Llandegfedd Reservoir

Fancy a change from a small pool? Llandegfedd Reservoir at Coed y Paen, near Pontypool, gives you approximately 434 acres to think about. There’s bank fishing and boat fishing on the same water, with trout, coarse fish and pike offering very different reasons to tackle up.

• 1 lake: Llandegfedd Reservoir
• Fish: trout, bream, roach, perch, eel, pike
• Tickets from: 2026 trout catch-and-release permit — £20
• Find it: Pontypool · NP4 0SY

Based on how each lake is set up — not a ranking.

Fancy a change from a small pool? Llandegfedd Reservoir at Coed y Paen, near Pontypool, gives you approximately 434 acres to think about. There’s bank fishing and boat fishing on the same water, with trout, coarse fish and pike offering very different reasons to tackle up. It’s one reservoir, not a collection of separate lakes, so the choice here is about your quarry, method and permit rather than which pool to head for.

Trout anglers have regularly stocked rainbow trout alongside resident wild brown trout. There are catch-and-release and fish-limit permits, plus a trout season ticket with a maximum of two fish per visit. Those choices matter before you start putting the kit together. Trout fishing from a boat is fly-only, while ledgered worm fishing is allowed along East Bank and Bill Smith’s Bay. There’s no worm catch-and-release permit, so don’t assume every ticket covers every approach.

If coarse fishing is more your thing, the lineup includes bream, roach, hybrids, perch, dace and eels, as well as pike. That gives the place more variety than a trout-only water, without needing to pretend every species is equally easy to catch. Rainbow trout and coarse fishing run from 1 March to 31 October. Browns have a slightly tighter window, from 20 March to 17 October, so keep those dates straight when planning an early or late-season trip.

Pike fishing needs a little more diary work. Current sessions are Mondays and Tuesdays during March and October. Separately, predator season tickets cover March–June and September–October, with applications by email; don’t muddle those arrangements together. Allowed pike methods are lures or blast-frozen marine deadbaits, with no livebait or pike fly-fishing. There’s a two-rod limit per angler, and adequate landing nets and unhooking mats are compulsory. Get that lot bob on before heading down.

Boat hire is separate from your fishing permit, and boats take a maximum of two people. That’s worth remembering when comparing a bank day with a shared boat outing: the hire price isn’t an all-in fishing ticket. Correctly secured buoyancy aids are compulsory afloat. On the bank, check in with the rangers before fishing and don’t wade above waist height. October also brings a closure between Bill Smith’s Bay fence and the inlet, including 100 metres offshore.

The practical side is handy too. You can book permits online or buy them at the visitor centre’s ground-floor Grab & Go café. The accessible visitor centre has a lift, accessible toilets and baby-changing facilities, so there’s more here than just somewhere to wet a line. Use the official postcode, NP4 0SY, for planning rather than treating a southern-reservoir map pin as the entrance. Published fishing hours are 08:30–17:00: this is a daytime outing, not an advertised night session.

Good background reading. Most of it is a few years old, so treat it as a starting point and ask on the day.

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• Our read

  Checked Sept '26 — “Llandegfedd is a proper big-water option near Pontypool: around 434 acres with bank and boat fishing, stocked rainbows, wild browns and a varied coarse lineup. Pike fishing has its own sessions and rules, so pick your permit before loading the car.”

This is our own summary of recurring public feedback and the venue details we checked, not a copied customer review or a promise you’ll catch. Feedback changes, so we keep it separate from the Tackle Index score.