A while a go Dom said to me that it might be an idea to start to compile a Blog / Diary of my sessions up on Bryn Bach, so far I only know of 2 other members on here that are on the syndicate or who have day session / season tickets and the are Brent and Allynponty, lads please feel free to contribute to this blog / Diary in any way you see fit this also applies to anyone who has fished the park and had any sort of success.

Before I start this Blog / Diary I would like the members to know that this is far from a runs water with the average catch rate of the syndicate members between 12 - 15 fish per season, so please dont expect to see loads and loads of fish photo's and red letter day sessions as this prob wont happen

A Little information about the Lake and the surrounding Park.
Bryn Bach country park is located just off the A465 heads of the valley road near Tredegar in the Black mountains, the 36 arce lake is set in 340 acres of wood and moreland and is at an altitude of 450m ( 1476ft ) above sea level.
Yes it get very cold and wind up here LOL.





The lake is a very busy public park with Model boating clubs, water dog traing classes, BMX Track, Golf Course, Canoe/Boating tuition, Hill Walking and rambling course's and team building events for all ages and walks of life,as well as being very popular with dog walkers, the area is also of significant scientific interest due to the rare butterflies that have been found in the surrounding area of park land, the park has also many,many different types of water fowl including Swans, and tuffed diving ducks ( Mostly in the winter months )
The syndicate for the fishing has been on the water for about 15 years and puts the money from the yearly subscripsions but in to the lake via the stocking policies.There are no bait bans present on the water and no real bans as such but common sense must be used, safe rigs, carp care, landing nets etc all the things that people who use this forum take as second nature.The lake is 36 acres is size so there's plenty of room for the fish and the anglers to move about, the only areas that are out of bounds on wednesday,saturdays and sundays are the banking opposite the visitors centre and the bay just down from it as the model boat club and dog training classes take place in these area's.Also when the model boat club people are on the water the use of bait boats is not allowed by anyone ( This includes syndicate members ).

Day Ticket Tariffs

All tickets must be purchsed from the visitors centre before going to your swim and setting up or fishing.
Day session - £2.50 for 1 rod or £3.80 for 2
Day session and guesting anglers are limited to the use 2 rods only and are not allowed to use bait boats.
Guesting sessions £7.50 per 24hrs
Season ticket day only - £30
Night Syndicate -£45

The park wardens do not bayliff the fishing rights, so as such there are no fishing bayliff's but all syndicate members have the right to check your day ticket and can ask you to purchase one if you have not done previously.
Anglers who are not on the syndicate are unforunately limited to the park opening times which do vary thought the year but on average are around 7.30am - 8pm in the summer and in the winter 8am - 5pm, however the times do vary on a sunday and normally the gates stay open longer then 8pm as this is also the access to the golf course.

The Fish
The current lake record stands at around the 31lb 3oz mark ( Ill check the info board next vist )with a very good head of 20lb+ fish with many of these going over 25lb mark with a few touching that magical 30lb mark.No one really knows how many carp are present in the water but by educated guess's there are approx 300 - 400 carp in there, along with the bream which touch 15lb, pike that go to 25lb and roach that often go over the 2lb mark and will happily take 10mm baits all day.
Pics of some of my fish from the pond.
29lb 3oz Original Mirror

26lb 13oz

25lb 7oz

21lb

20lb 12oz

18lb mirror

18lb Common

Baby Common's from previous years stocking.








These are just some of the fish that Ive had from the pond since the end of July last year, in about 5 and half months I've had in total 16 fish from 29lb - 6.5lb the smaller fish are the stock from 2007/2008 and were stocked from 6lb - 14lb in weight and do not take long to pile on the weight in there first few years in the water due to the rich and varied food iitems in the pond.
I hope the forum member's have enjoyed the reading so far, I will prob write 1 more blog entry from last weekends session and then the next entry will be some time in April when I get back on the bank after my misses has our first baby in 2 weeks time, all the best for now J

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"OBSESSION" - A word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.
In search of another Bryn Bach Original

Awesome write up jamie mate

Good luck with your season and the little nipper

I for one look forward to your next blog entry no matter how long it takes

awesmoe blog jamie mate you doing well on there congrats on the baby pal

nice writing mate , all the best for 2010 up there

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let em ave it !

I'm also on the syndicate up Bryn Bach and fish it quite regular heres a few that i have had out of there, also i fished friday night up there nothing caught except for my m8 who had a few pike to 8lb.

