2 Days on the Snowdonia Lakes, Fantastic weather, shirt sleeve fishing.
Day 1 Started flat calm and the fish were rising everywhere you would swear it was raining, We had a cup of coffee and waited for a breeze to pickup.
Forecast right and a gentle breeze picked up and the Cog performed. When they landed on the water they did not get 10 ft before they were gobbled up by the trout.
Sounds great and it was to look at but they were pretty difficult to coax and take my well tried and trusted pattern. We had 9 fish by 3.00 pm, so left and had a few casts in its larger, sister lake.
Now these two lakes are literally a stones throw apart at one point but since I`m a boy the small lake wakes up a good 3 weeks before its larger sister, and this follows throughout the insect life cycle of the two lakes.
We had a walking cast on our way home and surprise, surprise we took 6 fish in an hour, then dead, not a fish to be seen. so packed up and went home with anticipation of a good next day.
Tuesday dawned and up we went, fished Big lake only today.
Wind was light and changing direction at will, but a short wait and we could fish again.
The morning was hard, 2 fish on 2 different flies so no clues there. The 1st fish was a cracker nudging 2 pounds and tore line off the reel as I had set it lightly due to an 8x tippet. Had an early lunch and started back about 2.30pm, a little of the same another 2 fish both again on different flies, so the lake was giving nothing away.
then Bingo I changed down to a size 21 Ginger emerging midge pattern and covering what rises I could took 4 fish, the last of which was a beautiful 1 3/4 lber.
Great fun, the best when you have to work out what's going on.
That's my fishing this week, old ffarts appointments and all that.
Tight lines all from

​ Brian of Fish Snowdonia/Eryri

 Yesterday saw me up to the jewel of the Cambrian lakes.
Bright sunshine and a steady breeze, perfect this time of year. The Cog(Claret Dun) was out and fish on it from the moment I arrived. They were not easy by no means and I having left my Gink floatant at home didn`t help, constantly having to change fly`s to keep them afloat. Had 2 in the net before noon but they changed from sipping Cog`s to splashy rises and were on the Green midge for a time only to change back on the Cog again. I ended up with 8 fish to hand but if I`d of had everyone I`d hooked stay on I would have been in the low 20s. Thank heavens they got off or I would have packed and gone home early. The challenge would have gone and its that, that ticks the boxes for me.
So loosing the fish kept me thinking "Why did they not take that properly" No answers I'm afraid, just the way it is sometimes.
Great sport, Tight lines to all my followers

​Brian, Fish Snowdonia/Eryri

This is a follow on from my Tuesday Blog, which if you recall was a very frustrating day`s fishing, flat calms to light airs and fish rising for 6 Hrs, and they were very difficult to catch.
Well taking those lessons learnt home to the tying vice and coming up with a pattern to do some damage, well that's fishing at its best.( For me anyhow)
My fishing buddy and I landed at the same lake at 10.30am, fish rising but flat calm.
The forecast was for a few heavy showers in morning, becoming sunny and the wind to pickup late morning. It all came together nicely, we got our downpour and went in for an early lunch, deciding to stay out all day once rain stopped.
the wind picked up slightly to give us a nice ripple and the Olive Midge emerger I tied the other day did the business, 2 fish and 3 rises to the Midge.
The wind picked up to about a 10mph in the afternoon, I fished on with the wind, my buddy opted to stay on the Lee side in the ripple.
He took 4 fish on my Midge in the ripple but I found that in the wind the fish rises changed from a cool slurp and swirl to a splashy rise.
So changed my midge for and adult midge emerging and when rises were covered slightly in front of fish they took it well. 7 fish on the Adult Midge and 5 misses.
What a cool day when it comes together.
The big difference for any newcomers reading this Blog is always be aware of the rise forms, Calm water is more difficult for small insects to break through to hatch and are calmly picked off by the trout. Rougher water in the wind weakens the surface film and the insects can emerge much quicker, hence the splashy rises where the trout have to be quicker to take the adult insect before it takes off.
A very satisfying day`s fishing.

Well, A couple of the upland lakes are fishing well but one must pick their days, easy I know for the retiree, not so for the working Man/Woman.
Light winds and some sun to encourage the hatch is perfect. The light winds can cause some frustration on these upland lakes due to their being surrounded by mountain cliffs etc causing constant change in wind direction and even a flat calm.
But patients is a virtue as they say and just take a break and wait until the breeze picks up between lulls and the fish respond.
That's the conditions sorted now to the fly, choice not so straight forward a frustrating business to say the least but so rewarding when you crack it.
I was out 2 weeks ago and amazing rise on the lake, 4 Hrs of it, I managed 7 fish eventually, all bar one around the pound mark, all taken on a tiny size18 emerging midge pattern. It was a tiny ginger midge pattern, No midges to be seen in the air so no clues, so I just went through the colours until Bingo, got it.
Cracked it you might think, I was up yesterday the 7th May a super rise on and lasted all of 6 Hrs. I started with my ginger midge pattern, Nothing, saw some Cog`s on the water, some attention but no hook ups, Saw some stone fly skittering on water and laying eggs, Nothing. Went through the colour scheme of midges once more, some sort of Bingo, caught 2 on an olive emerger but had to cast to something like 40 rises before contact, so not quite there. I took both fish for autopsy so to speak and found them stuffed with tiny 3 to 4mm dark olive midge pupa. I probably had come across a couple of trout with their eyes bigger than their bellies and they paid the price. Correct colour pattern but too big. So just shows what can change in a fortnight.