Winter Fly-Tying Sessions and
Open Club Nights
from October 31st
Click HERE for
full details
FREE ENTRY
ALL WELCOME
Here's an area map showing our 21 river beats. Click the map for zoomable PDF
River Elwy:
1: Gypsy Lane
2: Spring Gardens
3: Roe Park
4. St Asaph City
5: Bryn Polyn
6: Maes Elwy
7: Maes Elwy Wood
8: Glan Llyn
9: Pont y Ddol
10: Bron Heulog
River Clwyd:
11: Lower Pont Dafydd
12: Pont Dafydd
13: Ysgubor y Coed
14: Glan Clwyd
15: Wern Ddu
16: Lower Llannerch
17: Upper Llannerch
18: Bodfari
19: Upper Bodfari
20: Pont Clwyd
River Aled:
21: Llansannan
Club Lake:
22: Llyn Crud y Gwynt
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ASSOCIATION HANDBOOK:
A professionally printed copy of our 2023 handbook is available
to RASAAA members by contacting our treasurer. Cost is £10 inc. P&P.
ABOUT US
Rhyl & St Asaph Angling Association forms one of the oldest fishing clubs in North Wales, covering a period of around seventy years. It is a founder member of the Federation of Clwyd Angling Clubs, and a member of the Angling Trust.
The three main rivers of the Clwyd catchment offer some of the best fishing in Wales for sea trout (sewin). Our Association has 21 river beats:- 10 on the Clwyd, 10 on the Elwy and a long beat on the Aled, many in prime areas of the catchment. These give members excellent and affordable game fishing for salmon, sea trout and wild brown trout in the Vale of Clwyd and Elwy Valley, areas of outstanding natural beauty.
An important consideration when you are looking to join a club is ease of access to the fishing and Rhyl & St Asaph AA members have easy access as many of our river beats are within 4Km of St Asaph. Sea trout and salmon will reach many of our beats much sooner than people realise after they enter the river system on a high tide at Rhyl. Whilst our waters are not tidal, a tide table is a valuable tool to have.
Members do not need to book to fish most of our river beats. The two beats that are bookable are available 24/7 via our online booking system. They have a six rod limit on each, and are split-day basis 6am - 6pm or 6pm - 6am, so plenty of availability for daytime and night-time anglers.
We also have a rod share with Llangollen Maelor A.C. to fish the Welsh Dee, for salmon, sea trout and brown trout, and a big bonus is the grayling fishing. As one of the best grayling rivers in Europe it hosts the annual Hanak Grayling Festival.
STOP PRESS MAY 2023: We now have an exchange arrangement with Llandeilo Angling Association who have water on the Towy and Cothi. Details will be posted on the website soon, meantime contact Chris Porteous.
Whether you are looking to fly fish at night for the famous Welsh sewin or are content with concentrating on the wild brown trout in our rivers, or indeed you may be lucky in hooking a fresh run salmon – the choice is yours! All legal fishing methods are permitted (Fly, spin & worm) subject to the All-Wales Byelaws.
Stillwater Fishing:-
The Association has rods on Llyn Brenig / Alwen Reservoir - 2 rods every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday all year round. Brenig is an international fly-fishing venue, known for its hard fighting trout, reared on site. It's known as a great top of the water venue and in 2023 is being stocked with rainbow, blue and brown trout. Alwen is stocked with trout and has a head of coarse fish - it is multi-method.
Llyn Crud y Gwynt is our members' trout lake. It's a 2 acre spring-fed reservoir hidden away in a truly peaceful location. We stock it with rainbow, blue and brown trout. Barbless fly only.
BEAT WALKS
GUIDED MEMBERS' BEAT WALKS
2023
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SATURDAY
MAY 27th
SATURDAY
JUNE 10TH
Pont y DDol
(River Elwy)
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NUMBERS LIMITED ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS
TO ENROL CLICK HERE AND COMPLETE THE SIMPLE FORM
aNY q'S RING CHRIS ON
07970 216533
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Water Quality Monitoring
We currently carry out monitoring at four sites as part of a UK-wide Angling Trust initiative. Readings of nitrate, phosphate, ammonia concentrations, and electrical conductivity, are sent monthly to a national database.
Parallel to this we are also part of the Anglers Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) taking kick samples of invertebrates at four river sites, results of which are uploaded to the Riverfly database.
Monitoring our rivers is so important - think of this as the "canary in the mine".
If you would like to get involved in this very interesting project please contact any committee member.
1-day & 5-day VISITOR PERMITS
Visitor tickets are available at £15 for 1 day or £60 for 5 days.
They may be purchased at Foxons of St Asaph or online HERE
ASSOCIATION beat
maintenance PARTIES 2023
River Keepers John and Rich would love to see you - new members and old - and help them to look after your river beats and catch up on the fishing news.
Please click HERE for details.
WE RECOMMEND THAT ALL ANGLERS
JOIN THE ANGLING TRUST
AS AN INDIVIDUAL MEMBER FOR £30
As an Angling Trust member you receive big savings on products and services from trade partners AND discounted fishing venues.
