I said to myself throughout last season that I was going to spend more time fishing different lakes and rivers this winter, other than my usual haunts, mainly to give my favourite stretches of river a bit of a break, and spend the time learning other fisheries.

Most winters I try and fit in a day or two on Garnffrwd trout fishery, but this winter, with the terrible weather we’ve been getting, I’ve found myself there more than on a river! Not that im complaining because the fishing at Garnffrwd is top class and can provide some challenging sport.

One thing I like about Garn is that it’s not your typical ‘stocky bashing’ water. Some anglers turn up and expect it to be a fish fest and are disappointing when they don’t get 6 in their first 6 casts. It’s a very naturalised lake with most fish bred onsite, producing some quality fish on subtle methods and natural looking flies.

My second trip down this year saw the fish high in the water considering the slightly coloured water. Heavy rainfall the night before saw the lake rise a few inches and colour overnight, but the fish were still active and feeding. Through the earliest part of the day the fishing was tough, temperatures were still low and the fish quite stagnant for the time being. I managed to pick off a few fish on my usual single, weighted spider pattern. Simply dropping the fly in front of the fish and provoking a reaction. It can be done with lures if the fish are active, but this time the fish simply shy’d away.

As the day went on the fishing got better and better, with good friends, Lewis, Chris and Christian all netting their fair share of fish using small black zonkers and olive damsel patterns.

I managed to snap a short video on my new Ghost-S HD Drift Camera (something you’re going to be seeing a lot more of, sorry!) 

Check it out here and please, let me know what you think. (Don’t forget to toggle the quality to 1080HD)