Adroddiad afonnydd Gymdeithas S.G. a LL.
S.G. & LL. Angling Society's River report

3rd. March will see the opening of a new season, if the weather remains as mild as it is now at the time of writing being toward the end of January, then the brown trout will be in fine fettle, thankfully the dark days when the shadow of the eutrophication problem on Padarn was tainting the whole of the Seiont system, now seems to be well and truly behind us, last season saw the beginning of the return of the fine trout that this river used to be noted for, and for those who ventured out to view the Nant Peris fish pass during the week preceding Christmas will know what I mean. On one day of high water there was one shoal in excess of 200 fish in the 2lb range swimming around, I didn’t see one manage to take the pass, however this problem has now been recognised and ways of overcoming the problem is in hand.

To restore the Afonydd Peris, Afr and Las into their former status as pristine spawning waters, the habitat restoration scheme will have been commenced by the time this article is read. Further projects to enhance the fishery are being looked at, these being the construction of salmon smolt release ponds at Nant Peris, with a similar project for sewin on Padarn feeder stream, a good option perhaps would be at the top end of Afon Wen, at Dinorwic. These projects hopefully will run for 5 years, until natural recruitment hopefully becomes sufficient to dispense with artificial stocking, wishful thinking perhaps, as the likelihood is that with exploitation at sea being allowed to continue then I fear artificial stocking will have to continue indefinitely, I hope that this will be proved not to be the case.

On the Llyfni, the stock of sewin augers well for the future, with the Pontllyfni counter providing some interesting information, in that from late November fish were dropping back to sea and until late December when I last had an update, fish were still dropping back but also a small number of fresh fish were still entering the river.

The Gwyrfai after improving steadily for 3 years to 1998 slipped back again in ’99, and from what I can gather the runs did not appear here until late November, what’s the reason, I will be asking the Environment Agency to have a look at the fish pass incorporated into the Llyn Cwellyn Dam, very few fish seem to be able to negotiate this complex system, hence miles of excellent spawning rivers remain empty of both salmon and sea trout. We are experiencing a phenomenan which manifested itself years ago on the Seiont being late runs of fish, this has been suggested to be caused by the fact that access to the upper waters has been made nigh on impossible, hence the fish which enter the river earliest are the ones which spawn in these high waters, cut them off from their breeding areas and their strain eventually disappears from the system.

There is strong evidence to support this theory, because the Llyfni still produces early and summer fish, access to it’s highest has not been made difficult by man made obstacles constructed in the last 20 years or so, whereas its both the nearby Gwyrfai and Seiont have. Coincidence perhaps but somehow I think not.

A few years ago the club held a very successful tackle auction at the then Royal Hotel, Caernarfon, once again it’s time to hold a similar evening, timed towards the end of the season, the news has only been out a few weeks and the response has been exceptional, so it looks like we will see some competitive bidding. If you‘ve got any fishing related item for the evening then let me know on the numbers below, oh buy the way the club gets 10% of the proceeds, so I’m instructed by Gwynfor Jones the chief auctioneer.

The club has also been successful under the Sportlot Community Chest Scheme administered by Gwynedd Council in its bid for funding to hold fishing tuition courses, these courses will run on one evening a week for some 8 – 10 weeks, and will cover basic instruction, boat fishing and safety, river trout and lake, sewin fishing on the Llyfni, salmon casting on the Seiont. All will be free of charge and instruction given by Derek Turner.A.P.G.I. Further details form myself on 01248 670 666 or

e-mail me on huw.hughes@lineone.net.