Brenda is back with her old friend and Sheelin welcomes her

Lough Sheelin Angling Report By Brenda Montgomery, IFI  September 9th– September 29th 2013

A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

 ~Henry David Thoreau

After a three week absence from Sheelin, which felt vaguely like a desertion, I approached the lake’s shoreline once more with a slight knot of unexplainable apprehension. Reassurance came quickly as the familiar gleam of clear water stretched out majestically into the horizon and a few boats like pencil lines broke the monotony of the water in the distance, out by Church Island.

This lake and its trout can look after itself and September has been a good month for fishing with some lovely catches here of heavy wild trout, the best of which ranged between 5 and 8lbs.

This is the season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’ and Lough Sheelin reflected this with its surface often shrouded in a veil of shadowy morning fog and darkness creeping in after 7pm bringing with it the familiar autumnal chill as night time descended.

Emmet McWilliams with his beautiful 7 ½ lb Sheelin trout

As we progress towards the end of the fishing season – October 12^th, it’s as if the trout know this and they are restless with plenty of movement, rises, following but not taking the fly and this is because they are starting to progress on to the next natural stage from feeding to spawning.  With the season pushing on, the lingering mists produce what anglers call ‘ a low sky’ which makes the water dark and seemingly drives the fish down, once the sky lifts and the sun appears, the fish start surfacing again
Millie on the look out for fish

Resting in the mists at Church Island

There are thousands and thousands of small trout, around the pound mark and under in this lake and anglers can have plenty of sport with these as they rise to the proffered flies.

Fly hatches are few at this time of the year, with really only random and sporadic amounts of sedges and daddies on the surface of the water particularly around Church Island and in the sheltered bays. There is no particularly good time during the day to fish, every time during daylight was equally good but as the chill of the evening set in usually after 6pm the fish seemed to disappear.

The most popular flies used for the month were a variety of Daddy Long Legs, the Dabblers – silver, claret and green, sedges – brown and chocolate drop, the Octopus, the Cock Robin.  Other good flies were the Sooty Olive, The Dabblers – Claret, Silver and Golden Olive, the Silver Invicta, Gorgeous George, Humpies, the Terminator, the Chernobyll, the Raymond, the Alexandra, the Red Tailed Green Peter, Green Peter, a Claret Snatcher, a Claret Hopper, Klinkhammers, Stimulators, the Watsun’s Fancy, Bumbles, Hoppers and a Red Ended Peter type Sedge fished wet style on a floating line.

An Octopus wet

A Peter Ross

A small Brown Muddler- good for Autumn lake fishing

                                                                            Green Peter Sedge with deer hair body

A number of competitions were held on the lake during September –

The Royal Cup was held on September 14^th, 19 fish were recorded with first prize going to Charlie Baugh, Ballyjamesduff with a 3.8 lb fish.

The McIntyre/Guider Cup was held on Saturday September 28^th with the  top prize going to Cavan man Gerard McShane with his 2.5 lb trout.

Two other ‘in house’ competitions were held among the Kells anglers and the Defence Forces, some nice trout were caught and participants were happy with the numbers of trout moving.

Oliver McCormack’s 5.75 lbs of Sheelin perfection

Competitions       

The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association will host their end of season Lough Sheelin River Enhancement/Rehabilitation fly fishing competition on Lough Sheelin on Saturday October 5th.

For further details please contact Eamonn Ross @ 087 9436655 or Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033

The Cavan/Monaghan Garda Divisional Fly Fishing Championship and Open Competition – Sunday October 12th from Kilnahard Pier, fishing from 11am to5.30pm.  Competition is for the heaviest fish (visitors) and the heaviest fish (Cavan/Monaghan Garda members), presentation of prizes and refreshment dinner at Crover House Hotel at 7pm sharp.  Any queries please contact Dessie McEntee on 047 77216 or 086 8937568.

A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times

Oliver McCormack carefully releasing his 5.75 lb fish

Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 790 – we need to keep our small fish alive……………

There are a good selection of Sheelin ghillies/guides available and they are well worth investing in if angling visitors are unfamiliar with the lake, or perhaps haven’t that much fly fishing experience or maybe are a little ‘cut for time’ due to work or other commitments.  If one guide is unavailable it’s an absolute certainty that there will always another capable one to step into the breach.

Total number of trout recorded from September 8^th – September 29^h – 141

Selection of Catches

Emmet McWilliams and Paul McElhinney – fishing out from Chambers bay, Kilnahard to Walkers Bay 11 trout heaviest 7 ½ lbs, 3 others averaging 2 ½ – 3 lbs in weight.  All caught on wets, mainly Dabblers.

Joe Walsh. Tubbercurry, Co Sligo caught a 5lb 4Oz Wild Fish in open water to west of Church on 17th September. It was his first visit to Sheelin. He was accompanied by John Cosgrove. Clane.

John Murphy, Crover – 2 trout at 7 ½ and 3 ½ lbs caught using Silver Daddies.

Oliver McCormack, Cavan – September 18^th 3 trout 2 at 1.5 lbs and 1 at 5.75 lbs.

Alan Molloy, Dublin – 3 trout heaviest was 2 ¼ lbs using wets.

Phil Cobham, London – 3 trout heaviest was 2 lbs.

Enrico Fantasia – September 13^th 4 trout best was 2 lbs.

Oliver McCormack and Derek Evans – 3 trout out in the deep from Church Island using an International Dabbler and a Cock Robin.  Derek 2 at 1.75 lbs and 1.5 lbs and Oliver 1 trout at 1.5 lbs.

Tony Grehan, Dublin and Danny O’Keefe – 5 trout averaging 1 – 2 lbs caught at Church Island and Orangefield on sedges and octopus.

Andrew Brown, Dublin – 5 trout wet fly fishing, best 2lbs.

Brenda Montgomery IFI