The Wye had a slow start, perhaps in part due to the cold spring. Just as things began to pick up in early July for barbel and chub, the heatwave and alage bloom hit and put a stop to the fishing for several weeks. It is only now as the water has cooled down that the coarse fishing is really productive again – we’ve heard of plenty of barbel coming out on WUF stretch as well as club water in the Monmouth area. A lot of eels have been reported on the Wye this year – a good sign. Below: Young angler Lewis Parfitt with a Wye barbel.

There are other rivers in Wales for barbel  – Including the Dee at Bangor on Dee and the upper Severn from Newtown to Welshpool that are worth a try. These are a bit off the radar but they are underfished and have pristine fish that see little pressure. August into September would be a prime time to try them.

On the carp fisheries many of them saw spawning activity return during the hot weather so were closed. In the aftermath however fishing has been excellent all over Wales for carp. Specimen Venues to fish at the moment include White Springs, Cefn Mably, Caerphilly Moat, New Celtic lakes and Gweryd lakes. Commercials such as Redbrook and Stamford Way are well worth trying this summer and early autumn, with 100lb plus bags of carp possible.  Below: Cameron Bates 31.2lb white springs

For summer coarse fishing we have so many options, especially in north East Wales Wrexham/Flint area which has numerous small ponds and fisheries, plus on the canals around Llangollen. Fishing is good at the moment for a real mixed bag of species. In west Wales Bosherston is a really special place for summer fishing, with tench, rudd and roach to be caught float fishing the lilly pads.

The ‘South Wales Fishing Society’ currently run 3 waters in the Swansea area the pluck lake, Clyne pond and Singleton Lilly pond, all of which offer great fishing for a mixed variety of species – this club has worked hard to keep these lakes in great condition.  In southeast Wales the Mon & Brec canal is a firm favourite.

Venues such as llandgefedd have been providing bumper bags of bream and Hybrids to in excess of 100lb, for example at the recent Sensa ‘Deggy Pairs’ match. As has Pontsticll and Dolygear reservoirs near Merthyr Tydfil, which have become renowned for their summer match fishing events. These reservoirs are currently low water level, so the banks have great access. Below: Dave Healy on Llandegfedd

Prospects look great for the rest of August and into September – so make sure you get out there and enjoy the cream of the fishing. Remember up until 5th September you can ‘take a friend fishing’ and claim a free NRW rod licence – more details here.

The river Wye season began on June 16th – plenty of people fished the Welsh sections particularly around Monmouth on club water. It really was a slow start for the barbel, with almost nothing reported over the first week of the season. Plenty of chub and eels however were caught. Things picked up near the end of June, with barbel showing in the catches over most of the stretches. Richard from London with a nice one below, his first ever barbel. 8mm halibut pellets and a swimfeeder doing the trick. The Wye is expected to continue to fish well, especially as the water clears (we hope!) from a pretty murky algal bloom.

The Taff has also produced some big barbel, several doubles have been reported on Glamorgan AA water. The tactic here is to usually present a big lump of luncheon meat.

Chub have been reported on the lower Rhymney River on Caerphilly AA water. This river has some surprisingly good sized ones and a few barbel too.

On the carp front the warmer weather stopped play briefly whilst spawning took place. This has now pretty much finished, so all of the usual ‘big fish’ venues  such as White Springs, Cefn Mably, Caerphilly moat, Celtic Lakes will be fishing well.

For the general all round coarse fishing June has been fantastic and July will also provide great fishing. Springwater lakes in Carmarthenshire has some great tench, crucians, roach and rudd. Clyne pond near Swansea likewise has a great mixed bag – tench, perch, bream plus the odd trout and eel. Tri Nant fishery at Llantrisant, Spytty pond at Newport, Trefaldu at Dingestow and Dyffryn Springs near Bonvillston all offer a quality coarse fishing experience for mixed species. In fact, Wales has dozens of intimate fisheries that fish well in summer – you can find them all here.

After a slow start in early June the big natural waters such as Port Talbot Dock, Dolygaer and Llandegfedd are fishing well for bream and hybrids, with some big bags coming off regularly – well worth a go, with matches being held regularly on these venues. Contact the local angling clubs or Facebook groups for details of these.

Although pike fishing isn’t really done in the summer, there is an exception at llyn Trawsfyydd, which has been producing some great fish well over 20lb recently to lure and fly. The lake has cold water thanks to its mountain altitude and the fishery carefully monitors the temperatures and stops the pike fishing if over 20 degrees. Cracker below caught by Paul Clydesdale, on a visit from Scotland.

The unseasonably cold, windy and wet weather has meant it has been hard work at our fisheries and especially the natural waters. These however have picked up, with David Healey (Deggy Dave) reporting a 100lb bag of bream on Llandgefedd on 23rd May. These were caught at close range on a whip.

