THE main competition at Llyn Brenig last week was to ‘spot the lake’ or ‘find your way back to the visitors' centre once you have found the lake’!

The lake was certainly shrouded in mist and fog for much of the earlier part of the week, writes seasonal ranger JIM JENKINS.

This gave it a very eerie feeling and made a boat trip somewhat of an adventure.

It is amazing how disorientating it is on the lake when the mist descends, and everyday land marks and objects can take on a whole new persona.

It can also be quite alarming when you think you are in a certain place and then find, to your amazement, that you are someplace else.

The mind can certainly play tricks on you.

However, by the end of the week the weather had changed for the better, with Saturday being particularly pleasant and hopefully giving us a taster of things to come.

If the fishermen found it difficult to see the end of their fishing line, the fish didn’t seem to find any difficulty in finding it, as there seems to have been an abundance of fish caught.

The rod average was an amazing 7.3 fish per angler (including fish returned), which reflects the fact that both the water temperature and the air temperature has increased which has, in turn, increased the metabolic rate of the fish, making them hungrier, as well as seeing an increase in insect activity and fly hatches.

It seems that now the very cold weather that we have been experiencing has passed, we will be able to enjoy some really good fishing.

Often, there will be a discrepancy between the number of fish that bank fishermen catch and the number of fish that boat fishermen catch, with the latter tending to catch more.

Last week, however, that discrepancy was less in evidence.

The fish are moving closer to the shore and this has resulted in some very successful days for the bank fishermen.

For example, Mr Dalrymple caught eight fish whilst fishing in the Brenig Arm and D Williams landed nine fish from the bank whilst fishing off the Ring of Stones and Tower Bay.

Having said that, the boat fishermen certainly didn’t lag behind with some of them having fantastic days and landing fish for fun.

Tony Nicholls and his boat partner Richard Roberts for had such a successful day that they returned to the visitors' centre in order to buy a second permit each.

The biggest bag last week went to Clive Gilbert, of Colwyn Bay, who recorded a bag weight of 16lbs 4ozs.

The heaviest fish was caught by David Roberts and it weighed in at 3lbs.

On Thursday, North Wales Police held a competition at the Brenig and they enjoyed a splendid day, in spite of the cold and getting lost in the mist on occasions.

Sixteen fishermen took part and every one of them caught, with the top rod going to Ian Hughes, ahead of runner-up Keith Smith, with Colin Jones third.

The fish farmers were grading the fish last week and they are delighted with the progress of the fish.

As a result, there will be some excellent fish stocked in the coming weeks, which is certainly something to look forward to.

So, get the waders on and come on down to the Brenig to enjoy a fantastic day's fishing.

The hot spots last week were the ring of stones, Nant Glyn shore, tower bay, the visitors' centre and the Brenig Arm for bank fishermen.

Boat fishermen have had success in the Brenig Arm, tower bay, water sports bay and sailing club bay.

The top flies have been gold head damsel, olive damsel, cat’s whiskers, tadpole, Montana, orange nomad, black and green buzzer, orange fritz and various blobs and boobies.

Due to cancellations, we have three boats available for this month’s Monster Mash.

The main gates will be shutting at 7pm this week and all boats need to be back on the jetty by 6.15pm.

Tight Lines