Liam Stenson of the Irish Fly Fisher writes:
The season has now opened on the Liffey and I had my first outing on the river since last year. It seem such a long time since I last was out on the river Liffey. Last season turned out to be a washout with all the rain that fell. This made for very little fishing to be had on the Liffey for me soIi was glad when the new season finally opened. For my first outing I had planned fishing on my local club waters at Kilcullen. I got to the river early so I could make the most of the day. As usual I had a good look around as I was getting set up. I noticed a few small fish rising upstream of me but i could not see if they were taking flies or not. I set the rod up with a team of wet flies to fish down and across as i made my way down stream.
The team I chose consisted of a Yellow Jack on the point with a Waterhen Bloa on the middle dropper and a Hares Lug and Plover on the top dropper. I fished all the likely lies and runs as I made my way slowly down stream. I like this part of the early season as I can get to fish on some of the places that become overgrown as the season progresses. These little spots are usually good for holding quality fish as they don’t get fished much throughout the season. I was fishing for about an hour before I had my first hook up. It was a nice little fish which unfortunately I lost. He had taken the Yellow Jack. Another half hour passed before I finally had a fish in the net. A nice fish about ten inches in length hooked on the Yellow Jack.
I fished on for another while without any reward so I changed the team around keeping the Yellow Jack but changing it to the top dropper along with a Snipe and Purple on the point with a Winter Brown on the middle dropper. I was soon rewarded with my third fish of the season which took the Winter Brown. I had two more fish on the wet flies. One took the Winter Brown the other took the Yellow Jack. I noticed a small number of Olives coming off the water that looked looked like Olive Uprights but I could not be sure of that. At this stage I had reach the point where I had planned on turning around at, so I changed over to a dry fly to fish it upstream as I made my way back to the car.
The dry fly I chose was a Klinkhammer (Light Cahill). I fished with this for about half an hour without a response so I changed it for another Klinkhammer (Greenwells). I rose a fish with the Greenwells but I missed it. Another fish rose to the Greenwells i missed this one as well. After that I changed the flies several times but never rose another fish. In all it was a good start to the new season. The water temperature was a cool five degrees Celsius which is about average for this time of the year. I am looking forward to getting back out on the river Liffey, hopefully over the next weekend. It sure was great to be back fishing on this wonderful river.
To book Liam Stenson…
Irish Fly Fisher
Address: Co Kildare.
Telephone: +353 (0) 86 3864 191
E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.irishflyfisher.ie
