Once again it’s a story of a quiet lough, as the 5km travel restrictions have meant fishing is only available to a few lucky souls. However, life goes on, and the annual duckfly hatch was in full swing last week, with hatches pouring off in mild, breezy weather. Of course the weekend brought torrential rain and yellow wind warnings, so even the weekend anglers living within 5km were unable to get out. So the trout have had a good time of it, with plenty to eat and few hooks in those duckfly to annoy them.
Good wet fly sport
Padraic Fahy of Birchall Guesthouse & Angling (www.birchallonloughcorrib.com) has been out a few days with friends and enjoyed good fishing to duckfly patterns. Fishing with fellow guide Patrick Molloy they had fish up to 3.5lbs over Tuesday and Wednesday around Birchall. On the previous Sunday (21st) he fished with Mark Regan from Moycullen and they had 6 fish on wet fly in the Lime Island and Saddles areas.

Larry McCarthy of Corrib View Lodge (www.corribangling.com) has also been out regularly, catching good numbers of fish on most days, with trout feeding well on duckfly. Larry reckons the biggest hatches were last week, and the hatch will be finishing up soon. He even reports some early olive hatches, and landing a trout on a dry olive during one of these. Pics to follow.
Great fish on the lower lake
With lockdowns restricting travel, international coarse angler Cathal Hughes from Moycullen has turned his attention to trout fishing over the past year. Son Cian, however, appears to have the beating of dad when it comes to flyfishing. Over the last couple of weeks, Cian landed his first trout on a buzzer.

On Tuesday 29th, Cathal and Cian got out for a few hours in the evening, and while Cathal was still putting his rod up, Cian was into a fish on his first cast – a cracking 6lbs bar of gold that will take some beating. To make matters worse, Cathal reports that was the only fish of the evening!

Outlook
The forecast is for bitterly cold weather next week, so the advice to anglers within 5km is get out this weekend and enjoy it while you can. From the 12th, anglers living within Co. Galway will be able to fish Corrib. By that stage we should see olives hatching off in good numbers. Until then we can all dream of fish like Cian’s!
