Talybont Reservoir sits in a heavily wooded, steep-sided valley in the Brecon Beacons, and of all the waters in this series it’s the one that feels most like genuine wilderness fishing – a 318-acre reservoir holding wild brown trout, with fishing restricted to fly only and bank fishing only.
A Purist’s Water
The restriction to fly-only, bank-only fishing isn’t a limitation so much as a defining feature of what makes Talybont distinctive among South Wales trout waters – it keeps the fishing focused and the water itself relatively undisturbed compared to reservoirs that permit boats and multiple methods. For anglers who specifically want a genuine wild brown trout fly fishing experience without other methods or boat traffic in the mix, Talybont delivers exactly that.
Day tickets are available online through The Fishing Passport, the same booking system covering Usk Reservoir and several other Welsh Water waters. Opening hours generally run 8am through to around 7-9pm depending on season, similar to Usk.
Fishing the Wooded Banks
The heavily wooded valley setting changes the character of casting and bank access compared to more open reservoirs – expect tighter casting lanes in places and a genuinely different feel to fishing here compared to open upland water like Elan Valley or Clywedog. Our brown trout species guide is worth reading before a visit, given the wild-fish-focused nature of this water.
Combining With Nearby Waters
Talybont sits close to Usk Reservoir, and the two Brecon Beacons waters together offer a genuinely varied South Wales trout fishing trip – Usk for flexible methods and stocked rainbows, Talybont for pure wild brown trout fly fishing.
Sarah Marsh came to fly fishing through her father, who kept a rod on a small syndicate water in Devon. She spent her teens fishing stocked reservoirs and gradually worked her way toward wild fish on moving water – first on rain-fed freestone rivers in Wales, then on the Hampshire chalk streams she now considers home water.
She holds a level 2 APGAI fly casting qualification and guides informally on the River Test and, from June to September, on a private beat on the River Tay for Atlantic salmon. Her personal best brown trout came from the Itchen at 4lb 1oz; she’d sooner not talk about the salmon that came off at the net last August.
At The River Bend, Sarah writes the game fish species guides, fly fishing technique articles, and the legal content covering trout and salmon regulations.
Covers: Brown trout, rainbow trout, sea trout, Atlantic salmon, fly fishing, chalk streams, Scottish rivers, close season and regulation articles