A Fresh Water Whale!

Lovely times with the lads and my little one x

Hi guys....Lots to talk about this evening as it's been a very busy fishing week this week. Well, where do I start? At the beginning I suppose??? As I wrote and the end of the last blog entry....Joel, Kris, Ceri, Natasha and myself all ventured up to Lampeter to fish Celtic Lakes last Saturday. The weather was clear but decidedly cold in the strong wind that was blowing straight into our faces.

On arrival, the boys had all beaten us by about an hour and were all bar a few items, set up ready to fish. Nats and I took our time and got the bivvy up and the rods all sorted ready to fish. The lake was at capacity with just a few odd swims free. I wasn't overly keen on the pegs we'd been given due to the booking system but you just have to make do when it's busy on a Saturday.

Windy and cold but at least the sun came out to play!

It was a lovely chance to see the lads and get some really good quality time in with Natasha again but in all honesty we might as well been camping in the middle of my village! The fishing was awful at best and despite Joel loosing a 20lb'ish Cat to a hook pull at the net, that was the only bit of real action we had over the whole 24hrs using 8 rods!

To top it off it cost us £140 for the 4 of us to fish!!!! Which we all felt was extremely steep! To add insult to injury Kris was charged a whopping £10 for a KG bag of 20mm halibut pellets in the site tackle shop!!! Not impressed....Anyway, we had a nice time with lots of good giggles and banter and we've decided next time we'll try somewhere a little closer to home that doesn't charge quite so much!

On Tuesday I met up with a good old friend of mine that I've seen very little of in the last 10 years we've known each other. Chris Price and I used to fish together a lot when I first moved to Wales but we kind of lost touch a little in that time. Well, we met up on Tuesday for coffee in Macdonalds and we went shopping for some new tackle for him so we could get back on the Fly together at some point in the near future.

My first of the day!

Needless to say we didn't have to wait long as Wednesday we decided as things were quiet enough for the both of us, that we'd get together and go fly fishing for the day at Cwm Hedd fishery near Newport. The weather was warm but blustery which made casting a little tougher than we'd have liked. The venue itself is very picturesque with rolling hills around it and a peaceful countryside setting. The lake is clear and weedy and contains some stunning Rainbows, Blues, Tigers and Browns.

There are 2 lakes on the site, the large main lake and the smaller lodge pool. The main lake was extremely tough fishing and despite 1 other guy catching a 5lb rainbow, we sat for 3 hours biteless! We decided to venture over to the smaller Lodge Pool and wet a line in there instead. It didn't take long for Chris to get first blood and a Gold Ribbed Hairs Ear did the trick for a nice little 2lb rainbow. He proceeded to get another couple of takes but missed them.

Chris managed a couple of lovely rainbows on a GRHE

Next up it was my turn and I managed a lovely rainbow on a Green Damsel Nymph of around 2.5lbs. I decided to swap over from a 7wt rod to a 5wt and floating line etc. Well it took a while to find the right fly but eventually I cracked it with a very bright yellow cats whisker. I managed to bag 4 in a row and when Chris swapped over he bagged one more as well. Great giggles were had and we even had a double hook up at one point!

This morning I had a lay in as it's not something that's been on offer for a few weeks now and despite the darling wife waking me to tell me she thought I should venture out fishing again, I slept until a delightful 11am! After having a quick 'cuddle' and a coffee I decided it was again time to wet a line somewhere. Where though, I couldn't decide????

Eventually after 2 hours of debating, I loaded the car and went off to my little bolt hole water which is about half an hour from my home. There's only about 6 more carp in there that i'm interested in catching but I thought I'd have a go all the same. I arrived at 2.30pm and despite walking around no less than 6 times....I couldn't see a fish that I could fish too safely...There were 5 fish tucked up under the usual tree roots but they are too tightly packed in under the snags. I opted to try my luck for a smaller Fully scaled fish that was floating around in the open. I plopped a nice chunk of bread crust out to it and it almost instantly gulped it down before motoring off around the lake!

Despite loosing a stunning Koi at least I got to meet this beautiful fish!

A few minutes of battling away with the mirror and eventually she was in the net ready for some pictures...Yet another absolutely stunning fish that didn't need to be big to be pretty. I couldn't believe my luck some 10 minutes later when I got the chance to have a go at a very large Orange Koi that was sat just in front of the snags. I did the same again and he instantly took the bait in....He then smashed his way off through the undergrowth with my rod bent into an alarming almost 180 degree angle! The hook then lost its hold as the fish made for the roots of the fallen tree. I was gutted!

That signaled the end of the day on the bolt hole for me and I decided to leave and try my luck for a few small ones off the top on one of my club waters instead. I arrived about 30 mins later at the lake to find just 3 other guys fishing. I went up the top end of the lake away from the strong Westerly wind and started to flick out plenty of mixers on the top. It took a while to get the fish interested and despite plenty of bait floating around, they just weren't that interested in it at all. I spotted a large old brute swimming around about 50 yards out and it looked too long for a normal carp. It had to be one of the few chunky grass carp that inhabit the venue.

I decided to have a chuck at the fish with a huge chunk of bread crust and it landed just a few feet away from the fish. It wasn't long before I had some interest and a chunky mirror went to investigate the bait. He turned away and was beaten to it by the grassy! I couldn't believe my luck as she engulfed the whole bloody thing! Whoosh went the line and she hit the surface some 60 yards out. The fight was typically bream'ish as most grass carp are. Then when she eventually arrived in the net she went mental!

Nothing less than a freshwater Whale!!!!!!! Epic

I had a good ten minutes of holding her in the base of the net while she flung herself all over the hop in a bid to get away. Eventually she calmed down enough for me to get some pics and weigh her. At 22lb 6oz she was a very welcome visitor to my net!

I've just had my gorgeous wife come back home after leaving for her night shift an hour ago, only to find out she's supposed to be on holiday for the next week! Result!

Tight lines all

Big Luv
Keith