Dolygear is also starting to fish better, which some hardy souls venturing out into the weather to fish matches, with skimmers primarily featuring in the catches. Mikey Williams below with a 10lb winning bag (Pic: Welsh Fishing Wizardry)

Festival lake Ebbw Vale has been fishing well, with some crucians and skimmers coming to the keepnet. White Springs near Swansea has been producing big bags on the match lake to 126lb.

Talking of White Springs, the carp fishing has been on fire with lots of 20 to 30lb plus specimens coming out. Caerphilly castle moat also keeps on producing plenty of carp, our visit with Rob Hughes (below) went well – look out for a film early next month.

Both the Pluck and Clyne ponds of South Wales Fishing Society at Swansea have been fishing really well over the last few weeks. A feeding program means that the fish here are growing rapidly and are in tip-top condition. New Celtic lakes near Lampeter is fishing well, plenty of carp 20 to 30lb plus and some catfish to 40lb+. At Anglesey, Llyn Y Gors continues to produce in foul weather, Andy Scanlan with a new PB mirror of 28lb 8oz below, lovely clean fish.

The Wharf syndicate in Cardiff is also producing lots of quality fish, including some cracking commons to 37lb. Leighton Ryan (below) fished Lamby lake and caught ‘Frodo’ at 32lb 8oz.

Some big double figure bream are also showing up in some of the catches, often falling to carp anglers. Below Andrew Riste shows off a ‘belter’ of 14lb 2oz from a park lake in Cardiff.

All-round specimen hunter Kevin Clark has been having some fun catching eels, tench and bream at the Birch Syndicate at Peterstone. Some cracking Tench to 5lb, bream to 8lb 15oz and eels to 5lb 3oz have all hit the back of his net. A lot of our commercials and carp lakes hold great stocks of specimen coarse fish, these are virtually untapped. So why not give them a try?

Fishing can only get better into June, when hopefully it will warm and dry up! The coarse fishing rivers will also be back in contention on June 16th, so something to really look forward to.

With Stillwater Coarse fisheries re-opening and traveling to fish now allowed anglers have been enjoying fishing again after a long, hard lock down winter.

First off, some big pike have been caught from stillwaters, the most notable being Stuart Watsons, 33lb 6oz monster (below) from Trawsfynydd reservoir, an any method venue that continues to produce big pike from boat or bank regularly.

Llangorse lake re-opened and is also fishing well – with plenty of fish taking lures fished in the shallows. Most are jacks but some nice doubles have been caught. Chris Hughes and Alex Moses have both had some great sessions recently, Alex with a 19lb specimen (below) this lake allows you to bring your own boat or kayak, as well as boat hire. We produced a film at the venue last winter, we will be posting this next month.

Regarding pike welfare, water temperatures are still very cold in our lakes, in just single figures, so fishing for pike by lure and fly is perfectly safe to do so, given the high oxygen levels still in the water. However once water temperatures levels rise significantly in late spring it will be time to put the rods away for pike until the autumn. Water temperatures of 18 degrees or more should be avoided completely.

On the carp front a lot of venues are waking up well, White Springs consistently producing big carp, with high 20’s and 30’s in the mix. Also, the Caerphilly AA Moat, which is producing some great looking fish. We will be producing a film at this venue in the coming weeks. New Celtic lakes near Lampeter has been fishing well, with some nice carp coming out, plus some big catfish to 42lb.

There are some great smaller venues in the valleys, these are fishing well. For example, Festival Lake Ebbw Vale and Cwmcelyn pond (below image by Welsh Fishing Wizardry) which is producing some heavy keepnets.

In Vale of Glamorgan Hazel court ponds is producing good bream and roach, plus some decent carp on the specimen pond. Tri Nant, Dyffyrn Springs and Seven Oaks are now open, so we expect they will start to fish well soon. Redhill near Monmouth has been producing well despite cold weather.

With much warmer weather forecast it looks like we will have good coarse fishing ahead in May and for the rest of April, with big wild venues such as Dol-y-gaer coming into their own and llandegfedd opening again on 26th April.

The past few weeks have been fairly quiet on the fishery front. Cold weather has switched the carp off and lakes that were doing well such as Caerphilly have slowed down a bit. However, if you persevere the rewards can be high – check out the stunning 31.04lb winter common from White Springs captured by Arron Fisher.

The rivers are fishing well for grayling – trotted maggot is a winter favourite and can be used on various beats of the Dee, Wye, Irfon, Severn, and the lower Rhymney and Taff in Cardiff. Tackle dealer Garry Evans recently trotted Abernant on the Wye and had a great day with nearly 30 fish, and Terry Theobald tried the Rhymney for the first time and had nice fish to 1lb 10oz (below). If you haven’t tried trotting then our article by Oliver Burch explains exactly how to do it.

Perch are another great winter species to try for this month – the picture below shows the stamp of fish in some of our commercial fisheries, this was from White Mill captured by Kevin Clarke. Other perch venues include Dol-y-gaer, Brecon canal, Port Talbot dock and llangorse lake, all of which could potentially throw up a good sized perch.