16lb 11oz


18lb


and 1 of last years stock at 9lb 11oz


ill hopefully be up there again this weekend so ill let you all know how i get on.

welldone adam some cracking looking carp you had mate keep at it pal

cheers m8, sorry that the pics are so big ill av to try and resize them

Edit: All done now, sorted

Sorry Adam fella, forgot that you were on this forum buddy. I love those little commons there are going to be some stunning looking fish in a few years when they put some weight on, J

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"OBSESSION" - A word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.
In search of another Bryn Bach Original

no problem J yeah agree with u on them commons

20th March 2010 Blog update.

Evening Lads,
Been as it is my birthday tomorrow my misses agreed that I could have a day session as Ive been away form the banks for about 7/8 weeks due to having our first baby.
Set off from the house at about 6.30am, the weather was wet and windy with low level cloud cover but at least this kept the temps. up slightly, a quick look at the thermometer as I was leaving the house and it was a very resnible 7oC which seemed ok and a little better then it had been in the past few weeks.Got to the pond about 6.45am opened the gate and drove around to my usual spot just up from the visitors centre, as I pulled in to the car park I noticed that my spot had already been taken by 2 of the other syndiacte members , a quick glance around the top end of the pond and I saw 3 other bivvies to the right hand side of the model boat platform, and another bivvy further down from the platform, If it had'nt been a Saturday I would have fished open water and the back end of the island from the platform , but the model boat club would surely be in attendeance on the water later on.So I drove around to a swim the syndicate members call "The Point" and "No Carp Bay", as I pulled in to the gravel car park on the point I noticed that one of my mates was already set up on the point and had been fishing since Friday afternoon,Mark was fishing to open water with 3 rods to the back of a big weed bank, he was fishing with Mainline Activ-Maple8 baits ( Pop Ups) on all 3 rods and feeding 12 to 15 boilies a time over each spot via a throwing stick when aloud by the seagulls, nothing reprted by him and he had'nt so much as seen a fish more in 24hrs.I did'nt have many options as most of this banking was either taken or would have the boat club on later in the day.I looked at the island opposite and picked out 2 carpy looking spots near to some tree's that over hang slightly in to the water. I picked these spots as they dont tend to get fished much as you might have guessed by the name of the spot "No Carp Bay" LOL.Also picked these spots as I wanted to try my new boat that I had bought from Brent earlier in the week.A-Lite and rods set up and baited, I was ready to get the leads wet with the added bonus that it had stopped raining The rod closet to the island had Mainline Pro Activ Pineapple baits on the hair fished snowman style with a hi-viz yellow pop up at the end so the carp had something visual to see in the heavy weed and slightly murky water due to the amount of run off water from the rain the pond had seen in the last 24hrs, the second rod was baited with cell pop ups with a little bit of plastic fantasic in fluro orange slightly further along the same island to another set of bush's/tree's which were slightly in the water.The 3rd rod was but out in to open water were the depth was a little more just in case the fish had decided not to venture near the shallower water around the islands, this rod was moved around the deeper water, and was fished with mainline pineapple pop ups and solar Quench pop ups in 10mm and 14mm.





Until about 2pm the wind was on my back and blowing towards the isands East / north eastly, at about 3pm the weather changed for the worse and the wind swang around and was blowing directly in to the bivvy and in to my face, seem a change for the better as if there were any fish following the wind they would now be travelling in my direction, the only draw back when fishing in to the wind on the pond is that it tends to push a lot of the canidian pond weed in to the shore and striaight in to your lines which can be a nightmare as it can get so bad at times that it will easly drag a 3oz lead of your baited spot with no problems.At about 4pm I decided to put some fresh baits out with the Bait and Feed companies winter pellet ( sweetcorn,tiger nut and GLM Pellets ) as these tend to brake down easy in any water temp and not to over feed the fish on boilies.By 5pm the wind was now gusting rather badly and the rain had returned blowwing directly in to the A-lite and in my face, the temp had now dropped to 4oC and with the wind it felt much colder, it was at this point I decided to call it a day, no signs of a fish but I was very happy just to be back on the banks once again.

As I left I had a quick chat to a few of the lads who had been fishing further down the bank near the boating platform to see how there 48hr session was going and the one lad had 2 fish on Friday evening 1 @ 8lb a baby simmo common and another mirror @ 18lb, hopefully with some finer and sunnier weather the fish will start to move about more freely and start to feed a little better.
I wont be going next week as I have to take the dog to the vets for his last injection and puppy check up, so I should be back up there the week after next for my first weekend session on the pond of 2010. J

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"OBSESSION" - A word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.
In search of another Bryn Bach Original

awesome Jamie, your passion for the place is inspiring

any chance of a guesty

Cheers Dom fella, not a problem with the guest session mate be my pleasure. J

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"OBSESSION" - A word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.
In search of another Bryn Bach Original

wicked write up jamie, looking forward to reading some more of your exploits dude.

