Lough Sheelin Angling Report By Brenda Montgomery, IFI May 8th – May 15th 2016
‘Like they say, you can learn more from a guide in one day than you can in three months fishing alone’
Mario Lopez
‘Stop the lights’ Philippe Dolivet, Brittany with a 53cm fish taken on a size 12 Olive Traffic Light Cruncher on the middle dropper guided by Lough Sheelin Guiding.
Temperatures soared into the early twenties this week and Lough Sheelin and its surrounding catchment felt as if it had been suddenly catapulted into the summer after weeks of struggling with cold wintery weather. With the burst of heat, this lake seemed to come alive, reflected by the impressive buzzer hatches, an increasing number of olives and more importantly a very noticable lifting of the trout into the surface layers to feed.
The atmosphere around Sheelin is heavy with anticipation and there’s an invisible tension among anglers as this premier brown trout fishery moves towards the most popular section of its fishing season – the mayfly. Yes, a few mayfly have been spotted over the past number of days, in along Hollywell and tight to Chambers shore but please note the word few because we are only talking about single figures. Once the mayfly hatch begins in earnest, the fly will draw fish from a wide area and with Sheelin, which has previously produced some amazing hatches, some of the biggest trout of the season will come to the surface. It is a big fly which is easy to imitate and one which, along with the sedge, provides the fly angler with his best opportunity of the season for a big brown.
I can best equate the feeling now around this lake as something similar to the line up of a big race, the preparation has been done and the gun is about to sound – the gun of course being the spectacular hatches of mayfly that brings even the bottom dwelling heavy weights up to the surface to gorge on this once a year feeding frenzy. Most anglers are acutely aware of the beautiful stock of fish in this lake and also that this will be perhaps their only chance to land a once in a life time trout out of this wild brown trout jewel.
Shane MacNamee’s Sheelin May 14th
The Catches…
The heaviest fish for this week was a 6lb fish caught on a Buzzer pattern by Mark Johnston, Cavan
Total number of trout recorded: 63
Selection of the catches
- Dominic Murphy, Tallaght – 1 trout at 57cm on a Buzzer pattern
- Philippe Dolivet of Brittany Fly Fishing, France – 4 trout best was a trout of 3 ½ lbs plus using an Olive Traffic Light Cruncher with a figure of 8 retrieve over weed.
- Donal Harten, Cavan – 1 trout at 2lbs on a Buzzer pattern on May 14th.
- Lewis Milan guided by Grey Duster Guiding – fishing May 14th, Mr Milan’s first ever outing on Sheelin where he caught a number of trout on buzzer patterns, best of which was 3lbs.
- Enda Kenny – 1 trout at 4 ½ lbs on a Buzzer pattern, May 12th.
- Cian Murtagh, Cavan – 1 trout at 2lbs on an Epoxy Buzzer in bright sunshine in Corru Bay, May 13th.
Dessie MacEntee, Cavan – 1 trout at 3lbs on wets. - Gene Brady, Cavan – 1 trout at 2lbs on an Olive pattern.
- Valdas Drevinskas, Dublin – 1 trout at 4lbs on a lure pattern.
- Jim Delaney, Dublin – 3 trout heaviest at 5lbs on dry and balling buzzers.
Please remember All anglers are required to have a Fishery Permit to fish Lough Sheelin which must be purchased BEFORE going out on the lake.
Buzzers
The big increase in temperatures dramatically increased the amount of chironomid activity with Thursday evening being the pick of the days for the week. It was all about buzzer fishing for this week with a variety of buzzer patterns being used with good number of successes. The buzzer was definitely up with some excellent and exciting fishing when waters were calm in the evening and touching dark. Although there were some great buzzer hatches the fish were slow to come up to them early in the week, but as the heat wave continued through the week, the trout started to surface feed.
50% of the trout’s diet is made up of buzzers and one particular angler this week after spooning his fish reported that it was stuffed from top to tail with this non biting midge. Buzzer fishing can be a frustrating time for anglers drawing blanks and needing more information, ask an angler who is catching fish on this lake at the moment what he is using and he’ll freely answer you ‘Buzzers’ and when you push for more this will be followed by ‘Those little black ones’ . So for the benefit of those who are having difficulty with the buzzer patterns on Sheelin here it is: –
For trout taking adult buzzers as they were this week, a popular fly used was the ‘F’ fly which is also good for imitating adult sedge. For sub surface the Epoxy Buzzer was responsible for a number of catches, mostly averaging 2 to 4 lbs. Another good pattern was the hoppers. The adult flies can be fished static but retrieving a dry fly with a slow figure of eight worked best. Towards the end of the evening rise when the fading light makes it difficult to spot the fly, a gentle retrieve can be very effective and a change to a larger fly can often land an end of the day fish before night closes in.
