Ronan's Report

I was born into fly-fishing. Fly-fishing was the centre of  my my fathers life, my grandfathers and my great grandfathers. As soon as I was old enough to cast a fly I joined the family tradition and not because I was forced into it, I simply knew I had to. It was for me. I remember my dad and my grandad heading off in the evenings to target seatrout on the Ballynahinch, Inagh and Cashel systems. I remember bags of fish on their return. I remember Declan Ridge calling to the house on Summer evenings before he and dad would take on some stretch of river or lake less than an hour from home. Declan always had a Dairymilk or two for me and my siblings. I remember the craic and banter in the pubs after competitions, I remember listening in to dad’s and his friends conversations about fly-fishing for seatrout and it’s intricacies. Sometimes I’d try to add something just to be part of it. I remember the decline. In the space of a few seasons there were no fish. No more Declan or his Dairymilks, no more conversations till the wee hours to inspire a 10 year old, no more seatrout.

Thankfully in the last few years seatout and salmon numbers have increased a little on some systems. The future is potentially bright but there are plans afoot to massively increase the number of salmon cages around Ireland (In a sentence, salmon farming is the reason for the virtual extinction of seatrout in Ireland). When will Ireland recognise the value of it’s wild waters and migratory fish? I don’t know.. I do know we must do something to save it. This is about as much as I can do from NZ. To my readers living in Ireland, why not make an effort to go and march in Galway on Saturday March the 2nd starting in Eyre Square at 12.00 midday. The following groups and clubs will be there amongst others and you hopefully..

NARA National Anglers Representative Association
TAFI Trout Anglers Federation of Ireland
SAVE BANTRYBAY
Salmon Watch Ireland. (formerly Stop Salmon drift nets Now)                                                              FISSTA Federation of Irish Salmon & Seatrout Anglers
Tuam Anglers Ass.
Cregmore/Athenry Anglers Ass.
St. Colman’s Anglers Ass.
Milltown Anglers Ass.
Corofin Anglers Ass.
Galway City Salmon Anglers
NSFAS No Salmon Farms at Sea

THIS IS IMPORTANT.

Ronan..

Dad and I in 1980. Seatrout are no longer present where these fish were caught due to salmon farming… Without salmon farms they would return in time. Lets fight to give them a chance!

One simple observation I made last weekend was about fishing large dries in calm water. Because the water is calm the fish will see a large fly from a long way off. A good approach for a cruising trout or one on station is not to cast the fly near the fish. Instead cast the fly well to the side of the fish and try to induce him off his lie or beat. The plop from a big fly is often enough to trigger this.  Advantage being the fish is travelling toward your rod tip and therefore the tippet will be on the trout’s blind side of the dryfly. This massively increases the chances of a confident take and a solid hook up.

It was great to fish with Fraser again.. He was unlucky to break in a very big fish at the end of the day. The fish took his dry (as described above) and took off off like a freight train, as he did the line jumped from the ground, around Fraser’s forceps and everything locked up. Simply impossible to put the brakes on a fish like that on his first run. Next time Fraser!

I have no idea what’s on the cards for this weekend… I think I might go a little nuts. It’s in the post.

Ronan..

ps. Good to meet Scott Loudon and Ben! Thanks for the stout…

Also, only 17 subscribers to go until I hit 100 and the prize draw! Get in quick!!

Last Saturday Mike Bonn and I took the Wakitipu Anglers Club boat out on Lake Wakitipu to target Cicada feeders. I have not fished for trout feeding on Cicada’s very often but one observation I made in the past stud true on the day. The trout were sipping down the big morsels like little mayflies. There were very few smashing rises, In fact,we only saw about 10 free risers all morning. If they were smashing them we’d have seen heaps! They were clearly zoned in on cicada’s because our big, shop bought cicada patterns were all they wanted. I have often heard about fish hitting cicada’s very hard but I have rarely seen it happen. The truth is that once a cicada lands on the water he’s not getting off it again. Trout zone in on this behaviour after eating a few and instinctively adapt their behaviour to match ( I hope I worded that correctly Bob Wyatt, feel free to comment!!) Cicada’s range widely in size and colour so maybe they only sip down the medium sized grass green ones!! Who the hell knows.. Regardless, Mike and I had a great few hours on the water. Afterwards I went to James and Caroline Wilkinson’s Wedding.  Thanks James and Caroline.. Great fun had by all! (apart from getting a speeding ticket while trying to keep up with Jeff on the way the the river the next day!)

Wednesday, Waitangi day. No work so Jeff Forsee and myself set out to catch a big searun brown. I’m tired now so I’ll keep this short! Basically, Jeff had to open about 15 gates before we got to where we wanted to go, then a 300m climb into a gorge, then about 5ks of very rough gorgy terrain to get a shot at a handful of fish. They were tough! We each had a 7lber. I lost 2 more one of which I reckon was 9 plus. Then the walk out. Down the river first then up a stream, then up and over a mountain, down a gorge, and back out the same gorge to find the truck a few k’s down the track. Fitness helps about as much as stubbornness! My knee gave up but still worked. Thankfully it’s almost fine today but my legs are sore! Jeff said his were too and Kanai is still asleep. Was it worth it?…  Fuck yes.

Ronan..