Ronan's Report

Last Saturday Eddie Purcell, a great family friend and fly-fisherman, took John and I out on Lough Derravaragh. The lake is 8kms long with the Inny River flowing into and out of the northern end. Trout stocks are not high but they are big. We only had about 5 hours to fish so we decided to target pike as ideal water for them was evident. The first drift was about a kilometer long over perfect pike terrain. It was along a 15 – 20 foot drop off by reeds. I landed one little jack. Shortly after Eddie took us up the Inny river, a magnificent, wild spot with lots of bird and fish life. The fish were not giving themselves up easily but we had a few chances and landed another jack pike. I’ll have to come back here to fish for trout! According to Eddie they are the most beautiful trout you are likely to encounter anywhere. That’s a good enough reason for me!

More on early morning caenis feeders soon.. I have lots more grey hair since i started fishing for them!

Happy fishing all and a special thank you to Eddie for taking us out.

Ronan..

The only information we had on Lough Na Fooey was from a book by Oscar Wilde’s father from 1904. All it said was that there were huge pike present. Good enough we thought! The reason for fishing the lake was that we were going to a 30th birthday party on the lake shore that evening so we killed 2 birds with one stone. The fishing was bad. John and I rose a small trout each and Nigel lost 2 pike. One of those could (almost!) have been counted but John managed to knock it off with the net while attempting a new netting technique.

The party which followed lasted at least 2 days!

Dad and I had been on Ballinlough near Westport in Co. Mayo the day before (Friday). We had lots and lots of Rainbows between 2 and 4lbs on many methods including Big wets, lures, small wets, big dries, small dries, buzzers and nymphs. We were constantly changing to stay in control of the opportunities we were given.

I’m not sure what to do this week but whatever it is I’ll report back about it.. There are good numbers of seatrout and salmon entering the Ballynahinch and Lough Inagh system so maybe I’ll target them.

Good luck!

Ronan..

Fly-fishing brings endless new challenges and targeting Corrib trout feeding on Caenis at dawn is my latest one. John and I were on the water at 5am and we had the whole 44,000 acres to ourselves, at least we might as well have had, we didn’t hear another engine or see another boat until 11am. Neither john or myself had fished for caenis feeders before so we did a little research and tied a few dries to match the hatch. Our flies seemed good and fish started to move as soon as we set the boat up on the first drift. We were confident. Like fishing at dawn on the Great Lake in Tasmania most of the fish were traveling up the slicks (known as windlanes in Tassie but windlanes here could also be known as foam lanes so I’ll call them slicks so as not to confuse matters though I may already have!!). We did not get many shots and we each missed one fish. Watching the fish move to these tiny flies was worth getting up at 4am for. Its only a matter of time until we get it right.

The fish stopped moving to caenis at about 10am and for the rest of the day we switched between trout and pike fishing. Between the 2 of us, all we landed was a 12lb pike for 14 hours fishing but it was a good day and neither one of us wanted to get off the water.

I hope to get out again on friday at 4.30am. I also plan to fish Lough Na Fooey for pike and maybe trout too if I see any on Saturday. I will report back on those next week.

Until then, tight lines.. Ronan..

John was attaching a braided loop to his fly line on saturday morning. He asked me if I had superglue. I didn’t. I recommended that he tie the leader direct as those loops can come away on reverse contact with the top eye. He did it his way without superglue. I hoped i wouldn’t get a chance to say “I told you so”… A while later John’s rod broke about 18 inches from the tip at a previous repair (dont use old glass rods to fix modern rods!). He fished on with the considerably shorter rod without a problem and soon after hooked a pike. The fish was on the way to the net and the loop touched the top eye and slipped off. Down went the fish with fly, leader and almost the loop. John dived over 3 rods lying across the seats and grabbed the loop and handlined in a decent pike. I netted the fish and laughed. We both did. It’s nice to be able to say “i told you so” when the result is positive!

On the last drift of the day we were approaching rocks coming from deep water. When nothing but limestone was visible beneath the boat i said “Time to go, Pike never live around rocks. Fact!” With “fact” just out of my mouth a pike made me eat my words by nailing my fly. She was about 14lbs and came off at the net. John laughed and I know pike like rocks.

We’re out again tomorrow or Thursday.

Ronan..

It’s a long time since I fished Lough Carra but it’s just as I remember it. It’s a large lake made up of lots of smaller inter-connected bodies of water. Its mostly shallow with a white marl bottom giving the water an unusual, unique green glow. The lake is known to fish well in high winds and Dad and I certainly had that on our day on the lake. It blew a gale for most of the day making fishing quite difficult but we had a good few chances and managed 2 fish a piece. The last time I fished Carra was about 15 years ago and I remember doing well on a claret and mallard on the tail under Dad’s advise. Once again the fly worked accounting for 2 of our 4 fish. There should be mayfly up on the lake at the moment but pollution has massively reduced fly populations. The trout appeared to be quite opportunistic feeders as a multitude of flies moved fish. I’ll get out on Carra again before the season is over.

