IF one swallow doesn’t make a summer, then it is also true that one daffodil doesn’t make a spring, writes seasonal ranger JIM JENKINS.

Despite the first official day of spring coming and going on Tuesday and the clocks going forward on Saturday, it would be hard to convince even the most optimistic of souls that we have witnessed the arrival of spring here at Llyn Brenig.

In fact, it was so cold at the start of the week that parts of the lake were actually frozen over.

It wasn’t quite the Big Freeze of 1963, mind, when you were able to ice skate up the River Conwy, but it was certainly cold enough to deter even the hardiest of fishermen.

However, it’s not all gloom and doom as the weather did improve as the week went on and by Sunday, it was positively tropical... if you were sheltered from the wind!

The fishing also tended to improve as the week progressed.

Monday, for example, had seen some of the most experienced of fishermen shaking their heads in despair at their lack of success, but by the end of the week, those very same fishermen were enjoying some excellent fishing, with Dave Ellis and his boat partner Ray Davies landing 27 fish between them fishing off the bank between the dam and the visitors' centre.

Chris Bradshaw and his boat partner Clive Short also had a fantastic day on Sunday, catching twenty four fish between them.

The rod average for the week was 3.7 fish per angler, which was an improvement on the previous week.

The fish are still lying deep in the water, but close to the bank.

This is borne out by the fact that the bank fishermen are having a good deal of success in comparison to the boat fishermen.

It also appears that some of those Brenig monsters are stirring from their winter slumber and are becoming far more active.

The biggest fish of the week, caught by Les Jones, from Deganwy, on a diawl bach, was certainly one such monster, weighing in at over 9lbs and taking a full half-an-hour to land.

Another fantastic fish which would normally have claimed the prize of the week's biggest fish was caught by Gareth Dean and it tipped the scales at just over 8lbs.

Other very notable catches were by Clive Gilbert, from Llanrwst, who landed not one, but two fantastic fish, one weighing in at 5lbs 8ozs and the other at 6lbs.

It was no surprise to see that Mr Gilbert also claimed the top bag of the week, which weighed in at 17lbs 8ozs for six fish caught.

Nigel Rowlands and Dei Owen both caught 4lbs rainbows.

The top flies have been damsel, cat’s whiskers, black lure, cormorant, tadpole, black zulu, viva and various blobs and boobies.

The hot spots for bank fishermen have been the visitors' centre, Tower Bay, sailing club bay and water sports bay.

The hot spots for boat fishermen have been the dam, Tower Bay, water sports bay, the sailing club and the quarry.

The main gates will be shutting at 6.15pm this week and all boats need to be back on the jetty by 5.30pm.

Tight lines