If you are considering some stillwater trout fishing in South Wales ESF reader Nick Thomas has written the definitive guide to getting the most out of Garnffrwd fishery including some superb flies.
I've fished at Garnffrwd in Carmarthenshire for a number of years now and it's definitely my favourite small stillwater fishery. The lake offers something for everyone throughout the year from beginner to expert with a great variety of opportunities to learn and use different techniques. The spring fed lake sits in a basin surrounded by fields and woodland and holds a quality stock of brown, rainbow and tiger trout raised by owner Jamie Miller. Garnffrwd has an intricate mixture of habitats for both fish and insect life and the lake is famed for the quality of buzzer, olive and sedge hatches that give fantastic dry fly sport.
The lake has three islands which are linked by bridges and pontoons giving easy access to all areas where fish may be holding. The combination of islands, shallows and deeps, tree lined bays and inlets and reedy margins interspersed with fishing platforms and lengths of wild bank give a huge variety of fishing opportunities. Water clarity is brilliant at pretty much any time of the year which is great for stalking in the margins and secluded bays and for casting an emerger or dry fly to trout cruising in the shallow bays.
The map shows some of my favourite fishing spots at Garnffrwd which have given me some great days and some great fish. It's this variety that keeps me coming back. I know that I can always find a spot and fishing method to suit my mood, whether looking for big fish to stalk with a heavy bug or kneeling on one of the long platforms casting a size 16 dry at short range to rising browns and rainbows.
On the northern side of the largest island are two areas of shallow water (1&2 on map) of around two feet depth which shelve away gradually into the depths of the north basin. Two long fishing arms lead out from the islands giving easy access to these areas to target the fish which congregate in the shallows to feed on emerging insects. If you are using the long arms don't immediately walk out to the end and start fishing. Take your time and scan along the sides of the pilings under the boardwalk with your polaroids on, chances are you'll see a fish or two swimming in and out of the shade under your feet. I've caught a lot of fish from these areas with only a few feet of fly line outside the rod tip and the two platforms are a favourite location for anglers using leader to hand and Czech nymphing methods to target fish close in.
On a warm afternoon in Spring it's not unusual to see twenty or more browns and rainbows leisurely swimming around these bays giving plenty of opportunity to practice your casting accuracy and patience to target individual fish. The edges of these bays are thickly reeded and this is where some of the bigger fish lurk to test your ability to drop a fly close in to the reed stems without being caught up in the vegetation.
The long arms also give you the opportunity to fish other productive areas where the shallows drop off into deeper water. Fishing from the end of the long arm reaching out north from the island is a favourite spot for this (3 on map). A ten to fifteen yard cast from the end of the arm will drop your fly into the edge of a trout patrol route along the edge where the shallow flats slope down into deeper water. If the conditions are right and with the sun behind you, trout cruising past will be clearly visible and can be targeted with a buzzer or lightly weighted nymph.
On a good calm day fish will often congregate close to the surface over the margin between deep and shallow water which is the ideal time to switch to a dry fly or emerger pattern that you can see at a distance. My favourite fly for this location is a size 14 F-fly tied with Tiemco Aero Dry Wing which floats like a boat so I can pull it under to sink the fluorocarbon tippet confident that it will pop back up and sit perfectly in the surface film.
Garnffrwd is a catch and release water, all browns are returned as are many of the rainbows, so you will be casting to some educated fish which makes for interesting fishing. Regulars at the lake tend to use a range of smaller fly sizes than an average stillwater fishery, and good presentation is equally important. My most memorable session fishing to the drop-off from the long arm produced eight fish in eight successive casts with the F-fly.
If no fish are visible then searching the water by fan casting in a wide arc around you is a very productive approach here. Covering the water between ten and twenty yards out and varying the depth will usually find some fish. This a great spot for fishing a buzzer or nymph on a long leader if there is slight side breeze to move the line searching across the water in front of you. If I'm using this technique then a black organzanymph or an organza ribbed buzzer in size 14 or 16 will be my first choice of flies. Tying these on a couple of different hook types gives me the choice of fishing depths. The buzzer pattern tied on heavy grub hooks allows me to get down to deeper fish while the slower sinking organzanymph on a lighter hook is good for fish just under the surface.
