“Poets talk about “spots of time,” but it is really fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment. No one can tell what a spot of time is until suddenly the whole world is a fish and the fish is gone.”
Norman Maclean
Although now heading into mid September there was little evidence of autumn this week around Lough Sheelin as temperatures remained at a humid 18 to 20 degrees, courtesy of a tropical air mass which moved in over Ireland, with us only seeing a drop to 14 accompanied by persistent rain on Friday with fresh southerly conditions taking over at the weekend.
With little discolouration in shoreline foliage and with the absence of those early morning chills if you shut your eyes and ignored the date, a person (who suffers from Cheimatophobia) could almost fool themselves into thinking that it is still the summer but the truth is that we are stuck in those days that aren’t quite summer but aren’t quite the autumn either.
Out on Lough Sheelin it’s a different matter, things are changing and the trout, operating on an inbuilt genetic calendar are becoming restless, aggressive and agitated with splashy rises and aerial pirouette perhaps trying to impress and entertain the anglers.
The Catches
This was a week more about fishing than catching with all days seeing respectable numbers of boats out on the lake but only sporadic trout catches. Lough Sheelin is not an easy lake to fish at the best of times and this was week was tough going, where the trout were not giving themselves up easily and where only the persistent (and lucky) angler achieved the desired results.
‘The Race’ – Damien Willis’s photograph taken at Kilnahard, Lough Sheelin 9 years ago, epitomising the frantic rush to get to that fish place.
Despite a week battling a fickle and capricious stretch of water, Lough Sheelin still treated its anglers to a taste of what it holds as large numbers of trout were seen with some misses of reportedly ‘huge trout’. The weight of the week was a trout of over 5lbs by Dublin angler John McKay using a Silver Daddy pattern and the rest of the returns for this week averaged 1½ to 3½ lbs of beautiful well conditioned fish.
The heaviest fish for this week was a 5lb trout caught by Dublin angler John McKay using a Silver Daddy. Total number of trout recorded : 38
Selection of Catches
- Pat Johnston, Cavan – 2 trout at 2 ½ and 3lbs caught using wet flies at Merry pt.
- George Stonehouse, Ross – 3 trout, heaviest at 3lbs caught using Golden Bumbles and Sooty Olives.
- John Brady, Cavan – 2 trout, heaviest at 3½ using a Klinkhammer and wet Daddies.
- Derek Mathews, Wexford – 2 trout heaviest at 3 ½ lbs fishing at the Long Rock using Claret and Silver Dabblers.
- Padraig Hayes, Northern Ireland – 3 trout – 1½, 2 and 3lbs on a Pearly Dabbler, Claret Muddler and Stimulator around Plunketts pt.
- Pat Brady, Baileborough – 1 trout at 3 ½ lbs using a Silver Dabbler at the Long Rock.
It is an undisputed fact that Lough Sheelin is ‘stuffed’ with trout but these fish are the bosses and for the week gone by it seems as if the anglers were only the observers in an elaborate piscatorial game.
The Hatches
Like it or not we are into autumn and autumn out on this lake offers a series of distinct challenges that are specific to this season. Hatches have already done so or continue to taper off. Water temperature is slowly dropping. Sun angles change. All of these differences, and more, add up to a different puzzle facing the angler and one that requires a change in approach in order to keep the spirits up and a fish in that landing net.
While there were plenty of sedges around the lake, these preferred the bushes and shoreline trees with little to none venturing out on the water, so sedge fishing was a non starter for this week and a line was effectively drawn through the dry flies. Apart from the odd terrestrial – daddies and beetles, blown inadvertently on to the surface water from the shoreline, there was little or no surface food available to the trout so as a result no consistent food source up at the top to lure those fish up. Trout looking up to the surface for food was very random and they couldn’t afford to pin their hopes on any one species as it just wasn’t there and confirmation to this fact is if you spooned a trout at this time of the year, the stomach content would be made up of a jumble of different flies and crustacea.
At this back end of the season, trout on open water on Lough Sheelin are feeding on daphnia and they tend to feed in shoals, cropping the concentrations of this small insect, so fishing a team of wets should bring success but usually of the smaller fish, the 1 ½ to 2 pounders.
The Flies…
With less than six weeks to go before the close of season on Lough Sheelin, this is the time for the angler to remember that the trout are not looking for food so the need to stimulate a feeding response from them becomes even more important and wet fly certainly for this week had the edge over the dries. Trout respond best to movement than to static and because they are not looking for a specific food item (because there isn’t one) they are not selective about a fly pattern so basically for now anything goes but movement and colour are important. The old tried and tested patterns are the best and the fly pattern that has done consistently well on this lake throughout the season and rose to the top this week was the Dabbler in Claret, Olive, Silver and Ginger – the Sooty Dabbler, Claret, Silver, Pearly and Peter Ross to give them their correct titles. Tried and trusted patterns are the best bet but with longer hackles or wings to produce extra movement and a more streamlined shape.