Later..   Ronan..

A series of laptop breakdowns and fatigue from weeks of hard fishing prevented me from putting a blog up lately. Most of my fishing was on Corrib but I also had a couple of days on Mask and Carra (more on those next week!). There were some great hatches of mayfly this year and at certain times there were decent numbers of fish feeding on them providing some great dry fly action. Being on the water most days and concentrating on specific areas allowed me to learn the feeding habits of the trout in those spots. It paid to have 2 rods set up; one with drys and one with wets because the periods of surface activity were always brief. Thankfully though these happened a few times on most of my days on the water. Hesitating for even a couple of minutes to change to the dry fly rod could (and did) result in missed opportunities. The wets accounted for many fish during the times when fish were not visible on the top… as they should! The best thing about this Mayfly was the average size of the trout and how willing they were to take a well presented dryfly when covered. I had more fish between 3 and 4lbs than fish from 1 to 2lbs and that’s something I never expected to be able to say about Irish wild trout fishing!

Here are the highlights from Corrib.. I believe they speak for themselves!

Ronan..

It was yet another big weekend on Corrib starting at 5am on Friday morning. We first targeted pike to no avail, then John went to work and I focused on trout. The mayfly is up early this year and thankfully the trout are responding to them. For the first time this year I really want to be trout fishing. Gales, thunder, rain and squalls made the going tough all weekend. I met about 12 or 15 trout on Friday but only landed 2. They were good fish though, the best was around 3lbs. I hooked another of about 4lbs on the middle fly (a long shanked invicta) which quickly broke at the knot, then foul hooked him on the tail fly which also broke at the knot! Bad leader i fear. There were not huge numbers of trout showing but there were enough to keep me interested and focused.

No joy for me on Saturday but John had a great fish around the 4lb mark on a wet Green Drake. There were much fewer fish showing. I only moved a few and straightened a Royal wulff in one! Angling author Nicholas Kearns joined us and moved a few fish to the dap..

Sunday was blowing a gale so we decided to avoid the main lake and target Pike in a sheltered bay. We had 2 and lost a few more.

All in all it was a tough weekend on the water but I’m glad to say trout are finally feeding on the top.. not many but enough to fish for and they are catchable. Also, from the fish I’ve seen and heard about, the average size must be up at least 1lb.

All the best! Ronan..

Ps. If the wheels on your vehicle take 5 nuts, 4 wont do.. i nearly learned the hard way…. again!

John and I were up at 5am, 4am and 6am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively. We were expecting great things with big pike. We were both confident the larger fish would feed at first light for a few hours but it did not happen. At least not to the extent we were hoping. I lost  4 fish in the 12 -20lb bracket all weekend and john landed 2 nice pike in the heat of the midday sun on the last day. We’re still exploring and trying out new tactics. Little can be learned from doing something once so there will be more early starts and reconnaissance.

The best hit I had all weekend was when John hooked my rod during a wayward cast and sent my entire set up into the drink. It quickly sank to the bottom of a deep and dark  section of a river mouth. Thankfully an ingenious dredging technique invented by John retrieved it.

I hope to be on the water from Friday to Sunday again and will report back as usual! Have a great week all..

Ronan..

I’m learning more and more about Corrib pike and about pike fishing in general. I’ve been disillusioned with irish fly fishing for the last few years and thats because i concentrated too much on trout fishing. Most of that was on corrib which is the most challenging water i have ever fished for trout. It’s dam near impossible at times and therefor just not fun. Pike fishing is fun. The anticipation of counting down a Di 7 into the depths before a steady retrieve back to the boat, or gurgling a surface lure across some lilly pads really keeps me focused. Chances will come and the takes are fan fuckin tastic… These magnificent fish have been getting stronger and stronger all season and now they’re ripping line off the reel. I had to start the engine to follow one on Saturday, she was my best pike so far and bent the net. Its definatly time to get a new one now! That fish was more than twice as long as the mouth of my old one! “Lesson to be repeated until learned!” as Graeme Williams would say.

More piking this weekend.. Happy Easter!

Ronan..

Yesterday i went exploring known trout water on Lough Corrib for pike. It was slow but on one drift I lost a fish between 15 and 20lbs and another around 8lbs. There was a carpet of adult chironomid on the surface in the same bay and I only saw 2 or 3 trout rise. Its very worrying and the story seems to be the same all over the lake. I saw some olives on the water but i suspect the olive fishing will be as good as the buzzer fishing. What can be done to bring this lake back to life? Who, if anyone is at fault? I’ll be out exploring again tomorrow…

Ronan..