Lough Sheelin Angling Report By Brenda Montgomery, IFI – June 23rd – June 29th 2014
Adopt the pace of Nature; her secret is patience … Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sunset looking towards Walkers Bay on Lough Sheelin – June 201
This week Lough Sheelin stretched out majestically in front of its anglers, mirror calm, swathed in the warmth of summer with only a nightly drop in temperature and a ripple on the water on Friday and Saturday due to an undesirable north wind blowing down the lake. Fishing is reported as being sluggish and although anglers enjoy being out on the water, frustration is creeping in with the lack of rises and apparent disappearance of the trout.
The Mayfly on Sheelin is over except for the odd hatch here and there and spent on the water is very sparse with the onset of the cold in the evenings.
There is nothing unusual or out of character about what is happening now on this lake, this happens every year – the calm after the storm. After the Mayfly anglers must brace themselves for a radical re-think of fishing tactics. Identifying and matching the hatch gets harder and the trout will be more prone to focus on particular flies or on a stage of their emergence. Anglers have to think harder about lighter tippets, concealment and keeping the sun to their face. Shadows and line flash give away movement. We are in that section of the fishing season when anglers have to be prepared to change their fly often as if a target fish ignores a fly more than twice its time to change the size or the fly.
Cathal McNaughton, Antrim with his 3lb 7oz trout caught in Holywell.
Warm daytime temperatures rendered Sheelin apparently lifeless this week. Because of the calmness of the water’s surface it was possible to see a long distance across the lake and on most days nothing seemed to be showing but traditionally during the lazy warm summer afternoons little stirs on the surface anyway so it’s not a time for despair as come evening time, as trout home in on the sedge carnival this lake depending on weather conditions can erupt into life.
June is the month of the summer solstice and the longest days of the year with sunrise around 5am and sunset 9pm. Given a choice on Lough Sheelin between starting at daybreak or fishing at dusk, for now always choose the later. The morning is often still a bit chilly and until the heat gets into the day the hatches will not start.
Anglers are reporting millions of sedges but the trout do not seem interested and are very difficult to tempt up to the surface with a dry fly. Trout are still feeding, they are still there in large numbers and at large weights it is now up to the angler to figure out what tactics to employ and to do that he must study what’s happening out on the lake.
Still clinging on……….Sheelin’s Mayfly
So what is happening..
The surface water is warm, conditions are bright and the trout have had more than their fill of mayfly and spent.
They are now on a change of diet and there’s a huge variety out there for them to choose from – sedges, crustaceans and terrestrials and all of these have numerous different types. Along with the fly hatches, enter the perch fry – the lake this week particularly mid lake and around Arley and Chambers has been teeming with millions of this fry or pinheads. These tiny almost embryotic fish swim in massive shoals of thousands where the glint of silver around the eye is sometimes all that is visible so transparent are their bodies as they dart in their masses through the water. Sheelin has been literally boiling in the middle with big trout as they gorge on these pinheads and after bashing them with their tails to stun them, they simply suck them down like some cannibalistic feast proving that the trout are still there in big numbers. If we now combine the weather conditions and the appearance of the perch fry it all makes things even more challenging for the Sheelin angler but in a way both of these give a vital clue as to what the trout are doing and that is feeding sub surface.
Sedge fishing is reportedly to be the cream of the fishing calendar and on Sheelin there are literally hundreds of different types of sedge, ranging from the tiniest of insects to some of the largest (the Murrough). The life cycle of the sedge is forever constant and they are a common food source for hungry trout.
While resting, sedge fold their wings neatly along their backs, forming a ridge tent shape which makes it look a bit like a moth. After hatching from the egg, sedges have three stages within their lifecycle that warrant the angler’s attention – the larva stage, pupa stage and finally the winged adult. Trout will eat sedges at all stages of their development. The cased larva can be free roaming or permanently attached to rocks, trout will dig for these tasty insects and you can often see a tail break the surface in a shallow as the trout hunt for their meal (they hunt for gammarus Shrimp in the same way). Weighted patterns are excellent when representing this stage and are normally found in bigger sizes of 10’s and 8’s and have a body of clipped deer hair. The caseless larva are perhaps fished more often and can be easily represented with a nymph type pattern. These patterns also tend to be weighted as the trout would find the natural closer to the bed of the lake. The next stage is the pupa stage where evolution has allowed this insect to develop into the fully formed adult when in a state of pupation and so the adult rises to the surface contained within the pupa ready to break away from the pupal shuck as it hits the surface. It is worth remembering that the pupa ascends and descends several times before breaking the surface film so a weighed pupa might be a good plan also in order to break out of the pupal shuck the insect pushes the shuck away by inflating it with gas. This will cause the shuck to shine so a fly with a tiny bit of glitter or tinsel in its design could help a lot to land that fish. When the fish are feeding in the surface it will only take the fly that is truly emerging and is part in and out of the film so having a fly with either deer hair or CDC in the dressing to allow the fly to be suspended in the water is a good idea. When the sedge has finally emerged a fly with a fair amount of hackle palmered in the body with a trigger of roofed wing to skitter across the surface usually strikes gold in this phase.
