Sylen Lake

Opening Times

Open daily from 8:30am until 6:30pm.
Late night opening on Wednesdays in the summer months until 9.30pm

Stocked Fish
Carp
F1 Carp
Roach
Rudd
Golden Rudd
Bream
Tench
Chub
Perch

Prices

Adults £6 per day
Under 12's £4 per day

Contact Details

Daytime Tel: 01269 860445 Evening Tel: 01554 775440

Directions

We can be found relatively easily - we are not far from Five Roads (B4309), Llanelli.Click here to visit multimap.co.uk for a map.

Fishing Club Competitions

Available to fishing clubs etc for competitions

Seasonal opening

The Fishery closes 1st November and then reopens on the 1st March(Available for matches up to Dec 21st)

Amenities

Toilets are available on site

Bait Bans

The following types of bait are banned from use on the Lake:
Trout pellets
Boillies (allowed in matches as hook bait only)
Nuts

Match Fishing at Sylen

Fishing a match at Sylen

I have fished quite a few matches at Sylen and this is how I would approach it.My chosen method at Sylen varies according to the peg/area of the lake drawn.

Sylen is not a difficult fishery and you can use Pole, Feeder or Waggler as you prefer.
Also there are two ways to approach fishing at Sylen, either "Bit Bash" or feed and hold out for the bigger fish, Bream, Carp & F1's.

If drawn the car park end where the pegs are shallower and during the summer have weed beds I would fish the short pole, whip and speed fish with maggot or caster, it is very possible to frame doing this and possible to win your section also. There are literally millions of small roach, carp, crucians, and rudd to be caught this way. I wouldn't fish too fine as the odd carp also turn up in the margins, although not often during winter. This method can be applied to any peg on the lake but I have found the shallower car park end responds better to this method. The way to get to the bigger silvers and avoid the dreaded top mouth gudgeon is to fish maggot or caster shallow and constantly feed caster or fish and feed hemp when the water temperature is high enough. Also don't forget to occasionally try on the deck over this line with corn/meat or paste as the carp will move in over this feed line. I would normally fish this line as close in as possible and have found 3 - 4mtrs is the best for this method and it works all year round even in the cold winter months.

Another method to fish on the pole is the long pole deeper water method, peg depth can range from 4ft to 10ft deep and the pegs on the far bank being the deeper 8ft -10ft pegs which usually produce well during the winter. Plumb and find the ledge, usually between 8 & 11mtrs out and feed pellet and fish pellet/corn/meat/paste/bread and cat food on this line. The carp in this lake range from 1lb to 20lbs with and average of 3/4lbs being normal stamp of fish caught. Feed & bait wise almost any baits work at Sylen, I have had good catches on expander & hard pellet, worm & caster, maggot, bread, meat & cat food. Also floating crust and dog biscuit work well but not allowed during matches. Maggot is a great all round bait, but you will attract attention from the vast shoals of small fish and you will find this a nuisance when fishing the long pole, so I would not recommend feeding maggot on that line unless your prepared for a lot of shipping in and out. Short pole with paste, pellet, meat and corn also work well as does feeding and fishing the margins the same way.

Long Pole for the bream - feed a long line for the bream with groundbait and caster and fish pellet and bream over this. Alternatively you could fish the waggler over this.

How it's done.
(Time to give away all the secrets at Sylen, I can hear Brian crying already)

POLE

Whip (Bit bashing)
I shouldn't really need to explain this to most match anglers, but for the benefit of those who don't know here goes.
Chose a balsa bodied cane stem float for this style aprox 4X10 or 4X12 (they cast easier with less tangles for the whip). Shot it shirt button style, i.e. equally spaced shots or styles so you can detect a bite at any depth. Feed aprox 6/8 maggots or casters and cast on top of your feed, and continue feeding and casting, Speed is the key to achieving success with this method.

Long Pole
As with all pole methods - it's vital you plumb correctly, get the depth and locate the shelf/features first. Rig wise you'll need floats 4x10, 4x12, 4x14, 1g & 1.5gr to be prepared for all the weather conditions. When the wind blows at Sylen the tow can be very strong and the chop can resemble fishing in the sea. Shotting is very simple, a bulk aprox 12" to 18" from the hook with two small dropper shots spaced in-between the bulk & the hook. I would feed 2 pots of feed pellet/hemp mixed 50-50 in the summer and half a pot mixed 70/30 with hemp in the winter. Over this I would fish 6mm Got Expander pellet, 6&8mm hard pellet or corn, and 4mm expander, corn and caster in the winter. I would fish these at dead depth to start with but if the water is towing or the wind is strong then fish these baits over depth to counteract the tow. If your not getting bites then try shall owing up 6" at a time and see if you can locate any feeding fish.

Long Pole - Bream Line
When targeting the bream at 13mtrs - 16mtrs I put out 1kg of groundbait at the start of the match via the pole cupping kit over a 3ft square area. This groundbait mix comprises of 50 - 50 Swimstim Natural and Sensa Lake to which I add 1/2 pint of caster and 1/2 pint of damp micro pellet. Once this line is fed I rest it for the first hour fishing one of the other methods mentioned here and then fish expander and punched bread pellet over this line. The bream average 1lb and can boost your weight significantly if they show in numbers.

Feeder

Cage Feeder
The feeder also works well at Sylen I tend to keep rigs simple with a running ledger and groundbait feeder on a snap link which can be changed for a maggot feeder or bomb at will. Groundbait wise I use 50/50 brown crumb and green swimstim mixed so it just binds together and riddled well before use. To that I'll add a third of damp feed pellet. I usually hair rig most of my baits when carp fishing (thanks for the tip Malc) as this has proven to be very successful for me. I prefer to drill and hair hard pellets rather than band them for some reason it produces a better bite. Bait wise hard pellet, expander pellet, meat, corn, bread, mini boilie & cat food. There are times when the fishing is hard you may wish to switch to a maggot feeder and fish the maggot for smaller fish, or use 4/5 maggots on the hook for the bigger bream. As always with feeder fishing look for or locate the features to fish to, e.g. The island at the far end of the lake, and if fishing the pegs the car park side there is a raised dead weed bed/ sunken island about 20 mtrs out, try casting just short of this, I've had a lot of fish from these pegs employing that method. When fishing this method I have found an 18" to 24" hook length seems to work the best.

Method Feeder
The Method Feeder is very effective at Sylen and works here just as it seems to anywhere which a large head of carp and bream. The method mix I use is 50-50 Sensas Marine & Special G. You can use both inline method or elasticated feeders although I prefer inline myself. I hair rig meat and corn which have worked well this year (2008) for me but also cat meat, bread, dead red maggot etc can be very effective. A short 3" to 4" hook length seems to work best with a short hair and the bait suspended just below the hook bend.