Ronan's Report

Not much news on the pike front this week.. My boat is moored on the Bealnabrack River in Maam in North Connemara, about a mile upstream of Lough Corrib. It was -7c on Friday night and on Saturday the river was frozen all the way to the lake. The ice was up to an inch thick in places! I drove my old lake boat through the ice all the way to the lake causing only minimal damage to the hull. The lake was ice free but the cold seemed to turn the pike off completely. Am i right in thinking extreme cold will put pike off feeding? I realise people ice fish for them so maybe its a localised occurrence. Such low temperatures are new to Ireland but i have a feeling these cold winters are here to stay! I never came into contact with a pike all day. Its entirely possible that there were very few pike where I was fishing! I’ll be out again next weekend. I hope its warmer and the fish are on!

In the mean time, here is what I prepared for NZ last season. If anyone is planning a trip out there this will give you some idea as to what sort of flies to tie. They worked well in Tasmania too with the addition of some beetle patterns.

Take tomorrow off work and go fishing!

Stuntman Ronan..

Today I did a days work, then came home to wash the motherload of dishes. After putting down a fire and having dinner I decided it’s time for a blog… Its been nearly a year since my last one!

This year my plan is work hard to fund my next fly fishing mission abroad and to fish hard for whatever is available locally. At the moment its Pike. Lough Corrib is only 40 mins away so thats where I put my boat in. I’ve been out 3 times in conditions varying from howling gales to flat calm and sunny. Its all fairly new to me, tying huge flies, wondering what colour use, what depth to fish them at and where, etc… The best way to learn is to get out there, explore and experiment…

John and I are heading out again this Saturday. The next blog will be about either Pike handling, Big pike (hopefully big pike) or flies.. or all three! Until then, Tight Lines…

Stuntman Ronan..

Matt, Andy, Edo, Jackie, Paul and I all hit for Corroboree Billabong for the weekend.. A long weekend for Matt, Paul and me. Fishing was good in general but there was lots of time the fish did not seem to be feeding. This was generally in the heat of the day which made it even tougher.. The heat and humidity here in the Northern Territory means you need to drink just about all the time to avoid dehydration and headaches. For me the worst thing about the heat and humidity while camping was trying to sleep at night! I only slept the first night because i had sufficient alcohol in my system to make sure of it!! The next 2 nights i just lay there, sweating, being bitten by the odd mozzie and trying to count sheep… Even Paul had trouble sleeping one night. He could usually sleep on a roller coaster! Anyway.. enough of the hardship!

The target species for the mission were Barramundi and Saratoga.The first day we had some Barra’s but nothing great. Paul finished the day with a big toga  from deep in the lilly pads. Tarpon were everywhere and gave us entertainment when nothing else would. The second day I went out while Paul caught up on some sleep. I had 6 species. Tarpon, Long Tom, Sooty Grunter, Power Tail (cat fish!), Barramundi and Saratoga. I lost a Barra that would have made 80cms but it was a fantastic session anyway.

Paul and i fished about 4 hours into darkness one night, Paul added an Archer fish to his species count. We moved alot of fish but they all missed the fly including one giant which attacked my fly 3 times. Listening to the crocs exploding into a feeding frenzy put a shiver down my spine a few times! Magnificent animals they are..

Jacky had her first Barra on Fly! 61cms, a fantastic fat fish. Andy and Edo had some great fishing on the first day with Barra to 85cm and a few good ‘toga’s.

It was a great trip…

Ronan.. Stuntman ci

Amazing fishing here in Darwin! There about 35 species here which can be targeted on fly and we have had about 15 so far. Some big fish too, my first (and only so far) Barramundi was 75cms long and we have had Queenfish up to 87cm. I hooked a Giant Trevally today which ran an entire flyline and a heap of backing into the mangroves, the drag was near locked up. Simply unbelievable strength! I lost the fish but I was lucky to get the fly line back!! Paul was hooked up at the same time.. His got off too so were both looking forward to our next battle with a GT. Thanks to Graeme P. Williams for keeping us on the fish!