Cheers CC mate, there will be more to come and hopefully with pics of fish J

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"OBSESSION" - A word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.
In search of another Bryn Bach Original

27th March 2010 Blog Update.

Evening Fella's,
here's the update for this week, I was hoping ot get to the park around 6am this morning but due to mistress Stella last night I did'nt manage to get up until 7.45am but was on the water by8.30ish, pulled in to the car park and saw that my usual spot had been taken by one of the lads Leon and and another one of the syndi lads, just down from him was Adam (adamdenmead1) from this forum and another syndi member, so a quick trip around to the "point" and "no Carp Bay" to see if anyone was on those spots which there was, both spots taken by syndi members Mark Adams and Beanzy, so I shot back round to another swim the members called " The Weather Station" which is near the visitors centre.
I would normally avoid this area like the pleague due to the massive amount of canadian pond weed present but as the park was filling with anglers I decided to get my arse in to a swim that was 1/2 fishable.With my normal 3 rod set up ready to go I boated out the first of the 3 baits, 14mm Cell pop up tipped off with some plastic fantasic in fluro orange,the Bait and Feed companies winter pellet a few broken and whole Cell bait's completed the hopper and the boat was ready to go, the 1st bait was to be sent out in to the bay of the opposite island which was a slightly more shelted spot as the wind was blowing down the park towards the golf course in a North, North Westly direction.The second bait was boated out to just passed the point of the island which was closest to me this rod was fished with Mainline Pro-Activ pineapple bottom baits and snowmen and the third rig was cast to the side of the island and fished with solar corkers in Quench and pineapple, this rod is what I refer to as my roving rod that is only fished with pop ups and very small stick's or bags of pellets and moved about to try and get a quick bite or to find the fish.

My Swim For The Day


Position Of Baits


At around 2pm the wind swang around and was now blowing the opposite direction down the pond, hopefully the fish would travel with it and move in to the bay, I think that this was more wishfull thinking by me then anything else as I had'nt had so much as a beep all day, about this time Adam pop down for a quick chat, Adam was fishing just down from my spot with one of his mate's and through the night and day had managed to have some luck with some of the smaller stockies up to about 12lb and some double figue bream, I'll let Adam post his report when he gets home from the pond in the next day or two.
I decided to put fresh baits out at about 4.30pm which would be the last baits going in to the water for this session, as soon as I had boated out all three baits I started to take the bivvy down and get things ready for the off in an hour or so, just as the light was fading I had 3 beeps to the cell pop up but unfortunately the carp god did not smile upon me on this session.The fish are starting to move about a little more now with a few seen crashing in the very heavy weed in the margins near the golf course and quite a few at the opposite end of the pond once again in the very heavy canadian weed.The park was unusally busy with anglers today with about 11 or 12 syndi members doing weekend sessions and quite a few day session anglers on the opposite bank.Beanzy who was fishing the point did manage to net 2 nice fish the first @ 19lb and the second @ 24lb, I would like to say well done to Adam for his efforts which were well rewarded and hopefully still with 24 hours to go he will bag a few more.Really looking forward to next weekend as this will be my first 48hr session of the year, looking to get on the water on sunday and fish it through until Tuesday evening. J

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"OBSESSION" - A word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.
In search of another Bryn Bach Original

thanks j

as already said by jamie i decided to set up on the wall in front of the main car park, i arrived at the lake at 4pm friday and put out 3 rods 1st 1 on a 20mm bottom bait, 2nd rod on 15mm bottom bait tipped off with fake corn and the third rod went out with a 15mm bottom bait, all bottom baits were nash mach 1. at around 9.30 my m8 who i guested scott had a run on a snowman which turned out to be one of the stockies at 9lb and ounces


then at around 10pm i had a run on my left hand rod with the 20mm bottom bait which turned out to be a 6lb bream. that was it for the night, then at around 11am saturday scott had another run, from the off we new it was a better fish as it started to take line, it turned out to be 17lb 5oz and beat his pb by 5oz again on the snowman.


after most of the action was coming on the snowman i brought in my middle rod and put a snowman out more left and my left hand rod then became the middle, an hour past had the run an turned out to be yet another bream at 7lb


after putting the rod back on the spot within the hour i had another run, this time i new that it wasnt a bream, it turnedout to be a 12lb 12oz mirror.

later on in the night at around 11pm i had another bream this time i didnt weigh it but it was around the same stamp as the other 2. the rest of the night went by without a beep, we left the lake at around 2pm. ill also be going up there again next week probarbly sunday till tuesday same as you j, see you up there

awesome fella's , top angling by both

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let em ave it !

