Garrett Ruigrok reports from Courtlough Trout Fishery which help the 5th heat of the their winter league over the weekend…
Sunday 23rd of February saw the fifth heat of our winter league take place at Courtlough trout fishery with 18 anglers arriving to fish on a very scowly morning.
It wasn’t looking good weatherwise, with a gale of wind blowing in off the Southwest bank, right into the face of anyone on the ‘long’ far bank.
We chatted with the lads, and consensus was that everyone agreed to go ahead with the event. Soon after 10am the gunshot started the fishing and Daanus landed the first fish of the day on his second cast, it was looking up a bit. No anglers had hit their 5 fish per peg limit at the first half hour rotation but two of them had got to 3.
Today it appeared that the shallower (and windier) sections of the fishery were performing best and sinking lines were the order of the day, lures and tungsten nymphs were banking most fish in the early stages.
We fished from 10 until 2 with the anglers moving 4 pegs left every half hour, allowing a full circuit of the fishery throughout the competition.
The fishery had not been restocked for about 6 weeks but had been lightly fished due the 8 weeks of awful weather. The fish responded well and we had good solid steady fishing throughout the competition and from all quarters of the lake, I think the few milder days during the week thawed them out a bit.
A couple of better fish were landed including a 4lb fish for Pat Nolan and a 7lb fish for Ger Walsh who landed this on a Diawl bach on a floating line.
The rain held off but the wind didn’t and at 2 o’clock everyone retired for the stew while the scores were tallied up
At the finish the winner was Karl Elliott (Dublin) with 14 fish landed, 2nd was Pat Noonan (Tipperary) with 13, and 3rd was Shane Callan (Dundalk) with 13.
The top 3 received a new Cortland flyline, flybox and penknife and automatic qualification for the final in March.
The final tally of fish landed was a very impressive 158 for the session. With maybe another 30 caught afterwards when a few very brave buzzers hatched and some of the lads fished to fish moving to them.
A big thank you to all of the anglers for supporting the event, looking forward to the next and final qualifying heat on Sunday 9th March.
The fishery is open 7 days a week from 9.30 until dark and all are welcome. All visits must be booked in advance please on 087 2712704.
Garrett Ruigrok
Courtlough Trout Fishery
www.courtlough.ie
Fish at Courtlough
Courtlough Trout Fishery is open to the public for fishing 7 days a week from 9.30 to dusk. If you don’t know how to fly-fish, then let us teach you, with our qualified instructor available for lessons on site. The facilities are ideal for individual of group outings and we can tailor a package to give you a great day out. Please call Garrett in advance on 087 2712704 or email [email protected]
Web: www.courtlough.ie/trout-fishing/
