Cantref Reservoir

Method: FLY ONLY.

Flies for brown trout:  All the usual small black ones that go on our mountain lakes and the ones you used to catch fish on when fishing the Upper Neuadd: Dawl Bach, Black and Peacock, Bibio, Zulu, Black Buzzers, Awl  as well as the Silver Invicta, Mallard and Claret and most of the reservoir flies that you would tend to use in Wales.

Access.

Access to the neck of the reservoir is from the layby or gateway at the end of the reservoir alongside the A470. We have permission to access the dam to fish the west bank a key at a cost of £10 can be purchased for this (available from the treasurer Tony Rees) and you must only park on the east side and not cross the dam.

Tickets are available from all our day ticket distributors but the nearest one is Cefn Newsagents, 31 High Street, Cefn Coed Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 2PG (open early) Day Tickets are NOT available on the bank

Season: Due to Rainbow Trout being present 1st March to the 30th of November in any year.

NOTE: No Brown trout to be taken before the 20th March or after the 17th October in any year. Catch and release of all brown trout recommended and barbless (or crushed barbs) flies please

History
Lying along the A470 road between Merthyr and Brecon Cantref was in the past an excellent Wild Brown Trout Fishery. It was the second of the complex of reservoirs known locally as the Cwm Taff reservoirs that were built in the early 1900’s to supply water to Cardiff and came under what was known as the Cardiff Corporation Water Works. Houses were built particularly at Llwynon to accommodate the workers and the whole complex was self-sufficient in that it had its own workforce who looked after everything from the water works to the surrounding grounds with even a blacksmith on site.

In around 1989 the reservoirs and the running of them heralded the change to stocking with Rainbow Trout, running them as put and take fisheries. Cantref was one of these and this continued until 2012 when it was decided to phase out stocking Cantref. When we lost Neuadd in 2013 we decided to look at Cantref as by this time it was being offered for lease. These negotiations led to us taking it on in 2015.

Present Day.

We have now had Cantref for a year and we will continue to rent it from Welsh Water as a Fly only reservoir.  It will have some small introductions of Rainbows but we understand that there are substantial quantities of Brown trout present.

In case of Pollution call 0800 80 70 60 and quote Ordanance Survey SN995154

National Resources Wales has introduced a new telephone number for any one to report incidents of pollution or poaching, the old 0800 number will continue to work for some time yet.   The number is…………….. 03000653000 if you see a pollution incident please take a photograph with your phone it may be needed to prove the incident took place.