‘The pursuit of deceiving a trout excites me to the point that when I am fishing I feel moments of transcendence. It makes me feel whole…it is recreation but also re-creation’.
John Suhar
Lough Sheelin, gaelic for ‘the lake of the fairy pool’, a magical and mystical place full of wild brown trout, an anglers paradise, an ideal place to wet a line in May, it all sounds so good but this lake carries with it another name, unofficial yes but more realistic for this week at least – in the angling world this lake is also known as’ the heart breaker’ and certainly over the past seven days many hearts were broken.
The mayfly – Duffers Fortnight whatever you like to call it, is a time when supposedly trout rise to the surface in a frenzy of feeding on the Greens or mayflies and then in the evening there is reputedly another piscatorial gorging session on the spent gnat. Theoretically this is what is supposed to happen on a good trout lake such as this one, but no matter how much we want or pray for this we cannot make it happen and for this week Lough Sheelin’s anglers had their angling skills tested to the last as this lake’s trout refused to give themselves up easily and fishing was tough, hard and challenging.
The Hatches
This was a week were emotions fluctuated wildly from huge anticipation and excitement to the depths of despair and disappointment. Many factors swung into play influencing the catch factors. The first one, a focal point in every Irish person’s conversation was of course the weather and this week the weather was as they say in Cavan ‘cruel’. Nightly frost persisted chilling down surface temperatures and slowing down hatches, for it is a rise in temperature that triggers mayfly nymphs to rise to the surface and commence their metamorphosis into that most elegant of species – Ephemera dancia – Lough Sheelin’s mayfly. Winds and cold coupled with heavy showers, some of hail stunted and stalled Sheelin’s mayfly. Every sort of weather was thrown at the Sheelin anglers and none of it very conducive to good mayfly fishing. Thursday evening was amazing in that one minute anglers were all fishing in one direction in accordance with wind and fly hatches and then within seconds the wind had changed and everyone was facing the wrong direction necessitating an abrupt 180 degree turn around. Along with the weather, this lake itself is an obstacle to good rises of trout because Lough Sheelin is full of trout food so there is no need for the trout to chase surface food when all the dinners are down below particularly with the rising mayfly nymphs adding an extra dimension to the menu. If there were poor quantities of food available to the trout sub surface naturally they would surface in abundance to feed. So these were the main dilemmas on this lake for this week at least.
Despite all the difficulties, trout anglers I find and in particularly around mayfly time are a hardy and resilient bunch, not easily deterred, in fact they are a faction to be admired at times. Crossing the lake a few days ago, battling with a particularly bad burst of rain I came across an English angler lovingly drawing a trout into his landing net, pulling up alongside him, I was impressed by his care and attention with his fish and it was a great fish, thick from head to tail with beautifully clear almost translucent spots. After release, this angler informed me that every waking hour during the winter he dreamed about Sheelin and its trout and that it was the only thing that kept him going in life. This was not an old man but his enthusiasm and fanaticism was amazing and I left him wondering was there something within my brain that had not developed that prevented me from reaching such heights of elation on catching a Sheelin trout.
Because we are at the busiest time of the fishing season here on Lough Sheelin there were high numbers of anglers fishing this lake. The mayfly hatches every day were impressive, so good that one angler fishing off Derrahorn told me that he was at times almost afraid to breathe for fear of being smothered. The hatches were excellent but the length of time of them was short lived as cold and thin easterly winds made the fly disappear quickly.
The fall of spent each evening was totally unpredictable time wise lasting maybe as short as 20 minutes and extending to a maximum of 40 if you were lucky. The trout were rising to the spent but time was of essence and spent went out as early as 3pm to as late as 9pm so basically nearly if you turned your back you might miss it, there was no consistency here.
There were impressive hatches of buzzer and buzzer fishing was excellent when evening and night time weather conditions behaved themselves. A dry Buzzer pattern yielded the best results. In general the best spent times were from 7.30 – 9.30pm but there were no guarantees due to unfailing drops in evening temperatures.
The Catches
The angling catches are high, over 100 fish recorded but this is because there were a lot of anglers out. Weights averaged 2 ½ lbs with the heaviest coming in on Saturday by a Scottish angler – Scott Aitken at 8lbs 1oz on a wet Mayfly. The bar is set high on Sheelin for weights and traditionally a 2 pound fish can be dismissed as not worth mentioning and even 4 pounders are not in general deemed as an impressive weight.
The heaviest fish for this week was a trout 8lbs 1oz caught by Scottish angler Scott Aitken on a wet Mayfly pattern.
