WELL we are now officially at the start of summer time, at least according to the meteorological definition, writes seasonal ranger JIM JENKINS.

We have seen typical British summer weather, with a bit of sun followed by heavy humid conditions, followed by heavy downpours of rain and then the cycle repeating itself.

One thing that's for certain, though, is that the weather has certainly made the fish active, although it has had the opposite effect on me!

With a rod average of 4.5 fish per angler, there have certainly been lots of fishermen going home with a smile on their faces.

Not only has there been lots of fish caught, but they have also been caught on dry flies, which always makes a fly fisherman happy.

Graham Land, from Llandudno, was certainly one of those happy fishermen when he commented that he’d had a "fantastic day's sport catching fish on black dry flies".

However, he did choose the "wrong end of the boat", as his boat partner Jerry Owen caught the biggest fish of the week and the year so far, a fantastic 12lbs rainbow.

John Davies, from Montgomery, also had a great day’s dry fly fishing, catching 14 fish in total, all on daddy long legs.

Likewise, Tony Newall caught 16 fish whilst fishing in the Brenig Arm on a CDC dry fly.

One of the things that has struck me whilst working at Llyn Brenig is the strong sense of community amongst the fishermen.

There is, without doubt, a common bond amongst fishermen and, although fishing is essentially a solitary sport, they do share a sense of camaraderie whereby they look out for each other.

They also share a common language and when you hear words such as dabblers and droppers, damsels and drogues, DI5s and damping, it appears to the uninitiated like a foreign language.

However, after a few years, it all becomes as clear as a Chinese puzzle.

A few weeks ago we acquired 15 new engines that have been modified in order to make them more reliable.

After one or two initial teething problems, they have indeed proved to be extremely dependable and we envisage having a largely trouble free season as far as the engines are concerned.

Even one of our regular fishermen who hasn’t always had the best of luck with the engines declared that he had found a boat that he could rely on for the rest of the season.

The biggest fish caught during the week was indeed Jerry Owen’s 12lbs rainbow and the biggest bag of the week was, unsurprisingly, recorded by Mr Owen, from Deganwy, and it weighed in at 22lbs for six fish caught.

The hot spots over the week for the boat fishermen were the visitors' centre, Tower Bay, the dam, Hafod Lom, the quarry and, towards the end of the week as the wind moved towards the east, the Brenig Arm.

Bank fishermen had success along Nant Glyn shore, Tower Bay, the visitors' centre, and by the end of the week water sports bay and the Brenig Arm.

The top flies were daddy long legs, buzzers, damsel, orange nobbler, viva, sedge, CDC and various blobs and boobies.

One common factor over the week was the number of pike that were caught.

J W Wilson even had "a fish grabbed by a large pike" as he went to net it!

This month’s catch return draw, with a free boat for the day as the prize, was won by Peter Morris, from Ellesmere Port.

Tight Lines.