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

Brown trout fishing on all waters continues to be very good, the most appreciable improvement has been the Seiont this year, those who recall my continuous reporting of problems arising from the eutrophication of Llyn Padarn, a serious problem that arose due to excessive phosphate releases from Llanberis S.T.W. This problem manifested itself for all to see during the summer of 1992 when the whole lake turned green. Of course the problem had been building up for many years with water clarity worsening yearly.

Thankfully in 1995 a phosphate stripping plant was installed at these works, although consent limits were continually being breached. The main problem with this sort of pollution is that fish survival is seriously impaired, although I well recall over these difficult years being continually advised by the powers that be that this was not the case. However I well knew what I was experiencing, first the small fish disappeared, then slowly the brown trout were getting bigger, the charr in Padarn were, even bigger, the small fish were nowhere to be found, then the migratory runs dropped year in year out, during the season that is, then as the weather turned colder the algae infesting the water died down, in come the salmon.

Now for the last two years the phosphate plant has been operating as it should, Padarn has been gradually improving in clarity, likewise the Seiont is now retuning to its former pristine glory, but the encouraging thing is that the small fish are back in their thousands, both trout and charr, this year also saw the largest run of smolts that I’ve seen in at least 10 years. This coupled with our own smolt rearing programme should see a marked improvement in migratory runs in the near future, in fact we should hopefully see some returns from this programme this summer.

What prompted me to touch on the Padarn problem was reading last months issue of T&S the letter from Ron Ferris of Ballyduff on the problems of Sheelin, what he describes is exactly what we’ve been through here, this problem will have to be addressed now or the fishery is in real danger of being lost, how about it T&S let’s have some more news of what’s actually happening to our fisheries, all the news we get is from the Salmon & Trout Association and the Editors Comments. There’s a lot going on and there’s an appetite by fishermen and proprietors alike to know what’s going on.

On the actual fishing front, some sewin are in the rivers, the Llyfni as usual is providing the bulk of the sport, with the lower beat providing the best fishing. Fish movements over the counter have been slow, but there again we are still in the grip of a North wind, and as the old saying is here, if the wind is up river then you might as well go home. ‘Gwynt dan gynffon’ (wind under your tail)

Stocking policy is back to normal on Dywarchen after the transitional period of switching over from browns only to rainbow dominant policy. As this is a stocked lake the consensus was that rainbows provide daylong fishing, whereas the browns were only on the take during early morning and evening. Browns from natural lake stock will also be reared at our hatchery to provide extra interest. There are some heavy fish here, as can be testified by the boils seen over deep water in early evening. Alan Jones of Glan Rhyd lost one of these as it was about to be netted. I won’t comment on the estimated weight.

Part of the current policy will also ensure that a good number of this years stock will be held back in the hatchery for growing on, so if all goes well there should double figure rainbows included in next seasons stock.

Latest news is that sewin are starting to be caught on the Seiont, Clifford Thomas of Felinheli has had three, John Fraser Williams, Llanberis lost a very good one underneath the small falls below Crawia bridge, but at the time of writing the water is low and we have to get a raise in levels to get them into the rivers.

Prospects for August.

There are reports of good numbers of salmon showing in the Menai Straits, between Caernarfon Golf Club and Waterloo Port, lets hope some of these are destined for the Seiont. Sewin fishing should be at its height on the Llyfni, if the improvement on Seiont continues then boat fishing on Padarn at Penllyn should prove to be very productive, this area of the lake before the Padarn problem used to be a renowned and is still referred to as Tenau Penllyn (Penllyn Shallows) Charr fishing will also be at it’s height, and incidentally anyone keeping charr for the pot, could you please keep the heads as we require them for ageing purposes this being the ongoing survey into the lake rehabilitation.

                                                                                    H. P. Hughes