Damien Willis of loughfishingbuddies.com samples the delights of the majestic Lough Sheelin and reports:
The definitive goal of fly-fishing is to imitate a fly or other insect so closely that it fools the trout into thinking that its next meal is being served. In order to do this you must present the fly in such a way as to not scare the trout.
The weather was perfect on the 3rd of June with a nice fall of fly on Sheelin. The trout did not disappoint, “taking to the spent”. Pictured above are some snap shots I took while I fished for a couple of hours. The weather for this weekend looks unsettled,with best fishing conditions from Monday onwards especially towards nightfall. Trout are extremely sensitive to ever changing weather and will swim out to deeper water and will remain almost in stasis until the temperature of the water rises to approx 8-10c. They will also feed in deeper water on nymphs and food that is in easy reach not expending too much energy – Why go out for dinner when the food is in front of you. The fish don’t need to surface at present as may fly nymps and sedge pupae are still in plenty of supply below the surface.
The current wind conditions have also coloured the lake blowing consistent from a southwest and north westerly direction. I remember listening to Dr Martin O Grady a couple of years about Zebra Mussel and the feeding habits of wild brown trout in general. In particular he spoke in dept about Lough Sheelin explaining that the mussel took between 6 to 12 days approx to filter the lake. Sheelin itself also drains into the Inny Systems which is in the opposite direction of the current wind direction. This explains why the lake remains coloured from above the Stray Rock to the North Eastern Shores of Dinner Island. Good news however is on the horizon – “The weather is set to change from Monday the 8th of June” Wind direction is also set to change, which will most certainly help clear up the very much coloured Sheelin. Day time temperatures are also set to reach high teens which will certainly raise water temperature up to the magic 10c. I hope that the May Fly will present itself as the Holy Grail of fly fishing this year on Sheelin.
Damien Willis
loughfishingbuddies.com