There are still barbel to be caught from the Taff and Wye, especially after a warm flood, when a big cube of luncheon meat can work a treat. The fish below left was caught in the Taff recently by Lloyd P of Garry Evans Tackle. Luke Thomas (below right) also had some sport on the Monmouth beats, one day bagging a brace of Wye doubles on robin red pellets. Great fishing.

Pike of course have been one of the mainstays over the past weeks, with an unsubstantiated rumour of a massive 36lb pike from Llyn trawsfynydd lake in north Wales. The venue is open till 20th December for pike bank fishing.

llangorse lake has been fishing well, some nice doubles coming out over the past few weeks, but it has slowed down a bit now. Fish below captured by Shayne Pink. Check that the fishery is open before travelling.

Pontsticll reservoir at Merthyr has been producing some great pike recently, including this fantastic 23lb 4oz croc which is a new PB for angler Jamie Block.

The Wye has also produced some nice pike so far this winter, with many well into double figures including the 18lb 6oz specimen below which was caught well up the river near Erwood. The lower reaches around Monmouth are also fishing well whenever the water levels permit.

Prospects: January is a hard month, but if Covid lock-downs and the weather allow, Welsh pike will be worth fishing for as will perch. Hardy barbel anglers may still manage to pull a few out of the Taff and Wye during warm spells. Winter chub are also worth a go on the Wye, either trotting maggots or bread flake and grayling will fish well in January on trotted maggot.

October is a a great month for pike fishing in Wales, with venues such as llangorse lake starting to fish well to deadbaits. Chris Hughes has been out on the lake recently in his own boat, resulting in some lovely fish to just over 16b.

Trawsfynydd reservoir is another venue fishing really well for pike at the moment, with plenty of immaculate 20’s coming to the lures. Caerphilly castle moat is also worth a go, as is Cardiff bay barrage lake, which has much potential for monster pike.

The picture below is from Caerphilly Castle, a venue where Angling Trust qualified coach Andrew Riste (South Wales Angling Coaching) offers his services for new anglers, or anglers wishing to fish for something new.

Fishing for chub and barbel has been great on the Wye, with reports of big barbel coming out on the Taff in Cardiff on Glamorgan AA water. A capture of a massive chub from the lower Usk came to our attention, at 5lb 12oz it is a real specimen. Most water on the lower Usk is game fishing club or fishery water only, but you can coarse fish for them on Merthyr AA water. Image below shows Tony James with the 5lb 14oz chub.

Grayling fishing is something to try this month using trotting methods. The river Dee is a great venue, as is the lower Taff on Glamorgan AA water and the Rhymney on Caerphilly AA. Lets not forget the Wye and Irfon, many of which have beats on the Fishing Passport that allow trotting with maggots in winter.

Commercial fisheries are also well worth fishing in October/November, some excellent bags have been coming out of waters such as White Springs and Ian Heaps resort, below  is an image from Eisteddfa Fishery where bags of carp to over 60lb are being caught regularly on feeder fishing tactics.

Due to COVID-19 virus a national ‘Fire break’ lock-down is coming to Wales from 6pm 23rd October to 9th November. This is going to affect angling, since you will not be allowed to drive to fish, only walk from home if you are fortunate to be near a suitable venue. Day ticket fisheries will be closed during this time, and anglers from outside Wales will not be allowed to visit. More details can be found here.

Lure fishing for predators has recently picked up – including venues such as Cardiff bay barrage lake and Llangorse lake, Brecon and Monmouth canal. Expect it to get even better in October.

The images below are from the guys at Garry Evans tackle in Cardiff – Bob , Lloyd P & Iwan – who have been  lure fishing on the bay barrage lake which has been producing some nice perch over 2lb and pike to 25lb.

On the carp fishing front, September has seen improving catches, with fisheries such as White Springs going well.

The stunning 23lb fish below was captured by Gareth Morris from the Tair Llyn gravel pit complex, which is a syndicate water near Aberystwyth.

Barbel fishing has been good on the Wye through September – with stretches around Monmouth and Hay on Wye producing well. Tim Hughes prospected water much further up river than you would expect barbel to be found – and was rewarded with the fish below of 11lb 10oz.

Our larger wild venues such as Dol-y-gaer and Llandegfedd will continue to fish well for bream, skimmers and hybrids all autumn – Check out our llandegfedd film here which was filmed in October last year.

Wales has some fantastic wild venues where huge bags of bream and hybrids can be caught, these can fish well in summer and August has been a great month. These include Llandgefedd reservoir and Port Talbot docks, plus the twin reservoirs of Dol-y-gaer and Ponsticll (Merthyr Tydfil Angling Alliance)

MTAA hosted a two day competitive festival on the reservoirs on the weekend of 15th & 16th of August. Many top UK Match Anglers attended including Mikey Williams, Lee Edwards, Des Shipp – and the local lads were out in force trying to beat them. Both reservoirs fished extremely well over the two day festival. The winner overall was the legendary Des Shipp – with a total weight over two days of 88lb 3oz!!