This morning (very early, my brain was not in gear) i wiped Paul’s memory card thinking it was mine so a lot of this footage (for SLTV) got lost!! I guess its always a risk when 2 camera’s are identical.. Annoying?  no.. Heart breaking! It’s impossible to repeat a moment in fishing. We’ll just have to catch more, so thats not a bad thing!

Luck was on my side for the past 10 days.. or at least thats what Paul, Sean and Matt thought. They were right.  Good things just happened for me recently and it all started after getting lucky one night in Queenstown.. A fantastic trip to fjordland followed, I had many fish up to 7lbs. After fjordland 4 of us piled into matts little Ford Laser and headed north in search of big fish. I won the rock scissors paper competition so i decided to drive. With all the worldly possessions of 4 lads in the car the drivers seat was the most comfortable place to be!! (except for Sean’s unavoidable farts fueled by chilly and beans which we ate every night) I won just about all the rock scissors paper competitions on the trip. Big fish week started well for me when I landed a 9lb brown in a difficult gorge… and it continued well! In the next few days I landed an 8, 8.5 and 10.5lb brown and lost 3 more of equal caliber. Paul had one fish of 5.5 and Sean had a 7lber. Was luck on my side? yes, but its true to say that the more i do this the luckier i get!!! Someone famous once said that!

We all had our gear confiscated by Fish and Game at the very end of Big Fish Week because none of us had our licences on us! Not so lucky but very funny… which makes it lucky i guess because how could laughing be a bad thing!

Tight Lines.   Ronan.. (stuntman C.I)

Its been a great week here in Queenstown! A bit too much drinking but weddings have a tendency for doing that.. We had a big night before the stag, then the stag itself, then the next night, then the wedding itself. The stag night was eventful, it included pub golf.. all drinks were given a par, i.e Guinness was a par 3 which meant it had to be downed in 3… i did better than that, most did actually! The night also included cops but i wont go into that.. it might well pop up on sexyloops tv though! Chris (groom), Emma (the best man), Myself and Paul (groomsmen) went out with Craig Hind in his boat the Barron for some fishing and a barbecue on the day of the stag do. Not your average fishing trip! Special thanks to Craig, he runs a Charter service out of Queenstown. From the weather to Chris and Amy’s family and friends the wedding day was a great success! I wish the married couple all the very best and a lifetime of happiness together..

Paul and I are back in the land of the long white cloud and big fish.. We filmed and edited a great show about tailers in Tasmania this week. Unfortunatly only about an hour from uploading the show to youtube Paul’s computer crashed. We’ll get it out there one way or another!

I tried to get new jeans in Queenstown today.. what a fuckin mission. Easy to find the right waist size but impossible to find the right leg and waist size  without spending about $250 and fuck it i just cant justify spending that much. I found an OK pair in the end in a second hand shop for $17. Happy Days!

I stripped all images off the camera this week so i’ve nothing new to put up (images on Paul’s computer), Here’s my best fish this season!

Kamasan B175 size 14 with 2.5mm tungsten bead.

Wrap tying thread to the end..

Tie in red game hackle fibers as a tail.

Tie on a strip of fine lead.

Give it a base of varnish.

Wrap in the lead.

Add some more varnish then tie over the lead.

Seals fur or squirrel dubbing over lead only.

Whip finish..

The finished fly..

This fly works well on NZ rivers fished under a dry on a long dropper either on its own or in tandem with a smaller lightly weighted or unweighted nymph..

This fly has been catching more than any other for me here in Tasmania. Obviously it can be tied in any colours so pick colours to suit your local beetle!!

Just a quick blog today, Paul and I had a busy morning finishing and uploading this week’s episode onto youtube. It’s there now and it’s different.. I have to shoot off to help hair fix the back light on his truck while paul washes the dishes, then we’re off to Saint Helens to fish for salmon( Kahawai in New Zealand), trevally, squid and whatever else we can…