Total number of trout recorded: 123
Selection of Catches
- John Bradley, Dublin – 1 trout at 6lbs using a Grey Wulff.
- Peadar McAvinney, Monaghan – 5 trout heaviest at 4 ½ lbs caught on a Stimulator off Church Island.
- Vincent Roche – 1 at 4lbs 3ozs on a Spent Gnat pattern.
- Gavin Rogan, Downpatrick, Belfast – 2 trout at 4 and 5lbs, May 20th, 5lb caught on a Spent Gnat pattern.
- David Nevin, Dublin – 1 at 4lbs on dry Mayflies.
- Barry Fox fishing with Andy Duncan – 9 trout on Friday May 19th – 5 during the day pulling wet May fly patterns and 4 in the evening on Spent Gnat patterns.
- Martin McCoy, Northern Ireland – 3 trout heaviest at 4lbs.
- Joe McKay, Co.Antrim – 1 trout at 4 lbs on a Lough Arrow Mayfly.
- Maurice McDevitt, Donegal – 2 trout at 3 & 4lbs on Spent patterns.
- Stephen Clarke, Portadown – 2 trout – 1 at 3lbs on a wet Sedgehog and 1 at 4 ½ lbs on a Spent Gnat.
- Maurice McCarnn, Derry – 1 trout at 3lbs on a Spent Gnat pattern.
- Steve Phillips, London – 3 trout 1 at 5lbs on a Claret Dabbler, 2 at 3 and 2 ½ lbs on a Gosling.
- Chris Paris, Derry – 1 trout at 2 ½ lbs on dry Mayflies.
- Cathal Rush, Northern Ireland – 6 trout, heaviest at 3 ½ lbs using wet Mayfly patterns.
- Bill Chapman – 2 trout weighing in at around 3lbs on wet Mayfly patterns in Kilnahard Bay.
- Pat Foley, Monaghan – 2 trout on Spent Gnat patterns, heaviest at 5lbs
There are a few instances in the mayfly life cycle when they are at their most vulnerable to trout and these are all great opportunities for our anglers to imitate these stages with flies.
Although there were some good rises, the window of opportunity was narrow indicating that the trout were feeding mainly sub surface so being in the time of the season we are at we are talking about fishing the mayfly nymphs which start their journey to the surface and are an easy target to the trout – nymphs in green and cream are best.
The second instance of angling opportunity is when the mayfly is on the surface (or subsurface) during their emerging from their exoskeleton so emerger patterns are necessary here. When they are floating on the surface as duns, getting ready to fly off, during the egg drops and of course when they fall to the water as spent, these are all the vulnerable times that the angler needs to target with a good imitative pattern. The imitation of the spent gnat pattern is particularly important and it is the configuration of the tying that over rides the colour although black and grey are the colours that seem to work well for Sheelin.
The Flies
The most successful flies this week were the Mayfly nymph patterns, wet Mayfly patterns in greens with mixes of brown and white mingled through, the Mosley Mays, the French Partridge, the Goslings, Dennis Moss’s Ginger Mayfly, Soft Hackle Mayfly Emergers, CDC Mayfly Emergers, the Wulffs (grey and royal), the Spent Gnat patterns (a predominance of black worked best). Other patterns catching fish were the Dabblers (Claret, Green and Silver), Stimulators and Bumbles.
I am reliably told that ‘the most successful anglers are the ones who can present the flies best and it’s not about the choice of flies. You can have the best flies in the world but if your set up is wrong no fish caught. You could have the worst flies but a good set up and catch fish. The only way to find out is by being out on the water, being able to spot the mistakes and learning from them. That’s why people don’t like given much information out.’
With mayfly madness in full swing here and anglers in a tare to get out on the lake, it can be a thankless job collecting information for a report but small incidences make it good and one came my way last week when I had the pleasure of meeting Dennis Moss author of ‘Irish Rise’ and ‘Trout From A Boat’ a true gentleman and patient with it when I produced my copies for him to sign when all I’d say he wanted to do was to get out on the water.
There are a number of species in the mayfly family (Lough Sheelin’s is Epherma dancia). Some species exhibit great synchronicity in their hatching. The North American species Hexagenia limbata hatches in huge numbers from the Mississippi every year. The total number of mayflies in this hatch is estimated to be around 18 trillion – more that 3,000 times the number of people on the earth…………
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.
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
Join the Club…
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]
Christopher Defillon
Tel: +33 68 596 4369 Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.defillon
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 3946989
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
Lifejackets
We would implore anglers and all other users to wear life jackets for their own safety as well as it being the law.
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.
Please put on and keep on that life jacket until you are back on dry land.
