The Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association (ILFA) had their second Trial of the season on the beautiful Lough Corrib on Saturday 18th May. Some of the women travelled Friday evening in the bright sunshine and hoped for favourable weather on Saturday.
On Saturday there was a north west wind all day with a very grey sky and a big drop in temperature. There were sporadic hatches of may fly in sheltered areas and the colour of the flies for the day was green or yellow.
Madeleine Kelly and Susan Brown the eventual first and second placed anglers, opted to cross the lake to the more sheltered Green fields Bay on the east side. Although the may-fly were not hatching in any numbers both anglers tackled up with wet may fly patterns and met brown trout very soon afterwards.
Pauline McClenaghan, a salmon flyfishing enthusiast placed third, and during this, her first outing with the ILFA ladies, she really enjoyed the challenge of learning the skill of pulling wets to fish for brown trout with a single handed rod.
The Results were,
- 1st Madeleine Kelly
- 2nd Susan Brown
- 3rd Pauline McClenaghan
Top boat man was Tom Coyle
The ladies stayed in The Ghillies Lair, Ardnasillagh Lodge, Oughterard and were warmly greeted by Maura and Basil Shields who catered for our every need. After breakfast the ladies had only to take a few short steps to Basil’s shore where four local boat- men waited patiently for the ladies to tackle up while Sarah Deburca from Meon Eile spoke in Irish to Cher McCrave, our youngest member, and recorded the occasion for prosperity.
Our Third Trial will be held in Lough Lene on the 31st August 2013
Full results can be found at www.irishladiesflyfishing.com In keeping with the terms under which the ILFA fish their competitions, all fish caught during the trial were handled with care and safely returned to the water.
Any ladies interested in joining the ILFA and competing for the Irish Ladies Team to fish in Wales in 2014 please visit www.irishladiesflyfishing.com or ring Julie /Gerry on 087.2055094
