Ronan's Report

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..

I’m a bit late with the blog this week because i’ve been out fishing every evening. I’ve been chasing small trout from local mountain lakes. They keep me sharp! Anyway, here is the news..

Dad and I enthusiastically set off on Saturday morning hoping for a decent day buzzer fishing on Corrib. Conditions were good. We fished hard all day and rose one fish for our efforts. Reports from the lake are terrible.. Competition results really sum it up. 20 anglers out in a competition on Sunday for zero fish. Yes, ZERO.

As planned John and I set off early on Sunday morning  to meet up with other Irish pike fly fishermen. We are all members of the PFFA, the meeting was arranged through the forum which is for members only. The Irish Pike Fly Fishing Association has very few members so why not join us and come along to the next fishing meet! Here is a link.. http://www.pffa.co.uk/clubmembership.htm

John and I arrived 10 minutes late and the lads were already on the water so we got rigged up quick and started fishing. Johns fly resembled a dead parrot and i suggested he change it.. the words hardly left my mouth and i was made eat them! John was in (he asked me not to tell you that this was his first pike of 2011 so I wont because I’m a true friend). After a good battle I netted johns superb 20lb plus pike. We need a scale (and a bigger net!). That was all our pike action that day. One of the other lads had an 11lb fish and moved lots more.

For the last few hours we targeted trout. This worked out well because they started rising in the evening to adult chironomid (duck fly we call them over here). We had 14 on buzzers, small wets and dries. That was 12 fantastic hours on the water.

Tomorrow I’ll be on corrib (for pike! but I’ll have a trout rod too).. or maybe somewhere new? not sure yet…

Good Luck! Ronan..

I started the day doing a few drifts close to reeds for a pike. John was with me for a while in the morning and moved 3 pike to my 0 but got none into the boat.. when he left i went down the lake in search of buzzer feeding trout, I found none but rose one trout of about 1lb blind. on the same drift something told me (God I think!) to reel in the trout flies and fire out the big dog for a pike. I did. I counted down the first cast for about 5 seconds then stripped away, 1,2,3,4 boom! A super fight followed from a large tail walking pike of about 17lbs. Because it was the first cast in open water more suited to trout (or so i thought) i assumed there must be loads of pike in the area. I did a lot more drifts in similar water but did not get another pull. This day on the water taught me 5 things.

1. I need a bigger net (a weigh net preferably).. two failed attempts because the fish was too long!

2. I need a tripod for the camera so that I’m not fumbling around trying to set it up on a boat seat and I need to know the distance to be away from the camera so that i don’t cut the head off any more fish!

3. While fishing for trout it pays to make a few casts every hour for pike. Pike water can be discovered this way that wouldn’t otherwise be.

4. Don’t hold a pike like a trout. (as in pic!) I reckon the best way to hold them is gently but firmly by the gill cover while supporting the flanks or belly.

5. When God speaks, Listen!

Next weekend John and I are heading to Lough Lene to meet and fish with a gang of anglers from the Irish Pike flyfishers association. More on that in about a week. Have a good one!

Ronan..   PS. I also learned that Paul should send me a free hat!

A good pike finally, and one I'll never forget..

Not many fish to report from the weekend but it was not all bad. I managed one nice trout in flat calm conditions on Corrib with Dad on thursday. I fished with just 2 buzzers on a 5lb flourocarbon leader. If there was any breeze at all  would have been fishing 3 or 4. I’ll tie a few for a blog in the near future.

Friday I was on sea without a flyrod with my good friend Fuzz.. We got a feed the old fashioned way with our hands and spears!

Saturday Fuzz and I fished the Corrib for both pike and trout but we had no success. I did explore a large chunk of the lake i never fished before and did not see a single fish. Conditions were tough once again. I’m really looking forward to a day on this lake when everything is just right.

By the way there are still no pike near Maam! Bad mistake putting my boat there for the early part of the season.. I’ll know better next year!

Enjoy the week! Ronan..

I woke up to a perfect blue sky day with hardly a breath of wind.  I did a little work but could not get motivated because I was inside… so I thought, Dam it. I’m going outside! First I went to Crumpan and and got myself a feed of cockles for dinner, Then went for a snorkel in the same place to see if the fine weather brought any mullet in. It did. Mullet are a bit of a curse because they offer many of the things a fly fisherman looks for but are just about impossible to catch. They can be spotted cruising near the surface apparently feeding. When a shoal is located they draw the angler in completely. Absolute concentration happens without effort. Flies are changed often due to constantly being ignored. They keep your full attention until dark or until you just give up. All of the above happened when I targeted them after I got out of the water. I had one take on a size 14 Green cdc weed fly (a dry because all my best mullet success has been on dries). The hook up was brief and I had no other chance. In my experience with mullet that was a good evenings fishing! Time for dinner…

Ronan..