Black Pennell, Connemara Black, Peter Ross, Black and Blue, Sooty Olive among others were successful, with the flies being retrieved very slowly. A small black dry fly to imitate the egg-laying female worked well if the fly was kept moving.
The previous weeks of cold have kept the olives at bay but this changed somewhat with the daytime temperatures increases. For the angler who enjoys imitative fishing, but does not want to join the mayfly jamboree, or run the risk of the buzzer season weather lottery, the olives are well worth consideration.
Overlapping and sandwiched between both the buzzer and the mayfly, the lake olives enjoy a lengthy season of at least six weeks. Through late April and May, they can provide excellent day-time fishing.
Just the way the Sheelin trout like it – a Balling and a Shipman’s Buzzer
The Hatch, the Flies
The Lough gets two hatches of Lake Olives each season and occasionally the trout feed on them. The first hatch occurs in early May and the second in late August and September. The body colour of the autumn insect is a lighter shade of green than that of the May time hatch. Trout feeding on Lake Olives are difficult to catch, though some anglers have a measure of success with an Olive nymph pattern. The area of Lough Sheelin producing Lake Olives stretches crescent – like from Rusheen Bay via Derrahorn to Watty¹s Rock. Chambers Bay gets a small hatch in the south west corner.
Surface feeding fish will take a duck fly Pupae, or Sooty Olive (Size 12). A small Claret & Mallard, Fiery Brown or Dunkeld may also take fish. For the evening rise the angler must determine if the trout are feeding on adult flies as they return to the water to lay their eggs, or if they are taking a pupa as it emerges. For feeding fish on adult flies returning to the water, fish a Sooty Olive size 12 on the bob, a Duck fly on the middle and an Olive Variant on the point. For those fish feeding on pupae as they emerge, fish a Sooty Olive and a couple of Duck fly pupae. In either case, the flies are fished on a float line and cast in the path of a feeding trout. The line is not stripped back. All that is required is an occasional twitch of the rod tip to give the flies life.
The flies used this week are predominantly the Buzzer patterns, olives – drys, emergers and nymphs and also a selection of the Dabblers (claret, fiery brown, silver, golden olive, peter ross and green), golden olive bumble, sooty olives, sedges, green peter, klinkhammers, stimulators, red tailed claret, red tailed green peter and hoppers.
The bumbles are good patterns and are working well on the lake, they are great for creating a disturbance on the top layer of water, great for bring up curious trout and best fished as a top dropper.
The most popular areas for fishing depending on wind direction were along the Western Shore – Chambers up to Orangefield, Holywell and around the Bog Bay, Sailors Garden and Goreport areas of the lake. Mid lake did not fish well and the best fishing plan for now is to stay two to three boat lengths out from the shore.
‘Follow the leader’
A boot marks the spot on Lough Sheelin!
Competitions…
ITFFA Youth Fundraiser Competition Lough Sheelin May 22nd 2016: The competition will work as follows: Anglers may fish with their own choice of boat partner. Anglers will be required to have a keep tank in their boat. Any plastic container approximately 60cmL x 40cmW x 30cmD will do the job. There will be a number of stewards on the lake to measure fish. Each angler will be given a map showing the locations of the stewards and a phone number for each steward. Stewards will al…so be wearing high visibility vests. When you catch a fish simply call the nearest steward and make your way to his location. The steward will measure and photograph the fish and the fish must swim away in order to be eligible. All boats must be inside the markers at Kilnahard Pier by 6pm, any fish in keep tanks at this time must be presented for measuring by 6:15pm. Entry fee for this fundraising competition is €50 per angler. The winner will receive €1000 cash and the Youth Fundraiser perpetual cup, and bragging rights. There will also be several other prizes. Shannon region Fishery permits are required to fish Lough Sheelin. Permits are available online at the following web address: https://www.fishinginireland.info/midland-permit.htm Please note that day permits are available. This should be a very enjoyable competition as it takes place on a fantastic venue at a great time of the year when the Mayfly should be plentiful. We would like to encourage clubs to participate in this competition and support the Irish Youth Fly Fishing team.
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
It won’t work if you aren’t 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
5 year old Noah Breen Johnston
A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times
Caoimhe and Oisin Sheridan heading out for a spot of fishing with dad Kevin (KsG flies)
A 64cm trout is released back into Sheelin – a gift to another angler
Gavin Doyle’s Sheelin, May 2016
Brenda Montgomery IFI
