The river is at drought level, but there is always hope! Someone posted a video on Facebook this week of a lone fish slipping into the tail of a tidal pool near Rhuddlan.
![Image]()
River Clwyd 2025
1 reading
elwyman
41 - 53 of 53 Posts
Joined
·
1,512 Posts
The last 2 years have been brutal for a lot of rivers it would appear. How long do we keep heading out for a night session before we start to say it's just not worth it?
Joined
·
2,627 Posts
That's a very good question Tote. While I enjoy being on a river at dusk, I'd be equally happy on a beach or a reef somewhere plugging for bass in the summer months.
I said to another angler last night that I can see night fishing for sea trout on the Clwyd just fading into history. Its hard to see why younger people and newbies to fly fishing would want to put in the effort if they aren't catching fish.
I suppose us old timers keep going because we have some great memories of good nights when there were many more fish in our rivers.
...but I admit it's getting harder to make the effort.
Joined
·
2,627 Posts
I've put a lot more effort into fishing Llyn Brenig for trout this season. At 1200' and 920 acres, it's a big water with great scenery. Its got a reputation for good top of the water fishing, and I do enjoy fishing a dry fly, particularly when casting to rising fish.
I caught thus 5.5lb beauty in the heatwave last week. I saw it rise and it took the fly on second cast. Fin perfect, it must have been in a while.
![Image]()
Coincidentally, I caught my second ever jack pike from Brenig last week. They can be caught to over 20lb by pikers in the winter.
![Image]()
I said the scenery was nice.
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
I caught thus 5.5lb beauty in the heatwave last week. I saw it rise and it took the fly on second cast. Fin perfect, it must have been in a while.
Coincidentally, I caught my second ever jack pike from Brenig last week. They can be caught to over 20lb by pikers in the winter.
I said the scenery was nice.
Demoralizing isn’t it . It’s hard for people to process especially for those who remember when things were good. All along I knew I wasn’t going crazy listening to how some folks were re telling what we knew about sea trout? First one I noticed was trying to discombobulate my memory that by Mid May down the West Country the rivers would have sea trout in the entire system of rivers where by the first month in June was my chosen time to fish for what were the decent size fish before the school Peal but still in large numbers. Maybe just refusing to see it I would hear that second week of Wimbledon was always the time when they arrived.
Needing several large spares to bring the fish in is another I heard despite the fact that I often didn’t want any spates and yes the fish would be there in low water.
Season was always over by September is not something I remember re the Dwyfor that had some huge runs of two pounds type fish throughout September and Into October and another late running class of big fish.
I could go on but it’s depressing to even try and compare the current state to how it was twenty years ago.
Like Atlantic salmon of the Victorian era my take is that they supposed to be in huge numbers as they were when most rivers had netting stations.
The only fish I found in two weeks on the Dwyfor was one really big fish sat on the bottom surrounded by sardine like sea trout of just a few ounces which suggests that they not leaving the river in spring as smolts and finding the food that would ordinarily see em return as school fish in July imo.
I’ve thought all along that with such extreme weather now and devastating spates during and after spawning there survival strategy for having back up fish at sea has been tested to the max.
I’ve been for a few daytime walks along various stretches of the Elwy over the last few weeks, throwing small rapala type lures into any deeper water and under trees etc. I was very surprised to see good numbers of sea trout emerge from the shadows to chase the lure. There were some quite large (around 4lb) fish up as far as near Llanfair TH. I was very surprised to see how far these fish had progressed up the system given the water levels. It’s amazing to see fish emerge from seemingly dead water, then disappear again. Catching them is a different matter though! Very encouraging to see them though.
Yea I remember a time when I felt like I had such an advantage on those fishing worm when on a falling water with the right color that my small brown trout rapala cast under trees just couldn’t fail to catch. Like you say I’ve had many a fish follow one in clear water but they would often shy away last second. Caught my first salmon on the Ogwen however in such conditions, albeit not a fresh fish it was a clonker.
Joined
·
42 Posts
fished lower Elwy on Thursday, about 5.30pm hit a few shoals of Sea Trout caught 5 in 1-1.5lb range and lost a lot but nothing big. Got 6 trout mixed in and what I think was a small salmon I lost at the net. The rain has certainly brought them up need to get out again before 17th close season!
41 - 53 of 53 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
