Hanak European Grayling Festival

04/12/2024

Personal thanks from me

After nearly a 9 hour round trip to Oxford yesterday I finally have had time for the weekend to sink in and what a weekend it was. This competition was started by the late and great Ken Bathers who wanted to put the river Dee on the map and promote the area. Well it’s done and a lot more. This competition showcase’s what is great with our sport. The friendship, camaraderie and banter this weekend was fantastic. Yes the river didn’t play ball but I believe that every angler went away with great memories. This event can not happen without the support of all the angling clubs and owners of the water between Bala and Llangollen and for this I thank you. I would also like to thank Julian for his hard work on the stats and Adrian for his fantastic map 👍. The Plas mafia ( they will understand) for all their help and especially Brian who is not in the pic as he was at home in his bunker doing the results. A special mention to Dylan who pesters me through the year making sure everything is on point and Barry who is our fixer as if anything needs doing he’s your man. The Hand Hotel and all the staff who look after us so well. Franta HANAK thank you for your continued support and to all the competitors please give yourself a pat on the back as you all deserve it because you make this competition the success it is. Lastly I have to thank Debbie for doing the maps and all the admin, but most of all for putting up with me especially on the lead up to the weekend. Dates for next year are Saturday 6th Sunday 7th December.
Can I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a fishy New Year 🎣

02/12/2024

I’ve been asked by a few people for clarification of the sudden rise and discolouration of the river during yesterday’s session.

To say that we were unlucky is an understatement and I can only remember one such instance in all of the years I’ve fished the Dee.

The rate of the rise but moreover the speed at which it coloured were an ironic comfort to me as water releases never have that immediate effect.

So what happened? Firstly let’s deal with the River Tryweryn. This is one of the main tributaries of the Dee and starts at the foot of the Celyn Reservoir. At this time of year the releases from the Reservoir are kept to a minimum and overnight on Saturday they were releasing 4 cumecs reducing to 1.2 cumecs at 8am yesterday. These figures are minuscule when you consider that during the Summer months they regularly release at a rate of 9-12 cumecs.

So why the rise in the level of the Tryweryn yesterday which led some to assume that there was a huge water release from Celyn? The River Tryweryn has 3 tributaries which are completely devoid of any regulation and overnight on Saturday to early yesterday morning the catchment experienced heavy rainfall and subsequently the 3 tributaries rose significantly which is why the Tryweryn gauge shot up.

However this water would take 6-7 hours to reach Corwen. Given that the Tryweryn rise peaked at 8.15am yesterday it would have reached us at Corwen at roughly 1-2pm. This obviously rules out the Tryweryn as being the cause of what we witnessed.

What about the tributaries flowing into Bala Lake? These are all measured at the gauge ‘Dee at New Inn’. This peaked at 9.15am yesterday and would take a minimum of 5 hours to reach Corwen.

Therefore given that the Dee started rising and discolouring at approximately 10.30am yesterday we can rule out all waters from the Bala area being the culprits.

So where did it come from?…… the answer lies a lot closer to home.

The main tributary of the Dee is the River Alwen. Although regulated by Brenig Reservoir to an extent, it has little if any bearing on the level of the Dee. Indeed yesterday it was contributing only 1 cumec of overspill water. However the catchment experienced heavy rainfall and the Alwen, despite Brenig, has all the attributes of a typical Spate River….. it rises and discolours quickly. It rarely happens that this catchment experiences rainfall events which are not seen on the main river catchments such as Corwen and Llangollen…… unfortunately it happened yesterday! Whilst most of us would have seen the ‘Dee at Corwen’ gauge at .720 yesterday morning and witnessed the lack of substantial rainfall we were blissfully unaware of what was happening up the Alwen Valley.

The ‘Alwen at Druid’ gauge showed a very steep rising curve which peaked at 10.15am yesterday morning. I’m told that the river was also very coloured at this time. The Alwen gauge is approximately 1 river mile from the confluence of the Alwen and the Dee at Corwen and the spate would have manifested itself on Beat A1 shortly after 10.30am yesterday morning and the rest of us would have experienced the same shortly afterwards…… in essence we were in the Lap of the Gods not the water regulators.

Although it’s a fairly long read I hope that this will help you all to understand the events of yesterday.

Tight Lines

Iwan

01/12/2024

Few pics from the presentation. Massive thank you to all the Angling Clubs who support the event and to all the anglers who come and compete

01/12/2024

Final position- congratulations to all the winners

01/12/2024

Last session has now started for the festival- good luck to all the teams and we will find out this afternoon who will be crowned Champions and win the fantastic prizes

30/11/2024

Results from day 1 of competition

29/11/2024

Draw for Saturday - All the best to all the Anglers

28/11/2024

All the sections pegged out- massive thanks to all the volunteers who made the day much easier. Also a huge thanks to all the local angling clubs who allow us to use their water and thank you the anglers who have not fished the competition waters.

04/11/2024

1 place has come available so if there is a team of 3 anglers out there that want to fish this years HANAK Grayling International Saturday 30Nov and Sunday 1st December please get in touch asap
Thanks

02/11/2024

Beat and peg maps for this year’s Competition

01/11/2024

Thank you for the response place has now been filled and have taken first post down to avoid confusion