Carl Williams Youth Coach
After a long summer of reflection, I think back to the Youth International that was held on the mighty Llyn Clywedog at the start of August. The lake’s fishing provided fantastic sport with a massive variety of methods proving successful in preparation for the Competition. We had highlighted 4 main areas to focus our attention on. Firstly, Bwlch y Gle Dam, this had proven to be fishing well after 11:30 with an array of methods, mostly top of the water sport from washing line tactics to dries working excellently. The second area being the Cages, ever so consistent in holding a large number of fish. We had highlighted that the bung was the go to method in this area with flies held at the 4, 8 and 12ft depths with tip lines also proving to be successful. The 3rd area, The Bigga, with pulling tactics working well using 2 boobies on a booby basher or di5 40+ for the first hour before changing to slower tip line tactics or the bung set at 3,6 and 9ft before changing to dries when the takes dried up late on in the afternoon. The last area was the Braich y Fedw including the Llwyd lake, which has been producing more fish as the week wore on with pulling, bung and tip line with washing line tactics all working well.
On the day, the team split with 5 headed down the dam, 4 for the Bigga and 5 on the Cages, unfortunately the split did not help us with inexperience possibly costing us dearly in the competition during the day. The boats that headed down the only stayed until 11:00 with all disappearing up the lake before the 11:30 prime time call. The first boats up the Bigga did well first thing, their pulling tactics catching very quickly before it died down. Unfortunately no welsh boats went up the Braich where a large amount of fish were caught during the match day. We went on to gain the dreaded wooden spoon on the day. We take from it many lessons, and will continue to develop as the year progresses in preparation for Draycote in 2024.
A massive thank you must go to the Staff at Llyn Clywedog for the outstanding action provided during the week, to the staff at the Metropole in Llandrindod for hosting us and congratulations to Team Ireland for the Gold. Thanks also go to all parents and to all anglers and businesses who have supported the teams during the international.
Tight lines all Carl