LAST week saw the arrival of Storm Brian and Hurricane Ophelia, a marriage made in the heavens and the union of two weather systems that impacted considerably on the shores of Llyn Brenig, writes seasonal ranger JIM JENKINS.

Ophelia struck first, like Usain Bolt on caffeine, bringing with her gale-force winds and whipping the lake into a frothing frenzy.

There was no chance of the boats going out and it was just a question of battening down the hatches and riding out the storm.

A brief respite followed before Brian decided to get in on the act, which meant more high winds and torrential rain.

Fortunately, divorce proceedings followed and they both went on their separate ways, never to be heard of again!

As you can imagine, the fishing last week took a bit of a back seat to the weather and to say that we had a quiet week on the fishing front would be an understatement.

Still, as they say, the show must go on and we did have some intrepid fishermen who braved the elements and managed to get some fishing done.

If truth be told, we did see some calmer weather between the storms and, as Russ Naylor pointed out, we did get some perfect fishing weather - it was just that nobody had bothered to tell the fish.

Life can be full of contradictions and statistics don’t always tell the full tale, as with a rod average of 3.6 fish per angler it would appear that the fish did think it was perfect weather to be caught.

However, this has to be seen alongside the fact that the statistical sample last week was small and there were two days when there weren’t any boats on the water due to the difficult conditions.

One observation that can be made with some confidence, though, is that it may be getting more difficult to catch the fish due to lower water temperatures and lower air pressure, but the bigger fish definitely seem to be coming up from the deeper water in search of food.

Tony Newall, a regular fisherman over many years, succeeded in catching the biggest fish that he had ever caught whilst fishing these waters, a beautiful 10lbs rainbow.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer, but two definitely make it more likely, which means that with J Wilson also catching a whopping rainbow weighing in at 6lbs, I rest my case!

Talking of big fish, don’t forget that pike week will begin on November 1 and the boats are starting to go like hot cakes, so if you would like to participate then please give the visitors’ centre a ring in order to reserve a boat.

As for the biggest bag of the week, it appears that Gareth Dean won this contest with 12lbs 1oz.

The top flies last week were cormorant, orange fritz, gold head damsel, black gnat, viva and various blobs and boobies.

The hot spots for boats have been Tower Bay, the dam wall, Hafod Lom and the sailing club.

The bank fishermen have found success along the visitors’ centre shore, Tower Bay, Hafod Lom, Nant Glyn shore and the ring of stones.

With Wales Rally GB taking place this week, there is restricted access on October 25, with the alternative entrance in use.

There’s no access from 2.30pm on October 28 and no access all day on October 29.

The main gates will be shutting at 5.30pm this week and all boats need to be back on the jetty by 4.45pm.

Tight Lines