Dan O’Neill reports from the Nore…

23 May: Tough conditions water wise at eh weekend. Temperatures dropped, water very coloured but challenge accepted!

With the rivers I usually fish around my locality very heavily in flood my options were looking grim coming into the weekend. In preparation I picked up some supplies from Piscari Fly Friday evening to top up my leader box, I cleaned my fly lines and tried to make a few new creations for when the water does drop back to near normal. Looking back on my diary I picked out a few nymphs / flies that were working for me this time last year. I spent some time at the vice and got my other fishing chores completed too…

Flash olive

nymphs
Tied in preparation – Flash Olives
  • Hook : dohiku jighead size 14
  • Bead : 4mm gold slotted
  • Thread : piscari Kevlar
  • Underbody : holostrenght tinsel HS-02
  • Tail : golden olive pheasant tail
  • Overbody : olive nymph skin
  • Thorax : superfine calilbaetis dubbing olive
flood on the Nore
A dirty Nore, most of the fish were tight ot the bank

As the weekend went on I thought to myself there has to be somewhere on the Nore that I’d get a trout or at least a cast. A call to my fishing buddy Pat for a quick chat resulted in ending up on the Nore within an hour. Looking at the water I must admit I didn’t hold much hope. I had a good look in the box and chose a lovely flashy olive nymph and a yellow camo nymph to search for trout in the angry river.

nore trout
A nice trout is released

I did have a trout on my 3rd cast which I wouldn’t of spoke of if i didn’t have a witness. It was very unexpected and gave us both some hope. Looking for little pockets of water and spots near the bank that had little miniature eddys then fishing from the bank made up most of the trip.  Fishing these seams and eddy’s hard we did have some great trout none of them more than 3ft from the bank. One trout in particular stood out and what a great fight it was in the heavy water.

trout
Another trout is released

The best approach today for us was tight to the banks. The trout seemed to be lining them. It was a very quick trip and I only stayed maybe 2 hours. Nonetheless it was a very productive trip that was unexpected yet welcome.

Beginner classes

New to the club this season in the month of June are beginner classes covering various methods. Learn to make your own tapered leaders, leader set ups for different techniques. After all the set ups are covered there will be 2 hours guided tuition on one of three beats on the Nore. Spaces are limited – contact me for more details.

For information on day tickets or memberships please call me on 0857652751 or email [email protected]

Dan O’Neill
Mount Juliet Estate.

Go fishing…

Mount Juliet House is set on a large estate, which offers private fishing on 2.5 miles of the middle to lower reaches of the River Nore. Mount Juliet Estate offers fishing of the highest quality, just a short stroll away from the Manor House. There is a fishing room on site in the Manor House for your convenience i.e. for storage and drying of fishing equipment. Mount Juliet Estate can also provide the necessary equipment on site if needed.

https://www.mountjuliet.ie/fishing-on-the-estate.html