A great many flies that are sold are there to catch fishermen and not fish so it makes sense for any angler to know a little of what’s happening out there – both under and on top of the water.
The majority of the trout caught this week were caught on sedge patterns and in the late evening. There were good hatches of Murrough as it touched dark and a few Northern Ireland anglers were rewarded for their late stay on the lake with some nice weights.
The Sedge fly imitations have knocked the Greens and Spent off their top position. The flies most used this week by anglers were the Murrough, a Small Brown Sedge (12-14 or smaller), the Raymond, the Bibio, Watsons Fancy, the Fiery Brown Sedge, the Chocolate Drop, the Grey Flag, hoppers the Hare’s Ear Sedge, the Sooty Olive, the Wulff (grey and in green) the red-assed Green Peter, the Welshman’s Button, a variety of Bumbles, the F fly and the Sweeney Todd. The Klinkhammer is a deadly fly with the Raymond, Dunkeld, Silver Invicta, Silver Invicta (with a red body), the Cock Robin Dabbler and the Kelly Fox Squirrel Spent all going that extra mile and bring the trout up.
Mary Harkin (Rory’s Tackle shop) with one of her Sheelin trout
Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 790 which strictly prohibits
• All trolling on the lake from March 1st to April 30th (inclusive).
• From May 1st to June 15th – no trolling between 7pm –6am and no trolling under engine between 6am – 7pm and
• June 16th – October 12th – no trolling under engine between 7pm – 6am.
• No trout less than 14 inches should be taken from the lake
Up-Coming Events
The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association will be hosting a Youth angling day on Saturday July 12th. This popular event will include fly tying, fly casting and trout fishing followed by a Bar B Q. All participants will have the opportunity to catch fish and receive a small prize. For further details contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033 . There will also be a day trip organized to a put and take fishery in August to give the young people another chance at catching fish.
The McDonnell cup will be held on Sunday August 10th on Lough Sheelin, fishing from 11am till 6pm from Kilnahard pier with an entry fee of €20. This competition has been fished catch & release for the last two years which proved to be very successful. Measures will be provided for all boats with the cup awarded to the longest fish.
There will be lots of prizes on offer and this day is generally viewed as a great day out.
For further details contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033.
Charlie Dillon, Tyrone releases his 3lb 10oz trout caught on a Spent Gnat back into the water at Goreport
A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times
Most of the fish featured in these angling reports are returned carefully and safely to the lake
It won’t work if you are not wearing it
Water rarely gives second chances and a life jacket is just that – it saves your life, so we would implore anglers and all other users for their own safety as well as it being the law under
SI No 921 of 2005 – Pleasure Craft (Personal Flotation Devices and Operation) (Safety) Regulations 2005
So please put on and keep on that life jacket until you are back on dry land.
Caoimhe Sheridan, Cavan – getting it right
Lough Sheelin Guiding Services (www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com) 087 1245927
Michael Farrell @ 087 4194156 Telephone: +353 43 6681298 Email: [email protected]
Rising Trout Photography by Oystein
Most of the fish featured in these angling reports are returned carefully and safely to the lake
The heaviest fish for the week was a trout of 4lbs caught by Jerome Dunleavey, Tyrone using small brown sedge
Total number of trout recorded for the week: 23
Selection of Catches
John O’Reilly, Dublin – Monday June 23rd 1 trout at 2lbs using a size 10 sedge, fishing at Arley.
Anthony Gillespie, Wexford – Tuesday June 24th 1 trout at 2 ½ on a Murrough, 10pm.
Michael Farrell, Finea – 3 trout averaging 2 ½ – 3lbs, all caught on a sedge.
Pat Brady, Cavan – 1 trout at 1 ½ lb using Klinkhammer.
Brenda Montgomery IFI