Moving around the lake another of my favourite areas is the channel between the narrow island and the eastern shore (4 on map). This area is well shaded by the woods to the east and can hold a good number of fish on bright sunny days. A boardwalk runs down the centre of the island linked to a number of fishing platforms which you can cast from, but a better plan is to get down off the boards and crouch behind the reeds while casting towards the trees on the far bank.
This bay is quite shallow so a fly fished on or just below the surface gives the best chance of getting a fish. The trees overhang the water and as well as giving shade also provide the fish with an extra food source from terrestrial insects falling from the leaves and branches. So my fly choice here is something that will hit the water with a bit of a plop, something like a BBC (bead butt caddis) which can be cast to intercept moving fish or twitched and skated over the surface to attract a fish out from under the trees.
If you fancy a quiet bit of stalking then the back of the third island is the place to go (6 on the map). There are no platforms down here so it's the quietest part of the lake and the trees and bushes give a wilder fishing environment. This area can be fished from either bank to target fish patrolling through the channel from the main lake or more resident fish that hug the margins among the reeds or under overhanging trees. Depending on your position and the angle of the sun you may be able to spot fish to stalk, if not then prospecting with a dry fly in likely corners is a good way to go.
If there's a breeze blowing you can approach the narrow channels and pools a bit like fishing on a slow stream by drifting a light nymph or dry fly through likely looking fish holding pockets. A two fly New Zealand style set up can be a good bet here with a small nymph suspended a foot or so under a buoyant dry fly. I always have a couple of dry and emerger patterns with a loop of mono tied in under the body hanging over the bend so I can attach a short length of tippet to a nymph. I've caught a number of nice fish using this approach to suspend a nymph close in to the marginal reeds or drifting the duo under tree branches.
A short distance west is the bay between the small island and the bridge to the largest island (5 on map). The spring feeding the lake runs into this bay attracting fish to feed on insects and other aquatic life washed out of the marshy area around the spring. This bay has deep water along the margins and is the ideal place to fish a damsel nymph along the edges by the reed beds. I've taken fish here literally under my feet when fishing from the platforms that poke out from the marginal reeds.
This bay has a shallower weedy area in the middle which is well worth covering with a few casts. My best fish from Garnffrwd, a beautifully marked rainbow of around 15lbs, came from here on a cold crisp January afternoon. The fish took a tungsten bead organza and CDC damsel just as I started to retrieve after casting to the far side of the shallows. It was 10 minutes before I got any significant length of line back on the reel and could see the broad vivid magenta stripe along the side of the fish through the clear water. At that point the fish changed tactics and steamed out into the main lake at some speed resulting in some rod juggling on my part to reset the drag on my Opti as I gained and lost line.
Eventually after a dodgy period involving;
- trying to extend my net handle with one foot,
- balancing on the other foot on the end of a narrow platform,
- trying to apply maximum side strain to stop the fish ending the drama by heading under the platform and,
- trying to look like I knew what I was doing,
I got the fish under some measure of control and into the net. It was then I discovered that the camera was back in the car, so back the fish went leaving only a rather shaken angler and a lasting memory.
These are my personal favourite spots at Garnffrwd but the whole lake offers great fishing with good platforms all around and many other places where you can tuck yourself away to fish a nymph along the margins or cast out to rising fish.
The flies below are my best patterns for fishing at Garnffrwd through the year. They also work well on other stillwaters large and small and on rivers and streams.
Organza & CDC Damsel
Hook: Tiemco TMC100SP-BL or Partridge ideal nymph 12/14
Thread: UTC70 olive
Head: 2-3mm, copper or tungsten bead or plastic bead chain
Tail: Olive marabou and black crystal flash
Rib: Trimmed tan or mahogany organza ribbon
Body: Olive Hare's Ice dubbing
Hackle: Grey or olive CDC
My favourite pattern for fishing the margins or searching over weed beds. The organza rib gives a subtle sparkle to the body and by taking a couple of wraps around the tail root prevents the annoying tail wrap which happens with standard damsel or tadpole patterns.
Organza Nymph
Hook: Veniard Osprey Grub - Hv251 Heavyweight Barbless or Fulling Mill Grab Gape barbless 12-16
Thread: UTC70 black
Tail: organza fibres
Body: black seals fur and organza fibres
Rib: stripped organza ribbon
Head: black glass embroidery bead
My pattern of choice for searching the top few feet of water. The organza fibres combined into the dubbed seal's fur give the fly a subtle sparkle which doesn't seem to offend the Garnffrwd fish who have seen all manner of gaudy flashy nymphs and will sneer at anglers offering such insults.
