Lough Sheelin Angling Returns May 28th to June 5th 2012
There is something about mayflies, something significant. To the fly fisherman they are the epitome of fly fishing – predictably unpredictable mesmerizing creatures reeking of mother nature – fleeting slivers of beauty, existing above the waters surface for only a matter of hours.
Sheelin’s mayfly season is now in full swing with fantastic hatches all over the lake with one regular visiting Scottish angler commenting that in his lifetime he had never seen such ‘a better spread of fly on the lake’s surface, particularly down the southwest side which in times gone by had been very sparse’. The spent was excellent with tremendous falls starting from around 5pm onwards and carpeting the lakes surface.
Fishing slowed down due to dropping evening temperatures in the earlier part of the week with 20 to 30 boats on the water for Monday and Tuesday, even a hint of a cold breeze will put fish down for the night on this lake and 8 – 9 degrees did just that. Wednesday however with the welcome increase in temperature coupled with a slight ripple on the lake’s surface produced excellent fishing and plenty of movement of fish and Sheelin’s fishermen were happy and the lake became alive again with boats which remained the case for the rest of the week. Evening fishing proved to be best and all areas of the lake fished well.
Two RTE engineers – Pat O’Brien and Ian McMullan ventured out on to Lough Sheelin on Thursday accompanied by Sheelin ghillie Thomas Lynch (www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com) these welcome first timers to this lake had come straight from fishing for the famous Twaite Shad at St.Mullins on the River Barrow. The Twaite Shad is a member of the herring family, a silver fish with large scales and a dark back which provides great angling, this fish is lively with great fight in them so Sheelin had a high bar to reach for these two men – but this lake did not disappoint and despite an afternoon of rain and cold, Sheelin cast its magical spell for Pat and Ian – the rain stopped for the evening and fishing conditions improved dramatically, there was plenty of movement of fish with the eventual reward of 4 beautiful Sheelin trout ensuring that these two men will be back…
Friday evening was the pick of the week with huge movement of fish from early evening onwards and it was noted that the spent seem to start earlier than normal from around 5pm onwards. The weekend despite the drop in temperature and heavy downfalls continued to be good although more challenging due to the rain ‘dampening down’ the spent but still nice trout were caught, certainly Lurgan man David McKitterick was very happy with his catches of 4 trout on Saturday June 2nd using a dabbler, heaviest was 5½ lbs – all released.
The heaviest trout of the week was caught by Maurice Little, Mountnugent at 7lbs on May 30th.
Most popular flies are spent gnat, claret and green dabblers, wulffs, mayfly nymphs, red humpies, olives particularly the sooty olive, Greenwell’s Glory and the Murrough – ‘The Great Red Sedge’.
Andrew Doyle, Kells fished a 5.3lb Sheelin beauty caught on a grey wulff on 29.5.12 at the Long Rock.
While Kenneth O’Keefe and Russell Owen headed to Bog Bay
The popular Sheelin Classic trout competition now in its 8th year will be run on Lough Sheelin on Sunday June 10th 2012 – 11am to 6pm. There will be a 15” size limit and only 2 fish per competitor. This competition will involve an open draw for partners and entries must be in by June 7th. Entry fee is €65 for a boating angler and €85 for non boating, the number of boating anglers will determine the number of non boating anglers
There will be numerous prizes which include:
1st 19ft Sheelin boat & trailer & crystal, 2nd 5 hp 4 stroke outboard engine & crystal and 3rd €54 & electric engine & crystal.
A catch and release policy is actively encouraged on this lake at all times
Please remember anglers that the size limit on this lake is 35.5 cm (14 inches) – we need our small fish alive…….
294 fish were recorded for the week most of which were released.
A selection of catches were:
Maurice Little, Mountnugent, Cavan – 1 trout at 7lbs using a spent on Wednesday evening and 1 at 6lbs on Friday, again on the spent.
David Palmer, Armagh – 5 trout for the week, heaviest was 4½ lbs, all on the green mayfly.
Michael Callaghan and Paddy Lyons L.S.T.P.A – at the back of Church Island on June 4th, Michael caught 1 trout at 6½ lbs and Paddy 1 at 4lbs, 2 more trout were caught later in the evening around 2 – 2½ lbs.
Owain Pickersgill, Mullingar – on Friday June 1st using a size 12 Klinkhammer around Curry Rocks, fishing in the afternoon, Owain landed himself a 4lb wild trout.
Patsy Smith, Mountainlodge – 3 trout on Friday June 1st, on a spent, heaviest was 5lbs.
Tommy Curran, Oldcastle – 3 trout on Friday evening, using a spent, heaviest was 3½ lbs.
Ned Clinton, Crover – Tuesday May 29th at 10.30pm 1 trout at 4½ lbs on a spent, Wednesday May 30th 1 trout at 4¾ lbs on a green mayfly around 7.30pm.
Gene Brady, Ballinagh – Tuesday evening 1 trout at 5lbs on the spent.
Vaughan Ruckley from Edinborough and John Murphy, Crover – Wednesday May 30th finishing the spent 5 trout weighing in at 1½ – 3lbs, fishing a long drift from Plunketts point. John also caught another trout of 3lbs on Monday May28th on a spent.
Andrew Doyle, Kells with boatman Pa Tormey – fishing on Tuesday May 29th 1 trout at 5.3 lbs using a grey wulff at the Long Rock.
Gary McKiernan, Cavan – 1 trout of 3½ lb using a dry green mayfly on Monday May 28th.
John Mulvany, Kells – fishing the spent at the Long Rock, 1 trout at 3lbs.
Peter Boyle, Monaghan – 2 trout at 4lbs and 2lbs caught on the nymph on June 2nd.
Frank Kelly, Cavan L.S.T.P.A – on June 1st 3 trout, 1 at 5½ lbs and 2 at 4½ lbs each, all wild fish and caught on the spent mid lake.
Eamon Connors, Kells – on June 1st, 1 trout at 4lbs on the spent gnat.
David McKitterick, Lurgan – 4 trout on June 2nd using a claret dabbler on a top dropper, heaviest was a beauty of 5½ lbs.
Gerard Taggart, Belfast – 1 trout at 2½ lbs using a green dabbler.
Mourice McDevitt, Donegal – on a spent 2 trout at 3lbs each, 1 at 4½ lbs.
Ken Kearns & Peter McArdle, Dundalk – 10 trout for the week, using the spent and murrough, heaviest was 3½ lbs. Ken’s son, 13 year old Graham fished the lake for the first time on Saturday and was rewarded with a lovely 2½ lb trout using a spent. Well done Graham, hopefully this will the start of a lifetime of fishing on Sheelin.
– Owain Pickersgill, Mullingar with his 4 lb wild Sheelin trout caught on friday using a size 12 Klinkhammer and then releasing this beauty back to the water.
Brenda Montgomery IFI