Cheers m8, are you going up with J sunday? If u are see u up there m8

thats some gorgeous Carp in there, well done Jamie and adam..
Jamie you certainly have a passion for the place,loved reading your stuff..

Cheers Carl Fella, Adam thats a lovely looking zip linear you had there mate, cracking fair play J

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"OBSESSION" - A word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.
In search of another Bryn Bach Original

some nice fish there lads, cant wait to bag one for myself, alyn.

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http://ps3.kudosnetwork.co.uk/3963

Cheers lads, it was a pretty little fish J

nice one fellas, keep it up!

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Mid Wales Carper

i'm salavating here lads j this place looks the mutz

so looking forward to my first day session up there this saturday and hopefully in time i will be adding to this awsome blog as a syndi member to,

j next time your doing an overnight a guesty would be much appreciated

Blog Update 4th/5th/6th April 2010

Evening Chaps,
here's the blog update for the last session,I decided to fish the park sun - thro to Tues this week with it being a bank holiday and the park porb be packed from friday til Monday if last weekend was anything to go by at least this way I would pretty much get at least 1 night on the water with a lot less anglers, had a quick stop in on the park on Friday afternoon after having to vist the near by local tackle shop.The pond was looking nice with about 1 foot of extra water in it from the run off from the surrounding hills this had also put a little more colour in the water then is normal to my surprise the park was pretty much empty on Friday afternoon, which started alarm bells ringing as I then thought that it would defo be rammed by Sunday.This session Welsh-80 ( Dom ) we be doing a guest session for 48hrs with me so this should break the boredom with some one else to have a chat with.I managed to get to the park earlier then I thought was going to be possible, this week I was able to get on to my fav swim, Adam and his guest was a little further down the banking but as of yet had not had any action, after re-enacting Torvil and Dean's finest moments on the grass banking in front of the car which was basicaly a shhet of very slippery mud I managed to get the bivvy up and the gear sorted before the big man turned upfor his guesting session.Dom pitched up on the left hand side of me and fished 2 rods on a single spot ( If I remember correctly ) which he then baited with his spodding kit, I should rather say that Dom tired to bait his spot up but due to the extremely fresh breeze LOL that was now blowing directly into out face's.This weather was to stay with myself and Dom for the entire session and was a nightmare as it did limit the amount oif time we spent on the banking as it was the type of wind that my nan would say "Cuts you right to the bone", fooking freezing LOL.
At about 40/50 yrds range I baited 2 of my 3 spots with CC Moore's parti Mix&aniseed and Cell baits on the left hand rod and pro active pineapple on the middle rod the right hand rod would then be moved around on the edge of a big weed bed to my right hand side, the weed would be worked with different hi-viz pop ups and small sticks to mask the hook point, I did try a few new rigs out but I was un-sure weather the hooklink material would have been the correct choice in that particlular location, the new rigs are nothing special but are combi links made from 3 or 4 inches of stiff link and an inch or two of very supple uncoated braid with some putty place at the join so the stiff link sits flat with the supple braid popped up but I did get a little paranoid that the stiff link would be some how sitting incorrectly in the weed.



The wind picked up a little more so it was now more then a little breezey, In between the gust's of wind I put out 2 boat's full of bait, one on each spot and the rigs ready for the night, at around 2am I started to get a few what sounded like small runs on the Delk's but they would stop after about 2 secs, as the wind was now howling and the waves now crashing on the rocks in front of the rods I went back outside to tunned the sensitivity down on the Delk's this then stopped the small runs that I was having, A good night sleep was hopefully going to be had.NO further action through out the night I woke up ready for the possibility of some action on the Monday morning after a quick and a brew I decided to put some fresh baits back out on to the spots.As I picked the middle rod up I noticed that there was a little more slack line and then the penny dropped about the small runs that I thought were the waves and weed around the captive backleads, a bream of about 6lb had taken the bait on the middle rod,a 10mm Mainline proactiv pineapple dumbell tipped with a little bit of plastic fantastic in yellow.
The weather didnt change much for the rest of the day so most of it was spent in the bivvy listen to the radio and drifting in and out of sleep .Monday was pretty much the same weather wise with a little less wind but still no action from the fish and no signs of fish topping either, all we could do was to put the rods out over the baited area's and just wait for the fish to find it.Monday came and went and before I knew it , it was Tuesday morning and time to think about packing the gear away and admitting defeat at the hands of scaley critters.It was nice to catch something and put a slight bend in the rod even if it was a slimey bream, hopefully the next session would bring me a little more luck.Adam and his guest had a little luck on Monday night at around 2 in the mornig as I seen them netting a fish not sure if it was a carp or another slimey.

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"OBSESSION" - A word used by the lazy to describe the dedicated.
In search of another Bryn Bach Original