The £10m civil liability insurance alone is worth the annual fee.
Our Association is a Member of the Trust but many more individual members are needed in Wales. Moving forward we need the Trust and Fish Legal to represent game anglers in Wales and help us look after our rivers and game fishing.
For more information click on the link to the Angling Trust website
where you will see some of their campaigns on our behalf:-
Sea Trout Fishing
Fly fishing for sea trout at night is, for many anglers, the ultimate form of wild fishing.
Sea trout are genetically the same as brown trout but they migrate to the estuary and coastal waters in search of food where they grow much larger than most of their river-dwelling brothers and sisters. Most returning fish are between 12oz to 2lb, but a good number around the 4lb - 8lb range are caught. A 6 or 7 lb sea trout would be regarded as a specimen and anything approaching 10lb a fish of a lifetime.
Our Association centred around St Asaph in Denbighshire North Wales has 20 beats on the rivers Clwyd, Elwy and Aled, each with wild brown trout and runs of sea trout and salmon.
Because sea trout are very shy, and the river you are fishing may be low and gin clear, it is important to wait until it is really dark before commencing fishing. Stealth is the watch word. No stray headlamp lights or stomping around the bank here. Moonless nights and warm nights with cloud cover are generally preferred and your eyes do become accustomed to the low light levels.
In the quiet of a river valley at midnight, your senses become heightened - every rustle in the undergrowth, the plop of a water vole entering the water, the call of an owl or fox - all these sounds at night seem to be amplified. This can take some getting used to but once you feel at home on a familiar river bank at night daytime fishing could seem tame!
You cast out to where you hope the fish will be, waiting to continue their upstream migration. Your team of two flies swings around in the current, nothing takes, so you retrieve, and re-cast, trying to reach as near to the other bank as possible without snagging. Four casts later and tawny owls are calling to each other and you're gazing up trying to find the North Star when something tries to snatch the rod from your grasp!
There is nothing quite like the sensation of your fly line suddenly tightening as a fresh run sea trout rips line from your reel, and, as often happens, performs a vertical leap out of the water, stopping your heart for a brief moment, adrenalin now pumping, before your fly is ejected leaving you a quivering wreck staring in disbelief as the surface of the pool settles down.
If this sounds exciting to you, you'll be pleased to know that membership of our Association is still open at a cost of £165 for the first 12 months (for adults of 21 and over). Age 16 up to 21 is just £30. Under 16's enjoy free membership. Adult renewal subscription is £150 for 2023 season.
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If you've never cast a fly before our three qualified coaches can teach you. Best to learn to fly fish first at our stocked lake, and in daytime on the rivers before you venture out at night.
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And some of our experienced night fishers will be only too pleased to accompany you on your first forays in the dark and welcome you to a whole new experience. If you take to it, I guarantee it's completely addictive and for you fishing will just never be the same again!
​
Chris Porteous
Chairman
Rhyl and St Asaph Angling Association
February 28th 2023
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION PAGE
........at Night
RIVER DEE FISHING WITH
Llangollen-Maelor a.a.
We are very grateful for our reciprocal arrangement with Llangollen-Maelor AA. This allows two of our members per day to fish their waters on the River Dee near Llangollen. (and vice-versa).
Depending on close season dates, salmon, sea-trout, brown trout and grayling may be fished for until the end of August, with brown trout and grayling only after that date.
Details of the beats and rules can be found on their website www.llangollen-maelor-angling.com/
PLEASE NOTE: Some beats are strictly reserved for LMAA members only.
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Including the fishing at Llyn Brenig and on the rivers Clwyd, Elwy, Aled and Dee, our members now have access to approx. 33 miles of bank fishing in North Wales.
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2023
FISHING AT LLYN BRENIG
Our Members' Llyn Brenig / Llyn Alwen tickets run from January 1st to December 31st.
Llyn Brenig is a top international fishery and we are delighted to offer this opportunity to our members at no extra cost. Brenig rainbow and blue trout are very hard-fighting as they are raised in the lake and many grow on to a very large size!
**BROWN TROUT BEING STOCKED IN 2023**
2023 ROD ALLOCATION
We have 2 RODS on Tuesday,
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
all year round. Bookable via our online booking system.
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Please Note:
New ANPR cameras at Brenig.
Call into the Visitor Centre the next time you go fishing there and log in your car reg. no's to avoid a parking ticket!
Rhyl & St Asaph AA member Derfel with a 10lb rainbow caught on fly at LLyn Brenig in 2022
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Please be aware that fishing is NOT PERMITTED in the area where the new power lines cross the river Elwy towards the lower end of our Pont y Ddol beat. Scottish Power are erecting warning signs to this effect - WE DO NOT OWN THE FISHING RIGHTS BETWEEN THE SIGNS. This is for your safety - the pylons are a wooden type and do not appear to be as high as the metal ones such as those at Bryn Polyn/Wern Ddu.