Other popular flies were the Golden Olive Bumbles, the Klinkhammers, the Silver Invicta, the Daddies – Detached and in Silver, Gorgeous George, the Humpies, the Stimulators (particularly with a twist of silver in them), the Diawl Bachs, the Bibios, the Muddlers and Wickhams Fancy.
Everyone has their own ‘special’ and ‘secret’ pattern and understandably it’s difficult to prise these patterns out of anglers but after putting in my best investigatory effort with a consistently successful angler on this lake I was told by the said angler that he fished ‘dry wet flies’ – which made me want to walk away in despair but never one to give up I cautiously pursued this statement with other anglers who explained that it is when the dry flies are pulled under the water as wet flies, the fish are basically up on the top with the flies being blown by the wind and waves, this I’m told seems to be a favourite with older anglers.
Autumn migration
Lough Sheelin has a reputation for hefty trout and this is one of the few times of the season along with the mayfly that these fish will be on the move, for the mayfly it was because of the allure of a new food, a change in diet – Ephemera danica but this time it is because we are approaching the spawning season and these fish are undergoing physical and chemical changes triggering their inert need to migrate up the rivers. Trout do not suddenly leave the lake, heading on mass to the incoming rivers, this happens over several weeks and this is what’s happening now – a gradual getting into position. Trout will move into certain locations and hold in these areas prior to making that spawning run. The trout gather near particular areas of the lake, certain features year after year, before making that spawning journey and knowing where these congregation points are would obviously be a huge advantage to the Sheelin angler. Just as in early season, where the trout hold inshore, feeding over the food-rich shallows to gain condition and put on weight after spawning and the rigors of winter, now at the end of the season, these fish are in these same locations only it’s a lot tighter and it’s not for food, it’s a waiting game and not one for gathering food. These pockets or pods of trout may hold over certain shallows, near the mouths of spawning rivers, around certain islands and off rocky points, remember it isn’t the need for food that has driven the fish into these areas. Search and find is the key.
The Sheelin trout were doing plenty of jumps, pitches and splashes this week and theories vary considerably as to why exactly they take to the air more so at this time than at any other part of the fishing season. Experts believe that they very rarely jump for food except perhaps at mayfly time or perhaps after the odd low flying damsel. Interesting theories vary from their attempt to dislodge an irritation (they can’t scratch) maybe lice, showing off, forgetting to stop at the surface, showing off or just for joy – take your pick…
Go fishing…
A permit is required to fish Lough Sheelin. Buy your permit online at: shop.fishinginireland.info or from any of the permit distributors listed here.
For anyone interested in joining Lough Sheelin’s Angling Club – The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association please contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033.
Guides and ghillies
Grey Duster Guiding
Kenneth O’Keeffe
Tel: 086 8984172 Email: [email protected]
Lough Sheelin Guiding Services
Tel: 087 1245927 Web: www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com
John Mulvany
[email protected] 086 2490076
D.C Angling & Guiding Services
contact David @ 087 73946989
Michael Farrell
Tel: 087 4194156 or +353 43 6681298
Email: [email protected]
Michael Flanagan,
Trout and Pike Guide.
Email: [email protected] Web: www.midlandangling.com
Up coming events…
Lough Sheelin Stream Rehabilitation Competition
On Sunday October 2nd Lough Sheelin’s angling club The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association will host their annual Stream Rehabilitation Competition starting at Kilnahard from 11am to 6.0pm.
All proceeds of this event go towards the enhancement and rehabilitation of the rivers within the Lough Sheelin catchment.
The club and organisers of this competition, now in its eleventh year, welcome all anglers who wish to fish one of the best wild brown trout fisheries in Ireland and to experience first hand the magic and allure of this lake which has the potential to produce the heaviest trout in the country.
Click on the Link for a copy of the Entry form for Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association Stream Enhancement Competition www.loughsheelinanglers.ie
For details please contact Eamonn Ross @ 086 6619834/ 049 9526602 or Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033
House Rules
All anglers are required to have a Fishery Permit to fish Lough Sheelin which must be purchased before going out on the lake.
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
Lifejackets
Life jackets are required by law – SI No 921 of 2005 – Pleasure Craft (Personal Flotation Devices and Operation) (Safety) Regulations 2005.
Water rarely gives second chances and a life jacket is just that – it saves your life.
We would implore anglers and all other users to wear life jackets for their own safety as well as it being the law.
Please put on and keep on that life jacket until you are back on dry land.
