Deep & Dirty At Clywedog June 25

When you fish Clywedog reservoir in early June, there is probably one thing on your mind - the Coch-y-bonddu beetle. When this beetle falls onto the water here, it really is something else ! People travel the length and breadth of the UK, to fish here in June, for this spectacle, and I was no different this time round.

The first couple of days were windy, and there was very little sign of any beetles on the water. Armoured withy 3 rods, a floating line with a black beetle, and size 12 black daddy, another floating line, with a fab and 2 small diawl bachs, and the 3rd A Di-3 with the fish finding " olive slinky"

We started in Bigga, as did many other boats, right at the top end. Both armed with dries, we cast off. A good half an hour in and neither of us had had so much as an offer, though we had seen some fish taken off the top, but many were getting caught "on the pull" It had got a little congested in here shall we say, and with an irritating swirling fresh wind, we headed out to the other end of Bigga, the mouth.

I took one quite quickly on the nymph set up, but it was scarce going after an hour or so in.

With the ever increasing wind, we headed to the small dam, at the other end of the lake. It was time for some di3 action, and the slinky !! I knew if there was any fish around, then this fly would find them and it did, first cast ! Chris and I both sat the day out with the Slinky, and boated around 17 fish for the day. We had intermittently used the dries, however, very little action for us was had, though we had heard of some reasonable catches on black daddies. In hindsight, I guess had we have sat on dries all day, we would have picked fish up, though they certainly weren't on them, as I have experienced before in June.

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Day 2 was yet another blustery day, however always the optomist, both Martin and I started off on the dries. Again, a little while in, and the signs were there, that they were not really on it ! We started down at the dam this time round, and there were fish moving, but we could get them interested. I switched to the nymphs, then soon picked up a couple fish,but it just did not feel right. Clywedog is better than this! On the back of the few days hot weather leading up to my visit, and it then carrying on, my intuition told me, the fish numbers, must be deep, they had to be.

A switch to a di7 by Martin, and a booby basher by myself, opened the door, to not the most comfortable way to fish, but certainly the fish floodgates ! This cracking brown, certainly came from the deeps. 30 seconds down on a 3' leader on a di-7

A 4' leader and size 12 Flash Attack Clywedog Booby, and single Cat Booby for Martin, proved the way to go, as we started catching fish consistently. A good distant cast, leave it for 20 seconds, then inch it back,  was the tactic. They were certainly deep !! We finished the day with 20 plus fish.

Day 3 and Martin & I started in Bigga, this time fishing a small fab, and two size 12 diawl bachs. Finally we had some nice fishing, as we both boated numerous fish in here, including some cracking spartic trout. There were plenty of fish up there, however it did get a little congested each day early on, so once more, we moved away. We hit most shore lines from here to the small dam, but struggled to find some consistent fishing with the nymphs. Probably something to do with the blazing sun, and 29 degrees temperature !!!  The Di-7 approach was soon deployed, and once more, started the upward fish count once more.

My final day was sared with England Youth Angler Alexander.  Knowing the Bigga arm had plenty of fish, and the winds now settled down, we headed up there early, before it got busy. Alex had set up with a washing line, with a small fab, and two diawl bachs, and I had gone for a 3 fly starught line buzzer set up. I soon realised I was in a match enviroment ( lol) as Alex very quickly raced into a 2 nil lead, of which he quickly reminded me. Undeterred, I soon raced into a 3 -2 lead, fishing 3 size 10 buzzers. Noticeably, all 3 fish came to the point fly. The deepest fly on the cast!

Now the initial enthusiastic "i'm winning" had got out of our systems, we moved onto  other areas. Today was much calmer, however we still couldn't get the dries working. With the fishing generally proving tricky, there is one area on the lake that always holds big numbers of fish, and that is the area from the sailing club to the cages.

Having earlier spoken to an angler in the car park, he had done well on the indicator the day before, so this was now on my radar. The days before, had certainly taught me the fish were in no mood to chase, and for me, didn't really want to entertain the surface either, so the indicator had to be worth a look.

I decided to use the Flash Attack Mohito worm, and wow did they want it !!  It really highlighted, despite all of our nice approaches, dries, nymphs, on floating lines, tip lines, di-3 lines, you really do have to think outside the box, and sometimes go with the less obvious. For me, there is almost always a tactic that will work, you just have to find it !

Alex soon switched and found fish stared coming consistently, including this lovely rainbow of about 6lb.

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All week it had felt the most number of fish were holding deep, and this was proven when we fished the indicator. Mine was up with 2 flies. a buzzer at 9', then the Flash Attack Mohito worm at 14'. Every fish I landed (x 10) took the Mohito worm at 14'. Alex had set his fly at 10', and never had a pull, until I extended it for him, to match mine at 14', then hey presto - he started catching FISH, very quickly indeed.

As with all fishing methods, it rarely last all day, an the indicator was the same.  Now having identified the depth the fish were holding at, I switched tactics again. This time a single red apps worm on a booby basher. Cast a good line out, and pulled it straight back, (3' pulls) and I took 5 fish rapidly, lost 2, and unfortunately got snapped by a thunderous take. Most takes came when the fly was half way back, so it had certainly gained some deoth at this point.

The 4 days conclusion - The fishing was not fishing with floating lines, dries, and nymphs as we had hoped for, and had experienced the same period last year. Of course, this was mainly down to clear blue skies at times, blustery winds, and high temperatures. Changing from our desired tactics was key, and fishing deep proved the best tactics, and not with flies I would normally use, but that's fishing. Sometimes, if you want to catch fish, you have to do what you have to do. Speaking to some anglers each day, many found it hard going, with catches of one a piece common, though some did much better. Our boat average was 15 over the 4 days, but without going deep, we wouldn't have got near that.

The 4 best performing flies can be viewed by clicking on the links below. Flash Attack's Warrior F1 8lb flurocarbon was used all week, on all lure tactics, and 7lb was used for the dries.

Mohito Worm Fly CODE MHW1 (s10) – FlashAttackFlies

Apps Worm Fly Red CODE HL34 (s10) Barbless – FlashAttackFlies

Clywedog Booby Fly CODE BB14 (S10,12) – FlashAttackFlies

Crisp Packet Buzzer Fly CODE HHB3 (s10,12,14) – FlashAttackFlies

Flurocarbon Fishing Line 7,8,9,10, & 12lb 100m Spools – FlashAttackFlies

tight lines

Craig