Brenda Montgomery IFI reports from Sheelin, September 30th to October 7th:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be,
For my unconquerable soul.
WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY
Anglers enveloped in a shroud of fog as they get ready for the LSTPA Stream Rehabilitation competition on Sheelin on Saturday last, October 6th.
As the end of the fishing season – October 12th fast approaches the fishing on Lough Sheelin over the past week could be described in running terms as a ‘finishing kick’ as this lake strikes out on its own, pulling away from all its competitors providing some of its anglers with tough but superb catches.
Undeniably weather conditions over the past week have been challenging with bright harsh sunlight, frost at night, blankets of fog and shortening days but despite all this, this lake is fishing well for those who flog it and study what’s out there in front of them and combined with luck this week has landed some truly beautiful fish.
Sheelin maintains an understated quiet consistency in quality angling that
out stripes all over trout lakes. During the week there were some hatches of olives around the bog bay end of
the lake and anglers saw good movement of fish particularly towards the weekend. Dry fly fishing predominated with sedges, olives and buzzer featuring strongest.
2 competitions were hosted on the lake– the LSTPA Stream Rehabilitation
Competition on Saturday October 6th and the Cavan/Monaghan Divisional Fly Fishing
Championship on Sunday October 7th.
The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association have to be commended on this their 7th annual one day fly fishing competition as this year saw numbers jump to an impressive 232 entries making this event the biggest and most popular on the lake. A thick blanket of fog which covered the lake for the first 2 hours did not help matters but anglers were not easily deterred and despite some temporary
visibility problems which disappeared when the fog lifted, a great day was had by all. A 15” and a 2 bag limit raised the bar so although a lot of fish were caught just 21 were recorded at the final, the rest being released safety back into the water.
The winner of this competition was Gordon Law from Omagh with a 3.82 lb trout.
2nd Hugh Bassett with a 3.58 lb trout.
3rd Ernie Cullen 1 @ 3.4 lbs.
4th John McGurl 1 @ 3.26lbs.
5th John Boyle Reilly 1 @ 3.14 lbs.
The second fishing event on the lake was the Cavan/Monaghan Divisional Fly Fishing Championship and Open Championship on Sunday, again like the previous day, anglers had to cope with dense fog but this lifted earlier than Saturday and the weather was similar with bright autumnal sunshine throughout the day.
80 competitors took part with a finishing time at 6pm and weigh in at Crover at 6.30pm which was well worth the wait as heavy 14 heavy trout in beautiful condition were recorded.
The winner of this competition was Nigel Greene, Enniskellan with a 5lb 11.6 oz fish caught on a Green Gorgeous George.
2nd Ervin Marshell 1 @ 4 lbs 11.6 ozs.
3rd Tony Graham, Dublin 1 @ 4lbs 9ozs, 1 @ 1lb 9.4 ozs.
4th Patsy Tracey, Enniskellan 1 @ 4lbs 5.4 ozs.
5th Basil Shields 1 @ 3lbs 4.2 ozs and 1 @ 2lbs 1.48 ozs.
The top weight for the week was undoubtedly Nigel’s trout of 5lbs 11.6 but putting the 2 competitions aside there were two other heavy fish caught during the week that can’t be left unnoticed – one at 5lbs was caught by Greg Long, Dublin on tuesday at Rusheen on a small dry sedge and the second 5 pounder was caught by Andrew Browne, Dublin on a sooty olive on Friday October 5th.
Other results of Sunday’s competition were:
Thomas Lynch ( 1@ 2lbs 11ozs), Jack Spratt, Enniskellan ( 1 @ 2lbs 1oz), John
Beech (1@1lbs 15.6ozs), Seamus Russell (1@ 2lbs 9.2ozs), Peter Boyle (1@2lbs
7.8ozs) Howard Black (1@2lbs 5.8ozs) and Gordon Law (1@ 3lbs 14.2ozs)
Some of the top trout weights in the Garda Divisional Fly Fishing Champsionship
Total catches recorded: 89
Selection of Catches
Danny Murray, Dublin – on Friday October 5th on daddies 4 trout averaging 2 ¼ lbs.
John Deelap, Dublin – 1 @ 2lbs using a claret dabbler on Sunday October 7th.
Andrew Browne fishing with Gary McKiernan – 3 trout on October 4th averaging 2 ½ lbs using a claret dabbler. Andrew caught 2 trout on Friday October
5th @ 5 and 3 ½ lbs using a sooty olive from 5.30pm till dark.
Ian Reynolds, Sheelin – 1 @ 1 ½ lbs using an international dabbler on Thursday afternoon.
Morris McDevitt, Donegal – Using a dry daddy 1 @ 1 ¾ lbs.
Greg Long and Noel Bennett , Dublin and Kilbride anglers– Tuesday October 2nd using small dry sedges fishing at Rusheen 1 @ 5lbs, 2 averaging 2lbs. Greg
Long fished on Thursday as well and landed 2 around 2 lbs one on a hopper and one on a sedge.
Pat Dunne and Joe Doherty, Clane – 3 trout, averaging 1 ¾ to 2 ½ lbs fishing on the drys – olives and sedges around Rusheen.
Frankie McPhillips – 2 trout averaging 1 ¾ lbs on Sunday October 7th.
Brenda Montgomery IFI
