UK angler Brent Vinall from Ross-on-Wye takes us through his angling holiday here in Ireland where he proved that the smaller lakes are an excellent alternative when weather conditions put the bigger loughs ‘out of bounds’.  Brent reports:

I have just returned from a 10 day fishing holiday in County Mayo with my fishing partner, Andy Birkett (Plymouth UK)

Owing to the cold and blustery conditions, we were unable to fish Loughs Conn and Corrib as planned. Instead, we concentrated on the smaller lakes in the Westport area, located close to our holiday cottage in Aughagower.

The fishing we encountered was fabulous, the best we have experienced for many years fishing in the west of Ireland!

Brown Trout 2lb 8oz   from Moher Lough
Brown Trout 2lb 8oz from Moher Lough

We fished Moher Lough, south of Westport on the N59 to Leenane for a day and a half. Although we were saddened to hear that Mrs McDonnell had suffered a stroke, her daughter, Bridey, was most welcoming and dispensed permits. On both days we caught a significant number of wild fish to about 8oz and many stocked brown trout, all of which we returned. All areas of the lake fished well but points and bays were especially prolific. The most successful line in the cold and windy conditions was a Di-3 sinker and flies such as the Claret Dabbler and Muddler (fished sunk) caught most fish. The quality of the stocked fish was superb – we caught several fish in the 2lb bracket and the largest we estimated at 2lb 8oz

We spent a further two days fishing Ballinlough; Tom Gill dispensed the tickets. We found water levels in the lough to be higher than normal; the boat dock was partly submerged and therefore out of action. We used a Minn Kota electric outboard with two 12 volt batteries. The power unit held up well in spite of very windy conditions on the first of the two days. We encountered hard fighting stocked brown and rainbow trout in almost equal numbers and returned all fish. Again, the quality of the fish was superb, with rainbows to 4lb and brown trout to 3lb. Clearly, some fish were over-wintered. Successful flies, mainly fished on Di-3 sunk lines were Cormorants, Claret Dabblers and Olive Nomads.

Rainbow Trout 4lb  Ballinlough, near Westport
Rainbow Trout 4lb Ballinlough, near Westport

On Sunday 1st May, we travelled to the Callow Lakes and met Tom Deasy who allowed us to use an electric motor on one of his boats. We fished the North Lake in the morning and went through the link tunnel to fish the South Lake in the afternoon. Both lakes produced fish, again to sunk lines, but there was a small olive hatch on the South Lake in the afternoon. Between us, we caught and returned six sizeable wild trout to 1lb and several smaller fish, including one to a dry olive. We caught fewer fish than at other venues but the fact that they were wild fish rather than stocked trout made up for this.

We lost Monday 2nd May because of high winds. However, before returning home we fished for a day and a half on Bilberry Lough at Islandeady. Mrs McGrath at Windermere House told us we were the first anglers to venture out this year and we were a little concerned that this lough would prove to be a little dour. We had fished it twice before with only minor success. Our experience, however. was quite different. We caught and returned a good number of stocked browns and some well-mended fish, presumably from previous years’ stockings, including fish to 2lb 12 oz. The quality of the brown trout was remarkable; they were full-finned and hard-fighting. Best flies on Di-3 lines were Cormorants, Claret Dabblers and the Clan Chief.

We returned to England on May 5th having experienced rain, sleet, snow and hail and some very windy and blustery conditions. We were expecting some hard fishing and we certainly fished hard to combat the conditions. However, we were rewarded with some excellent fishing that more than offset our disappointment at not fishing the big loughs.