Lough Sheelin Angling Report By Brenda Montgomery, IFI – June 30th – July 6th 2014
Fish come and go, but it is the memory of evenings on the lake that endure … E. Donnall Thomas
The tranquility of Sheelin
Early this week daytime temperatures climbed into the early twenties and Sheelin became a reflective sheet for the overhead blue sparsely clouded sky. Little stirred on the surface and although some anglers did venture out during the day, the only thing they returned with was with a tan. We have left June behind and are now into July, the month for the evening rise and probably the most regular meal-time the trout will have. Even on apparently perfect fishing days flies may not hatch in the morning or afternoon but there will usually be a rise of some sort in the evening and it was the evening time when most anglers appeared on the lake for this week, usually fishing from 8pm until midnight.
Striking lucky – David Sandford, Strangford Lough holding his first fish ever caught on the dry fly, fishing with Michael Kelly, Dublin
In the early part of the week despite there being impressive hatches of sedges it was still frustrating as the water looked dead and lifeless and those trout refused to surface in the prevailing heat wave and any decent action was restricted to last knockings. For this situation it was worth fishing a couple of pupa patterns at depth as this was where the trout were during the warm daytime weather. Two weighed pupa imitations positioned 3 -4 feet apart on an overall leader of 12 feet would do. Allowing plenty of pauses between pulls, literally fishing the flies sink and draw style. A figure of eight retrieve, followed by a short burst of say 4-6 turns of the hand and then rest to let the flies settle and although this isn’t the classic sedge fishing it did catch a trout or two.
On every day as the evening set in and the heat of the day retreated the sedges started to appear in their millions and some rises of trout start to happen admittedly sporadically and usually along the banks and in sheltered bays – Goreport, Bog Bay, at the back of Church Island and along the Western shore in particular. Although the trout could be targeting the adult sedges, they also could be homing in on ascending pupae so selecting a scruffy busy looking fly pattern which sits high in the water was a good plan as besides possessing appeal to the forging trout, their surface area holds then in the zone for longer.
The confusion of rises could make targeting individual trout difficult so for the best of both worlds attach pupa patterns on droppers with a a larger buoyant dry on the point to help suspend them.
The cinnamon Sedge
In a bid to find cover the winged adult sedge buzz across the surface often leaving that tell tail V wake trailing behind them. This skittering along the top of the water is a bit like a dinner bell sounding to a waiting trout. Hackled dry flies treated with floatant and slowly worked through the surface can achieve the same effect.
For Sheelin as is probably the case for many other trout lakes, it’s vital to put a bit of disturbance into the flies, whether fishing wet or dry it is best done by increasing the flies physical size, especially when it touches night as the trout tend to be braver under darkness. Size 8 palmered sedges can be successful.
This necessity for increase in fly size makes me smile as I am reminded of an incident this week where a Sheelin angler presented me with a Golden Olive Bumble as a gift. I felt honoured and appreciated the gesture so much so that the skilled tying of this golden leggy busy little fly stayed on my desk instead of going out on a fishing line. Some days later another angler spied my Golden Olive, he wasn’t impressed and went out to his vehicle only to return with another Golden Olive, about five times bigger than mine saying ‘That’s not a Bumble, THAT’S a Bumble’ reminding me instantly of that famous piece in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee when a mugger drew a switchblade on Paul Hogan and to his worried companion Hogan casually said ‘that’s not a knife’ then pulled out a large bowie knife saying ‘THAT’S a knife’ so too was it with my Golden Olive Bumble.
As the curtain eventually comes down, trout sometimes turn their attention to the feeble adult sedges. The trout feed on these in a subtle way. Smaller, slimmer imitations are more in keeping with naturals now. Sedges are quite delicate flies that are easily copied on size 14-16 hooks using CDC fibres with a hackle-less elk hair caddis being particularly good. A lot of the good sedge fishing happens in the gloom which makes it very hard to locate the fly so a good tactic is to crouch low and look across the surface rather than on to it.
Sheelin’s tenacious Mayfly
In the earlier part of the week fishing was hard work on Sheelin, admittedly the trout have got lazy so casting has to be deadly accurate and precision tracking of the fly is essential or else you won’t know whether it is covering the target fish. With all this bright sunshine creating huge surface light really the only thing to do is to alter the angle at which you view the water, flexibility is needed with crouching down or craning your neck anything really that will change the view of the surface refraction.
There’s a lot of insect life going on out on the lake at the moment and on top of this, as was the case last week, trout are gorging themselves on the perch fry, even the perch are feeding on the perch fry.
