Cold winds the killer – Lough Sheelin Angling Report April 4th -10th

‘PERSEVERANCE IS FAILING 19 TIMES AND SUCCEEDING THE 20TH’

Julie Andrews

The fishing on Lough Sheelin this week reminded me of both band title and lyrics of the song by Lost Frequencies ‘Where are you now’, as this lake repeatedly threw curve balls at its anglers and the trout were as elusive as ever. North Westerly winds dominated on most days and although not the worst to cope with, still skewed things sideways for angling as they turned gale force, gusty and fresh on several occasions. Bitter south easterlies resulted in blanks for most who ventured out on Sunday.

Now, into April, it is typically the cold winds that are the killer, especially from the North or East as they effectively clobber any hatches by chilling the surface film and sending the emerging nymphs and possibly buzzers back down to wait another day.

Tuesday was the pick of the days with the weight of the week – an impressive 4kg, being caught on a lure at Wilsons. Sheelin was its usual punishing self by producing one trout in one place and then playing ‘dead man’ by refusing to give any more, forcing anglers to continually move from one area to another. Water temperatures both surface and on the bottom are hovering just above the 9°C which apparently is still too cold to encourage trout to move upwards to feed – 10°C and over is supposedly the magical figure. Lures are still ruling the roost with flash vibrant colours and slow retrieves producing the piscatorial goods.

Without wanting to sound like a broken record, most of our trout are still glued to the bottom feeds of asellus, freshwater shrimp and snails. Fly anglers who think ‘big meal’ when fishing this early in the season are making better catches with their lures than those using small fly patterns. The odd sunshine induced warm spell did bring on insect hatches but the Sheelin trout are still, more or less feeding most of the time close to or on the bottom this lake. Bright jazzy lures and streamers fished slowly are bring the occasional strike by a lethargic but hungry trout. Statistically trout spend most of their time feeding on bottom dwelling insects and small fry and Sheelin is no different, 75 per cent of their diet comes on or near the lower regions of the lake. Anglers need to cut through the clutter and focus on what works and for the past seven days this has been the lures in the form of Zonkers, Minkies, Wooly Buggers and Humungus.

There has, however, been a subtle change here in that buzzer patterns – epoxy and emerger are starting to feature in the returns. Daytime temperatures did increase and with this heat came copious hatches of the dark early season buzzers known generically in Ireland as duck fly, swarming in masses overhead in the more sheltered areas. The buzzer adults are also known as midges with other interesting variations like sand flies/lake flies/blind mosquitoes and muffle heads (to name but a few) hatch all the year and because of this ‘365’ availability, the classic profile of the buzzer nymph or pupa, is indelibly stamped into the trout’s memory bank so even on days when there’s not a buzzer to be seen, if the trout are in the upper regions of the water they will find it hard to resist a nicely presented artificial.

Although these tiny insects are around all through the year the main event is Spring – the end of March and April. Buzzer fishing flies imitate the emerging form of a midge fly. The skinny buzzer patterns i.e. the Epoxy Buzzers imitate the pupa moving and sinking in the water as it heads for the surface to hatch, the best way to achieve this movement is sparseness, so small, slender and skinny is the way to go, the less body volume the more freedom evoked. Still in the depth of lure fishing it is important that the same technique of stripping is not applied to buzzer fishing. It is a static or slow drift for the buzzers. Popular fishing teams for buzzers were a Stimulator fly, Black Buster Buzzers, Flashback and Epoxy Buzzers.

Next week promises a welcome increase in temperature which could result in some good buzzer fishing and perhaps the appearance of some early olives. Trout are starting to follow but are still finding it hard to leave the full larder down below. Few fish are being seen but this will change as the season progresses, Easter is coming and with it perhaps the resurgence of the Sheelin trout.

Some of this week's action

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The flies that were used this week were the Dabblers – Silver, Pearly, Green, Sooty, Hare’s Ear and Fiery Brown. A size 6 Claret Dabbler fished as a top dropper using a di5 landed a 2lb plus fish at the weekend. The Fiery Brown Dabbler is a very versatile fly representing freshwater shrimp in early season. When you don’t know where to start with fly selection, think seasonal colour patterns. Early Spring flies tend to be darker, matching the colours of their environment, light flies typically appear in warmer weather.

Fly patterns include: Black Pennell, Connemara Black, Blae & Black, Watson’s Fancy, Bibio, Mallard & Claret, Sooty Olive, Stimulators, TC fly. A good point fly is the Jersey Herd. Other flies were the Cock Olive, Peter Ross, Fiery Brown, Claret Dabbler and Golden Dabbler, Hog lice patterns, Coch-y-Bondhu, Silver Invicta, Glister Ollie, Duck fly Pupa and Emergers. Sizes 10-14.

Successful lures and Streamers were large and bright – Snakes, Humungus, Muddlers, Blue Flash Damsels, Titanic Bug Black, Cats Whisker, Boobys, Wooly Buggers, Clouser Minnow,  Minkies and Zonkers.

There are few nymph anglers fishing Lough Sheelin at the moment but the one or two that do try this method are use Pheasant Tail and Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear.

‘I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core’.

(W.B Yeats)

Competitions

McDonald Cup 13th of August

LSTPA Stream enhancement competition 2nd of October

Interprovincial Championships 20th of August

Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 949 which strictly prohibits from June 14^th, 2017 onwards:

• The taking of any brown trout of less than 36 centimeters.
• For a person to fish with more than 2 rods at any one time.
• To fish with more than 4 rods at any one time when there is more than one person on board the boat concerned.
• For a person to take more than 2 trout per day.
• All trolling on the lake from March 1^st to June 16^th (inclusive).
• To fish or to attempt to take or to fish for, fish of any kind other than during the period from March 1^st to October 12^th in any year.

• Lough Sheelin Guiding Services (www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com)  087 1245927
• Christopher Defillon [email protected] (+33685964369) evasionpecheirlande.net – https://m.facebook.com/christopher.defillon?refid=0&fref=seaperch#
• Michael Farrell @ 087 4194156Telephone: +353 43 6681298 Email: [email protected]
• Grey Duster Guiding, Kenneth O’Keeffe, Tel: 086 8984172 Email: [email protected]
• John Mulvany  [email protected] 086 2490076
• D.C Angling & Guiding Services – contact David @ 087 3946989

A catch & release policy is always actively encouraged on the lake

Please remember All anglers are required to have a Fishery Permit to fish Lough Sheelin which must be purchased BEFORE going out on the lake.

Total number of trout recorded: 19

Selection of Catches             

Damien Willis, Cavan – 1 trout at 2 ½ lbs caught on a Claret Dabbler, April 5^th.

Fabrice & Jules Mell – 6 trout, heaviest at 8lbs on lures.

John Dunleavy, Castlepollard – 2 trout, heaviest at 3lbs using a Silver Invicta and a Glister Ollie.

Kristers Kalnins, Dublin – 1 trout at 5lbs on a Minkie.

Gustavs Eglitis, Dublin – 1 trout at 4.5lbs on a Cats Whisker.

Miervaldis Berjins & Labrencis Peterson, Longford – 3 trout, heaviest at 6lbs using Wooly Buggers and Zonkers.