Fly fishing diary: November 2021

Saturday 6th November, 2021

After last week's very successful trip to Ellerdine Lakes, we thought we'd head back over for some more autumn trout action. The weather has cooled significantly recently, the first frosts have arrived, and weather was cool and very windy. Perfect conditions for Ellerdine.

As with our previous session, we headed for the windiest shores of the lakes, ignoring the flatter areas where casting was easier. When the weather is grim, the fish seem to move down the lakes and congregate on the windier shores. They usually hang around just a rod length or two from the bank, so casting parallel to the shore can be very effective.

We wandered the margins of Meadow, Lakemoor, and Cranymoor fishing cormorants, pulled lures, and on the recommendation of the shop - static egg flies. However, it was eggstasy worms on an intermediate pulled back fast that seemed to be the most effective method today.

We were getting lots of bites and many fish following the flies right to the bank, so we started hanging the flies a couple of rod lengths from the bank at the end of the retrieve. Doing this easily doubled our catch rate, with several good fish falling to the method.

While we caught the odd fish when fishing static, most of them came from roly-poly retrieves, hanging the flies at the end of the cast, or fishing the eggstasy worms with a sink and draw style retrieve parallel to the reed beds.

We caught continuously all day, with George taking nine fish - including two stunning browns - and me taking eight, including a cracking 4-5 pound rainbow. Great fun.

Sunday 14th November, 2021

We were back at Ellerdine Lakes today after a postponed trip to Llyn Brenig. Conditions looked OK at the start of the session - an overnight frost and very foggy skies, but sadly no wind.

We both started at the bottom of Meadow Lake, with George fishing an Eggstasy worm on a #6 intermediate and me fishing the same pattern on a Di3 #6 Loop Yellow Line rod. It only took me a few casts to hook my first fish, a spectacularly marked and hard fighting sparctic char.

After a few nips and the odd follow failed to produce any fish we went for a wander around the lakes. The flat conditions didn't make for easy fishing, but we managed to pick off the odd fish here and there, mostly by pulling lures a foot or two below the surface.

A few anglers were catching on eggs suspended beneath indicators, but we think they may have been fishing near of a pod of fish, as others using the same technique elsewhere were struggling to catch. There were quite a few good fish visible in the clear water, with several specimen brown, rainbow and sparctics following our flies right to the bank again.

As the day went on, the conditions got harder as the sun burnt through the fog and put the fish down to the deeper water. We finished the day with four fish each, which was above average according to the end of day catch returns. Not bad, given the conditions.

Wednesday 17th November, 2021

I took a trip over to Llyn Brenig on my own today. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day with a strong breeze blowing. However, the fishing was very challenging indeed.

I tried the dam wall, the quarry, and the stretch of shore near the marsh alongside the lodge to no avail. Whatever method I tried, I simply couldn't get a bite. Oh well...

Friday 19th November, 2021

I had another day off today so thought I'd make the most of it and head back over to Ellerdine. As with previous trips, I found most of the fish tucked very close into the banks patrolling the margins.

The flatter, calmer parts of the lake were quieter with few fish showing, but if you could handle fishing into the windy shores (or casting parallel to them) you were occasionally rewarded with a nice trout.

The Eggstasy worm proved to be the fly of the day again, taking four trout as I jigged it slowly along the front of the reeds. No big fish showed themselves today, but I did manage to miss a good-sized brown on Lakemoor...

Sunday 21st November, 2021

After a late start, we headed over to Llandegla Fishery in Denbighshire for a few hours' of fly fishing. It was sunny and there was an icy wind blowing, which made it feel significantly less mild than of late.

George got into the fish straight away, hooking and returning three rainbows in the first 20 minutes of the session. All three took a black and silver humungus fished on an intermediate line.

I tried the same thing but couldn't get a bite, so switched over to the indicator for a while. After a short while, I'd caught up with George, with three more nice rainbows gracing the net, again on the Eggstasy worm.

As the morning went on, the wind got stronger and colder, and the fish became harder to fool. We both caught a couple more, but the bites were few and far between, making the extra fish hard work.