ORB (Organza Ribbed Buzzer)
Hook: Veniard Osprey Grub - Hv251 Heavyweight Barbless 12-16
Thread: UTC 70 black
Body: thread
Rib: red Uni wire and white stripped organza ribbon
Thorax cover: pearl tinsel
Cheeks: red flexifloss
My buzzer of choice for fishing on a long leader over the bloodworm beds along the drop offs from shallow to deep water. The thread body is ribbed with wire, coated with superglue and the organza rib wound up the hook while the glue is wet. The thorax and head are coated with superglue after tying. In the water the organza gives a glowing halo which seems to give the fly an edge over conventional smooth bodied buzzers.
Aero Dry Wing F-Fly
Hook: Tiemco TMC2499SP-BL 14/16
Thread: Semperfli Nano Silk 12/0 white (colour with marker)
Body: stripped organza ribbon
Underwing: black crystal flash
Wing: Tiemco Aero Dry Wing
My all time favourite dry fly, simple to tie, tough and very very effective. It can be tied in a range of colours to match hatching olives, buzzers, or sedges. The trick to tying an indestructible fly is to tie in the wing halfway along the length of Aero Dry Wing then fold back the fibres hanging over the eye and synch down tight before whip finishing. This forms a neat head and means the wing will never pull out. Treat the wing lightly with Gink and you can pull the fly under to sink the leader in calm conditions and it will bob back up to the surface and sit perfectly in the film.
Aero Dry Wing Emerger
Hook: Veniard Osprey Grub - Hv251 Heavyweight Barbless or Fulling Mill Grab Gape 14/16
Thread: Semperfli Nano Silk 12/0
Body: stripped organza ribbon
Rear wing: organza fibres
Thorax: Orange Hares ice dub
Wing: Tiemco Aero Dry Wing
A fantastic pattern for targeting trout cruising the shallow bays picking off insects as they ascend to hatch. The combination of an organza body and dubbed thorax gives a good imitation of an olive or buzzer struggling to escape the hatching process.
BBC (Bead Butt Caddis)
Hook: Tiemco 100SPBL dry fly 12-16
Thread: UTC 70 olive
Butt: 1 or 2 green glass beads threaded on to stripped green organza ribbon
Body: organza ribbon
Wing: Elk hair
Thorax: Ice dub
An elk hair or sparkle caddis variant using green glass beads to imitate the egg sac of a laying insect and to provide ballast at the rear of the hook to sit it down in the surface film. Thread the bead(s) onto the organza before tying in, take one wrap of organza around the shank and then slide the beads down the ribbon to sit at the bend. Wind the rest of the organza up the shank to form the body.
Emerger Suspender
Hook: Tiemco 100BL 12/14
Thread: UTC70 black
Loop: 10/15lb fluorocarbon whipped to shank and superglued.
Body: stripped organza ribbon
Thorax: orange hares ice dub
Wing: Tiemco Aero Dry Wing
My suspender/indicator fly for fishing a buzzer or nymph New Zealand style. Why fish a bung when you can have the option to take fish on or below the surface? With a second fly attached to a length of tippet tied to the loop at the back of the emerger and the wing ginked the fly sits upright in the surface all day long.
Tying with organza ribbon
All of these flies use stripped organza ribbon in one form or another. It's a great material for tying, it comes in a variety of colours, takes colour from marker pens well and is available from many craft shops. To prepare the ribbon for tying cut a length of ribbon from the reel and then cut lengthways to the width you need. Now pick out the long strands (a dubbing needle helps) until you are left with a herl/hackle of short fibres attached to the ribbon edge. Cut away the fibres from 1cm at the end to make a tying in tag. Tie in the ribbon with the short fibres pointing back and then wind on to form a body or ribbing. There are lots of different ways to use this versatile material; making a slanting cut along the ribbon will make a tapered body, winding two different coloured strands side by side gives a great segmented body.
For more information on visiting Garnffrwd please visit their Website
Nick Thomas lives in South Wales. He started fly fishing on Scottish hill lochs many years ago and continues to design tie and fish flies for trout, carp, bass and anything else that’s going.