Lake Vyrnwy sits in the north of Powys, in Mid Wales close to the Shropshire border, and it stands apart from most of the other waters in this series in one key way: fishing here is done almost exclusively from a well-maintained fleet of boats, using traditional loch-style drifting methods, rather than from the bank.
What Makes Vyrnwy Distinctive
The lake holds an abundant population of wild brown trout, generally averaging 10oz to 1lb, alongside grayling, perch, and pike. It’s the wild brown trout that draw most dedicated visiting anglers, and the loch-style boat approach – drifting with the wind across open water while working a team of flies – is a specific skill in itself, distinct from the static bank fishing found at most other Welsh trout reservoirs.
The fishing season typically runs from around late March through mid-October. Boat bookings, overnight stays, and full fishing information are available through the Lake Vyrnwy website, and given the boat-based nature of the fishing here, booking ahead is genuinely necessary rather than optional.
Learning Loch-Style Fishing
If loch-style boat fishing is new to you, it’s worth treating your first visit as a learning session as much as a fishing trip – working a team of wet flies across a drift, keeping pace with the boat’s movement, and covering water systematically are all skills that take a session or two to click. Our brown trout guide covers the species behaviour that makes this approach effective on genuinely wild fish.
Part of a Wider Mid Wales Trip
Vyrnwy sits within reach of Llyn Clywedog further south, and combining the two gives a genuine contrast between bank-based reservoir fishing and boat-based loch-style fishing within the same Mid Wales trip.
Gear that fits this
For anyone buying with this in mind, a few sensible picks.
On the fly lines side, Scientific Anglers Mastery Titan Weight Forward Fly Line Blue/Green #6, Airflo Superflo 40+ Extreme Fly Line WF8 Floating and Sharpes of Aberdeen Aquarex Fly Lines Forward Floating #6.
Leaders and tippet: SeaGuar Soft-Plus Fluorocarbon 100m Clear 6.6lb 0.165mm, Wychwood Lure Mode Flourocarbon Tippet 50m 0.17mm 5lb and Scientific Anglers Absolute Trout Tippet 30m 1X (0,25 mm) 13.9lb.
For reels, Lamson Guru S-Series Olive Green Fly Reel, Guideline Aeon Fly Reel- Black/Silver #7/9 and Greys Tital Fly Reel #3/4 are all worth a look.
Rods worth adding: Guideline Elevation Single Handed Fly Rod 9' #5, Guideline Embrace Salmon Fly Rod and Reel Kit #9/10 14' and Shakespeare Sigma Supra Fly Rod 10ft #8 4pc.
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