Inland Wales

What you can target here

One entry per fish, grouped by how you would be fishing — because the answer is a different one from the rocks and from a boat. Each entry says how strongly the sources support it and how much evidence sits behind it. These are documented catches, not a forecast, and none of it is a statement that you may fish any particular ground.

How people fish here

8 methods are recorded on the places documented here, counted from those places themselves rather than from what is practised in the country. Each opens a full guide to the technique.

• Stillwater fly fishing

  Recorded at 10 places here, over reservoir, lake.

  Fly fishing without current, where the angler supplies every movement and the problem becomes finding fish rather than presenting to them.

  Documented on the same ground: Brown trout, European perch, Northern pike, Rainbow trout, Roach.

• Dry fly fishing

  Recorded at 4 places here, over river reach, reservoir.

  Presenting a floating artificial to a fish feeding at the surface, so that it drifts exactly as a natural insect would.

  Documented on the same ground: Brown trout.

• Float fishing

  Recorded at 3 places here, over lake, reservoir, river reach.

  Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.

  Documented on the same ground: European perch, Northern pike, Roach, Brown trout.

• Ledgering

  Recorded at 2 places here, over reservoir, river reach.

  Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.

  Documented on the same ground: Brown trout, Rainbow trout.

• Spinning

  Recorded at 2 places here, over reservoir.

  Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.

  Documented on the same ground: Brown trout, Rainbow trout.

• Deadbaiting

  Recorded at 1 place here, over lake.

  Presenting a dead fish as bait for predators — a method that works because scavenging is normal predator behaviour, not an exception.

  Documented on the same ground: European perch, Northern pike, Roach, Brown trout.

• Feeder fishing

  Recorded at 1 place here, over river reach.

  Legering with a weight that also carries bait, so that free offerings arrive in exactly the same place as the hookbait, cast after cast.

• Trolling

  Recorded at 1 place here, over lake.

  Towing lures or baits behind a moving boat to cover large volumes of water and locate scattered fish.

  Documented on the same ground: European perch, Northern pike, Roach, Brown trout.

These are the methods documented at the places FishingHQ holds here. A species listed beside a method is documented on the same ground, which is not the same as being taken that way — where a source establishes the method a fish was caught on, it is stated on that place’s own page. All fishing methods.

Baits and lures for these fish

The methods, baits and lures each of the fish above is commonly taken on, from that fish’s own page. This is what works for the fish, not a report of what people use on this particular water — local knowledge and the conditions on the day still decide.

Places within this area

Publicly documented fishing geography. FishingHQ describes what the ground is; it does not say whether you may fish it, and every one of these sends that question to the body that holds the answer. Browse every place in this part of the world.

• Llyn Tegid

  Lake · Fresh water

  The largest natural lake in Wales: a glacial ribbon lake in a fault-guided valley in Snowdonia, six kilometres long, with steep sides, a deep central trough and the River Dee running through it.

  The valley funnels wind along the lake axis and Bala is notoriously windy; the fetch is the full length of the lake.

  Particular to this ground: cold water shock, boat safety, biosecurity and disease transfer.

  Particular to this water: Eryri National Park Authority requires its Llyn Tegid permit as well as a rod licence (Bala and District Angling Association season ticket holders excepted). Its terms, dated January 2020, prohibit removing eels or gwyniad, allow livebait only from the lake itself, five a day, and give trout and salmon seasons with no close season for coarse fish. Check the current terms. This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

• The Usk at Abergavenny

  River reach · Fresh water

  A fast, clean, freestone river running over gravel and bedrock ledges through the Brecon Beacons foothills, with a celebrated wild brown trout population and an early salmon run.

  Severe hazards of Inland Wales apply here: cold water shock.

• The Conwy at Llanrwst

  River reach · Fresh water

  A fast Snowdonian river running over gravel and bedrock through the Conwy valley to a tidal limit a few miles below, with a substantial sewin run.

  Severe hazards of Inland Wales apply here: cold water shock.

• The Dee at Llangollen

  River reach · Fresh water

  A fast, rocky, regulated river running through a narrow valley below Llyn Tegid, with a horseshoe weir feeding the canal and a flow held up by the lake above.

  Severe hazards of Inland Wales apply here: cold water shock.

• The Clwyd

  River reach · Fresh water

  A slow, silt-and-gravel lowland river running north through the Vale of Clwyd to a tidal limit at Rhuddlan, with a modest sewin run and coarse fish in its lower reaches.

  Severe hazards of Inland Wales apply here: cold water shock.

• Llyn Brenig

  Reservoir · Fresh water

  A large, high, exposed moorland reservoir on the Denbigh moors, with acidic peat-influenced water, a long fetch and cold conditions well into spring.

  Severe hazards of Inland Wales apply here: cold water shock.

  Particular to this water: The Llyn Brenig site, read on 23 October 2026: trout fishing is fly only; pike may be fished from the bank between 1 October 2026 and 1 March 2027 and from boats between 1 October and 24 November 2026, booked at least a day ahead. Fishing stops for about fifteen days each March for restocking. Fishing along the west shore is temporarily closed because of low water and exposed deep mud. Accessible wheelyboats can be hired, though not for electric wheelchairs.

• Llyn Clywedog

  Reservoir · Fresh water

  A deep, steeply-sided reservoir in a narrow mid-Wales valley behind a very tall concrete dam, built to regulate the Severn, with a level that varies greatly through the year.

  Severe hazards of Inland Wales apply here: cold water shock.

• Llyn Trawsfynydd

  Reservoir · Fresh water

  A shallow upland reservoir in Snowdonia built to serve a hydro and later a nuclear station, with a distinctive warmed history and an exposed moorland setting.

  Severe hazards of Inland Wales apply here: cold water shock.