Ronan's Report

The last few weeks have been tough, even though Lough Inagh (my local fishery) and the river that leaves it have been producing all time record salmon catches, including 8 salmon in one day. I have had a few fish but unfortunately have not always been able to get on the part of the system I’d like to due to angling pressure, Massively high water, Gale force 10 winds or being otherwise tied up with something non fishing.  There are great prospects until the end of September once this front passes. If your thinking about some salmon fishing to end your season I recommend Inagh, Its fishing very well. Talk to Colin, He’ll set you straight. 003539534706.

The season is nearing its end and there are a number of things I didn’t get to do and probably wont at this stage. I wanted to spend a few days fishing the midland lakes around Mullingar, Travel North for salmon, South for bass, East for carp, the list goes on. It’s impossible to do everything. All in all I have no complaints. I had a very good season and thankfully its not over yet. The weather is shite at the moment… Wind, rain and very high and often slightly coloured water are the norm which makes things tough. Things will settle down soon and the fishing will fire again!

New Zealand 2011 is is rapidly approaching and I have prepared nothing yet. I haven’t even tied a fly. I’ll get myself into gear soon (I leave in less than a month). If anyone has any flies they would like me to try either here in Ireland or in NZ or Oz or anywhere for that matter just send them to me, I will be happy to oblige. This would of course be a selfless act! (Ronan Creane, Roundstone, Co. Galway, Ireland.)

Electric Picnic 2011 was an epic event. Free to roam between hundreds of random acts with random strangers and friends alike, all with the same purpose… Fun with a healthy dose of madness! I will never miss it again if I’m in Ireland when its on.. I might even fly home for it!

I’m serious about those flies. Send them and I’ll fish them for you! It will be like fishing vicariously through me 🙂

All the best for now… Ronan..

The weekend before last John arranged a Corrib PFFA Ireland (Pike Fly Fishers Association) meeting. It was attended by Stuart, Steve, Kristian, John and myself. Day one was in Maam and once again the area did not fire. 4 rods (I only got to bed at 10am on day one so missed the day… Lucky me!) and not a single fish. Day 2 was a different story! We started in Ardnasillagh Bay. Kristian and I had a great start quickly boating 4 pike in the 6-9lb region and we lost a couple. The second half of the day saw us going down the lake to some big fish hot spots. Kristian and myself got distracted by loads of very large trout rising. I simply cannot fish for pike when trout are on the top. Kristian had a superb brown of 4.5lb and another of 1.5lb on my size 14 dry claret sedge which I tie for NZ. I moved a few but boated nothing. John, Steve and Stuart stuck to pike. John had 2 great fish, One 14lbs and another 20lbs 15oz. I have no pics of these fish but hopefully I’ll have them soon. I’ll put them in the next blog. It was great to have Stuart and Steve down to fish our local water. I learned a lot from them about tying pike flies and picked up a few tips on tying pike traces. Thanks fellas! I hope ye learned a bit from us too.

One thing that sometimes pisses me off about Irish fly fishing is how effort and persistence is so hesitant to pay off. When it does pay off it makes it all the sweeter however. After a successful day guiding Norman Kyle (head ghillee on a stretch of the River Tyne in England) I went to fish the river myself. I repeated some water Norman had fished to no avail and then decided to walk across the mountain (bog) to another river beat known as Pine Island. This area has not produced much in recent years but I had a good feeling. When I got there the walkway out to the small island was flooded as I knew it would be, so I wet waded out to it. I stud there soaked to the balls and thought to myself ” I deserve a fish for this” but experience has told me many times that “deserve” does not hold water over here. This time it did! I landed a powerful 6lb grilse on a Sunray Shadow and rose 2 more. As wet as I was, I happily walked back to the van.

Shane Flaherty (Fuzz) and Myself fished Kylemore Lough yesterday. Conditions were Ideal apart from the lake being too high. We fished hard and had 3 seatrout to 1.5lbs, a nice brown and rose a salmon. 10 grilse were landed on the river the previous day.

Today I took my cousin Paddy Creane, 11, out on Inagh for his first day fly fishing. He fished hard and well in very difficult conditions. The rain dumped on us continually and the wind blew. I asked Paddy, “are you cold”, “A little” he said,” but I’m not going in.. I’m wet too!, I love this, but its not as easy as I expected. It’s a challenge”. He got a brown and a sea trout and put his name in the Inagh trout register for the first time of many. Watch this space!

We have had a load of rain in the last few days and the Ballynahinch/Inagh system should fish very well in the coming week. The same is true for the entire Kylemore fishery. If your thinking about coming over now is the time! Contact details in my previous blogs.

Tight lines!

Ronan..

On warm, sunny days when trout or salmon are unlikely to take a fly, pollack will always oblige. I went out to Deer Island, about 45 minutes from Roundstone in my boat last Monday to target them. I brought my 11 year old cousin, Patrick, out with me. I set up a boat rod for him with 6 feathers and a 6oz weight and it wasn’t long til the rod hit the gunnels! I didn’t help him. He got stuck in and hauled what turned out to be 3 good pollack from from the depths. It made my day watching Patrick battling to get the fish into the boat. I filleted the fish for him, He made a fiver on one and fed the family with the rest. A proud moment no doubt!

I had a few pollack on the fly and a sandeel. No sign of any mackerel yet which is strange.

The highlight of the week for me was on Lough Inagh at 11.30am yesterday morning. I was fishing a sinking line in shallow water. As i raised the rod tip to recast, bringing the bob fly towards the surface, a salmon nailed the fly, jumped, then took off ripping line off the floor of the boat before making the reel sing for about 70 meters. What a fantastic moment! I kept in control of the fish as much with the engine as the rod and reel. The salmon weighed 8 or 9lbs and took a silver and red daddy. I was using 6lb flourocarbon.

Have a great weekend! I’ll be busy on the water..

Ronan..

It’s been a mixed week of fishing. I’ve been doing some guiding for anglers after salmon, chasing pike and trout on Corrib, targeting monster browns on Lough Inagh as well as seatrout, salmon and normal sized browns. One client had an arctic char, they’re very rare over here and usually small, but very pretty and there is something very special about catching them. Unfortunately i didn’t get a pic! In my 16 years fishing Inagh I’ve only had about 7 or 8 char.

I have no idea what’s in store for the next few days.. I might target pollack around the rocks from my boat, might try for a salmon, might be working!

By the way, if anyone wants to hire me as a guide, give me a call! +353 87 770 1986

For info on staying at the Lough Inagh Lodge call Maura on 00353 95 34706 or log on to http://www.loughinaghlodgehotel.ie/

For fishing bookings and info contact Colin Folan on 00353 95 34706 or 00353 86 867 9459

Have a great August bank holiday!

Ronan..