LAST week at Llyn Brenig saw another scorcher with soaring temperatures and clear blue skies, writes seasonal ranger JIM JENKINS.

We are now waking up in the morning with the expectation that it is going to be another beautiful day and for those of us who are of an older vintage, it brings back memories of those lazy summer days of a bygone era.

The top of the water temperature is a remarkable 21C, which is almost unprecedented and this has had a significant impact on the fishing, with the fish disappearing into the deepest parts of the lake.

Fear not, though, all is not lost, as fish have been caught.

Having said that, it has definitely been a case of a tale of two cities, with the boat fishermen enjoying some very good fishing, whilst the bank fishermen are having a rather barren time of it.

Again, that statement needs clarification as we had two boat competitions last week on the Brenig, with North Wales Police fishing on Thursday and the senior Welsh trials took place over the weekend.

The rod average for North Wales Police was 2.1 fish per angler, which was slightly down on the week’s average for non-competition fishing of 2.4 fish per angler.

However, the rod average for the Welsh trials over the weekend was an amazing 9.6 fish per angler.

The fish were mostly caught on a DI 7 with a slow retrieve and using lures.

So, the fish are still active, but you will have to go deep to get them.

The weather forecast is suggesting that there will be a cooling down in the coming week with more cloud cover, which should make it easier for bank fishermen.

The top rod for the North Wales Police was Steve Williams with seven fish, followed by Ian Hughes (five) and Darryl Price (four).

The senior Welsh trials saw some excellent fishing despite the really bright conditions, with a number of top quality fish being caught.

The top rod on Saturday was Phil Wood, from Bala, with an 18-fish catch return (three fish kill and then catch and release), with Andrew Banner in second place and Spencer Williams third.

Top rod on Sunday went to Liam Thomas with 18 fish, while Tim Llewellyn came second and Carl Williams was third.

Those that will be selected for the Welsh team will be back fishing at Llyn Brenig in September when they will be representing Wales in the international competition.

The biggest fish bagged during the trials was a lovely 4lbs 1oz rainbow and it was caught by Bob Myers.

Indeed, that was the biggest fish caught during the whole week.

The top bag out of competition mode was recorded by Ron Ayers and it weighed in at 14lbs 9ozs.

We are all thrilled that there is confirmation that one healthy and flourishing chick is in the osprey nest at Llyn Brenig.

The chick was recently weighed, measured and ringed, and seems to be in fine fettle.

We have had visitors from far and wide coming to view these magnificent birds and we are optimistic that they will be making Llyn Brenig their permanent summer home.

On a more distressing note, we had a grey lag goose fatally injured last week due to fishing line getting wrapped around its leg.

We ask fishermen to be extremely careful about how they dispose of their fishing line and to take it home with them and dispose of it in the proper way.

The top flies have been Mrs Simpson, sedges, buzzers, peacock spider, ginger hopper, damsel, cormorant, cat’s whisker and various blobs and boobies.

The fish are still moving towards the south of the lake, so the hot spots for bank fishermen have been the visitors' centre and tower bay.

Boat fishermen have had success in the visitors' centre, tower bay and the dam wall.

The main gates will be shutting at 8.45pm this week and all boats need to be back on the jetty by 8.15pm.

Tight Lines.