May 13th to May 20th 2012
‘Victory is in the quality of competition and not the final score’
Mike Marshell
The Spring International Fly Fishing competition dominated the fishing scene on Lough Sheelin last week between the pre match days of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then the competition day itself on Friday May 18th.
The excitement and tension was evident and fishing for the four teams for these dates was serious business but Sheelin let nobody down and despite the persistent cold and sluggish hatches of fly this lake impressed everyone with catches of 5, 6 and 7lbs being landed in the run up to the competition date.
The lake was reported as being ‘stiff’ with fish particularly down along Wilson’s pt, Hollywell and Walkers but in general everywhere was good.
D day – Friday 18th saw particularly low temperatures of 9 – 10 degrees and conditions were not as favourable as on the pre match dates so the visiting teams got a run for their money but the Irish out ran everyone to win gold beating the ‘tipped to win’ Welsh team by 2 fish.
Results were:
Ireland 34 fish 2076 pts.
Wales 32 fish 2004 pts.
Scotland 27 fish 1692 pts.
England 13 fish 788 pts.
Frank Kelly from the Irish Team with a fish weighing in at 6lbs won the heaviest fish.
Gary McKiernan of Lough Sheelin guiding services (www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com) won best boatman and Kieron Thomas from the Welsh Team landed 7 trout to win him the prestigious ‘brown bowl’ which is awarded to the top rod and best individual bag of fish.
We won mention who got the timer stirrer…
All the visiting teams were very impressed with our lake and for the hospitality and ‘craic’ during their stay in Ireland.
Well done to The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association for the huge amount of work and effort it took to organize this event- You don’t need eyes to see you need vision’.
The fishing world did not stop on the lake because The International had arrived, many non competing anglers fished the lake during the week and at the weekend.
It was the cold that was the only complaint and because of the cold there was a lack of fly life and although there were hatches of mayfly this lake needs heat and at the weekend prayers were answered and the temperature started to rise and with the rise in temperature came the rise of trout and good hatches of mayfly – at long last.
The lake over the past few days has fished well in every area and catches of 4, 5 and 6lb fish were recorded. Most anglers are dry fly fishing mainly with the green mayfly. The buzzer fishing was good in the bog bay area.
A few interesting dry flies that are having great results were ‘The Guzzler’ and ‘The Slash Hook’ other flies were the Green Wulff, Green Drake, Claret dabbler, Octopus, Gosling and the Fiery Brown.
Best mayfly hatches were along the Western shore – Orangefield/Plunketts pt. and also at Wilson’s pt. and along the Hollywell shore.
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 1st. 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
3rd €54 & electric engine & crystal
A catch and release policy is actively encouraged on this lake.
Peter Quinn, Belfast with his Sheelin beauty of 5.6lbs on May 13th
381 fish were recorded for the week.
The fish of the week was an 8lb wild fish caught by Ken Kearns, Dundalk on Thursday May 19th using a green wulff around Stony Island at around 5pm.
Some catches were:
Peter McArdle & Ken Kearns, Dundalk – 9 fish for the week. Peter’s heaviest was 5½ lbs using a green mayfly, fish averaged between 2 and 3lbs. All caught on the dry.
Brendan Corr, Belfast and Donal Ryan, Drogheda – 25 trout for the week, averaged 1½ – 3lbs, heaviest was 5½ lbs, fishing around Orangefield and Derry pt, all caught on the dry green mayfly.
Brian McAdams, Derry – 5 fish all on the dry best was 3½ lbs.
Dessie McNab – 1 trout on the dry at 3lbs.
Kevin McDevitt, Belfast – Kevin fished the lake from Tuesday onwards, caught 4 trout, heaviest was 4½ lbs, fished around Derry pt, Hollywell and Orangefield.
Aidan Rush, Armagh – 7 trout on Sunday May 20th, all released.
Paddy Lyons, Cavan – using a green drake pattern Paddy clocked up 10 trout for the week, fishing at the back of Church Island and between Merry pt. and Wilson’s pt. Heaviest fish was 4½ lbs
Paddy Delaney, Baileboro – on 20/5/12 fishing a green drake 1 trout at 3lbs, Paddy reports that there were a lot of fish moving late on Sunday night but they were ‘hard got’
Pat Savage, Navan – 17 trout for three days – Thursday, Friday and Saturday, fishing around Orangefield using a green mayfly, all Pat’s fish were returned.
Morris McDevitt, Donegal – 10 trout for the week, dry fly fishing, best fish weighed in at 5¼ with the others averaging 2¾ – 3½ lbs.
Mickey McCluskey, Donegal – 20 fish for the week, best was 4½ lbs – all dry fly fishing.
Billy Sweeney, Donegal – 14 trout for the week, best was 4½ lbs
John Minnock, Galway – 6 trout, best at 3lbs, dry fly fishing.
Paul Burke Kennedy, Crover – on May 18th using a dry mayfly 1 trout at 5lbs.
Shane Gallagher and Peter Quinn, Belfast – 8 fish on May 13th and 14th, Peter’s heaviest weight was 5.6lbs.
Noel Shields, Dublin – on May 20th, 3 trout averaged between 3 – 5½ lbs.
Paul Owens and his son Karl, Dublin – fishing around Derrysheridan 2 trout averaging at over 3lbs each.
Brenda Montgomery IFI