Thursday saw a noticeable change however in the fishing as the weather swung from the previous bright relentless sunshine to cloudy winder conditions with some rainfall which was reflected in that a lot more fish were surfacing and being landed. There were substantial hatches of Murroughs particularly around Lynch’s pt. and Chambers bay, the biggest numbers some would say that there have ever been on this lake. The mighty red sedges were literally crawling up angler’s necks and resting everywhere. The change in weather seemed to have focused the trout more on sedge feeding. Sedge fishing was good from Thursday through the weekend. Predominantly evening fishing was best but there were some mornings from 8am to noon which were very productive and landed some anglers some nice catches of trout. No day is the same on this lake, there are no hard and fast rules, it could fish well one morning and hopeless the next, it depends on what the weather dictates. The trout are feeding sub surface and although on the pinheads they are equally interested in the green sedge pupa.
Using a ‘ghost tip’ might be the way to go at the moment. The ghost tip allows anglers to fish their flies, usually nymphs deeper without the need for long leaders. This type of line is very useful when you want to present the fly just subsurface when using ‘drowned’ Hoppers’ after the odd shower of rain which happened at the weekend.
Elk Hair Hopper The Sunburst Dabbler
The Murrough hatches clashed with the appearance of the perch fry and when the weather was hot and bright it was the pinheads that the trout seemed more interested in but now with the cooler weather and water temperatures slightly reduced the angler stands a great chance of some good murrough fishing. After a few weeks the perch fry will become bigger and faster and too much hassle for the trout so sedges will be the main diet for the Sheelin trout.
There were some hatches of Green Peter this week which is surprisingly early for this lake.
The most successful fly for the week were the Klinkhammers which in a way are not too far off resembling the sedge pupa which reflects the trout’s preference for subsurface feeding. Stimulators worked well on Thursday and a Silver & Black Humungous placed over trout perch bashing usually worked well to land a fish. Because this lake is in sedge fishing mode, any fly with amber in it works well and the colour mixes for hackles are predominantly browns in varying shades – it’s all about matching the hatch and with sedges it’s vital to remember size as the artificial must either be the same size as the natural or smaller but never bigger. The sedge hatches were excellent throughout the week but on some days needed to be beaten out of the bushes and on to the surface water while on others the bays were carpeted with them, again it was all weather dependent. Old favourites came into their own this week – the Alexandra, Thunder & Lightening, the Dunkeld and the Raymond emerged as being particularly good. Sedge patterns at 14 and 16 featured as well. A fly with sliver or a bit of glitter is a good plan and attracts those trout on the hunt for perch fry. Other flies were the Dabblers, Hoppers, the Silver Invicta, the Claret Bling, Golden Olive Bumble and the Green Peters.
Lough Sheelin’s Welshman’s Button
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
The Biscuit Pseudo Sedge with fluorescent wash deer hair wings
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.
The Lough Sheelin Protection Association’s Stream Rehabilitation competition has been set for Saturday October 4th. Match booklets will be out by mid- August and will also be available to download off the LSTPA’s web site.
Mark Wilson with his 4 ½ pounder caught on a Green Peter Hair Muddler
A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times
Releasing a 4lb plus trout back into Sheelin
It won’t work if you are not wearing it
Monday last June 30th saw the tragic drowning of Lough Sheelin fanatic 16 year old Jonathan Maughan on Sheelin’s neighbouring Erne waterway – Requiesce in Pace. 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 4194156Telephone: +353 43 6681298 Email: loughsheelinguide@hotmail.com
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 9 ½ lbs caught by local man Darren Harten.
Total number of trout recorded for the week: 31
Selection of Catches
Peter Mc Ardle, Dundalk – 3 trout averaging 1 ½ – 3lbs, all caught on wets.
Jamie Wilson, Belfast – fishing with his father Ben, 3 trout on Thursday July 3rd all on the sedge, weights averaged 1 ½ – 3 ½ lbs.
Jordon Comiskey, Newtowngore – 1 trout on the sedge at 4 lbs, at Arley
Pat Brady, Cavan – 2 trout fishing teams of wets –Stimulators and French Partridge and Claret Dabblers, heaviest fish weighed in at 2 ½ lbs.
Timothy Regan, Dublin – fishing Friday July 4th, wet and dry fly fishing, 3 trout heaviest was 3 ½ lbs – all returned.
Emmett Dunne, Cavan – July 5th fishing wets using a Golden Olive Bumble on the top dropper 2 trout heaviest was almost 4lbs (returned).
Gordon Long, Castleblayney – July 4th and 5th fishing Bog Bay and along Arley and Crover, 3 trout in total fishing wets, heaviest was 3lbs. Reported seeing a lot of small trout particularly along the Western shore around Orangefield.
Brenda Montgomery IFI
