Archive

Posts Tagged ‘corrib’

Some Dries for Lough Corrib, Co. Galway, Ireland…

May 9th, 2012 No comments

I tied these few dry-flies for John O Malley to try on Corrib. I have no doubt that they will work. The mayfly patterns are an adaptation of my NZ emerger. They’re tied with a tail to keep the body on rather than in the surface film. The little ones are that same emerger, just tied in black and much smaller to represent caenis. Caenis time of year in Ireland is rapidly approaching!

Tight Lines..   Ronan..

Corrib Ceanis at First Light..

June 14th, 2011 No comments

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..

Mayfly!

May 11th, 2011 No comments

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The early bird catches dam all!

May 4th, 2011 No comments

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..

 

In and on the Water…

March 30th, 2011 No comments

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..

Where in this 44,000 acres are they?!?

February 9th, 2011 No comments

Sunday was the fourth or fifth time out on Corrib from Maam this year.  I put the bad fishing the first few times down to adverse weather conditions but now I believe the pike just aren’t in this part of the lake yet. Corrib is a massive body of water and pike, like trout, probably have movement patterns around the lake throughout the year. I won’t fish out of Maam again for a while. John and I fished hard all day for one small pike. There were 3 polish lads spinning and trolling in the same area and they did not catch any fish at all so this backs up my theory. Next weekend John and Iwill fish out of Oughterard. We’ll crack them yet! Just have to find them first…

I forgot my camera so had to use my phone! My apologies for the slightly dark images.

Later! Ronan..  (stuntman ci)

Categories: Expedition Tags: , ,