Paddy Dunworth reports on a few recent trips out with clients on some of Co. Limerick’s trout rivers…
02/06 Jason Khym took time out from an equestrian holiday to flyfish. One of his charges, Lora Raper, who enjoys fishing for smalmouth bass back home in the USA also came along. We arrived a little early to the Adrare stretch of the Maigue andas the last of the ebb tide dropped out of the river Jason and Laura had a chance to refresh their flycasting skills. Both fished bead-head Hares Ear on the point with an Alder as dropper but even after the level finally reached it’s normal height it took a while for the fish to take consistently. Then Jason and Lora enjoyed a couple of hours of great sport in what was a very cool afternoon compared to the previous day. They both had around 10 fish each, losing many more as is the case here.
01/06 Steve Murphy from Ontario fished a short session on the Deel before returning to the Maigue at Adare where he had several small but lively trout to the fly. We then proceeded to the Fanningstown Castle waters some 2 miles upstream of Castleroberts, this is a lovely stretch with a weir at it’s uppermost boundary. Steve had a strong offer on a streamer, the water still being somewhat coloured. The exercise was to show Steve the water so he can fish it solo during his week long holiday here. We made it home just in time to see the end of the Limerick v Tipperary game, what a win! Steve’s now a firm fan of the fishing here and hurling!
29/05 Turlough Herbert joined me for an evening session on the Upper Deel yesterday. The banks are totally wild because it sees little fishing activity. It’s wilderness fishing at it’s best and most challenging. Though much smaller than it is around Rathkeale it holds some good fish, all wild and prepared to give a good account of themselves. Though there was a rise on when we started around 6.30pm Turlough opted to fish small nymphs and was soon meeting small but hyper trout. I moved upstream, getting out of the river and getting access back in again further up proved difficult, this re-inforces the wild nature of these reaches of the Deel. As a man said to me prior to our visit ‘ not the place to take a new pair of breathable waders’!
I had a couple of fish on dry BWO’s and Turlough continued to experiment crossing from nymph to dry to New Zealand style, meeting fish on all methods. These fish probably never saw an artificial in their lives. All fish were released, indeed many came off in play such was the reaction when hooked.
I hope we still have these wild places in 20years time.
Paddy Dunworth
Celtic Angling
Go fishing…
Paddy Dunworth, a fishing guide based near Adare has been flyfishing for 40 years and guiding for 15. He has an intimate knowledge of the Fisheries and Antiquities of this beautiful region. An all-round angler and flytier, Paddy specialises in Trout, Sea-trout, Salmon and Sea-Bass, offers Fly-casting tuition for beginners and improvers, and also caters for Autumn /Winter Pike fishing and Salt-water fly fishing.
Web: www.celticangling.com
