Lough Sheelin Angling Report, March 7th – March 13th 2022

By Brenda Montgomery, IFI

‘Forget all the reasons why it won’t work and believe the one reason why it will’

 

Mercurial magic

‘Why do we do it..’ the opening lines of an AIB sponsorship advertisement about the sport of camogie and the hardship involved in the training when there is often no hope of winning anything. This finishes with the reasoning that it is because ‘it is in our blood and part of our people’ – well, the same could be said for early trout fishing on Lough Sheelin, anglers driven by the need to fish despite the reality of daily blanks and near baltic conditions.

This is only the second week into the season, it is still very early but for the past seven days anglers fishing this lake have been made very aware of the month they are in – March ‘in like a lion and out like a lamb’.  The lion for this week came in the form of persistent south to south easterly winds, some nightly frosts and freezing morning fog accompanied by showers of hail, sleet and heavy rain.

Local anglers here are fond of rattling off the lines from an old angling rhyme ‘winds from the east, fish bite the least, winds from the west, fish bite the best’, but the wind direction itself may not be as important as the accompanying climate factors. Wind from the east normally signals that bad weather is approaching. When the wind blows from this direction, the barometric pressure drops and the decrease in air pressure can cause the fish stomachs to shrink slightly.  It could be enough that the trout’s will and need to hunt decrease.  Winds from the south and west tend to improve fishing.  It’s one theory anyway and certainly, the predominance of the easterlies did nothing to enhance the fishing here.

Fishing Lough Sheelin for the week that’s gone by has certainly not been for the faint hearted but nonetheless a few boats graced this temperamental water each day, producing enough trout catches to keep an angling reporter happy.  While large lures certainly dominated the first week of the season, this second week saw an edging in of wet fly fishing – line set ups of small buzzer patterns, March Browns, Sooty Olives, the Kate McClaren and Bibios.  In those rare milder moments when the sun actually graced us with its presence, there were small scatterings of buzzer and duck fly hatches confined to the very sheltered bays and inlets and anglers reported encouraging nips and tugs using wet fly and nymph combinations.

For the trout angler, March is a very uncomplicated time of the season to be fishing. Hatches are simple, confined to tiny black buzzers and the odd duck fly and also the nymphs which are now becoming unsettled off the lake bed, moving around and heading for the surface – all enticing trout food. There isn’t the myriad of confusing flies and their stages that is the situation later on. Patterns that cover these small category of insects will cover most trout on the hunt for flies.  In limestone lakes, like Sheelin, trout will be spending a lot of their time grubbing around the bottom and in the weeds for food, freshwater shrimp and hog louse are the main invertebrates on the menu.  Freshwater shrimps favour the rocks and stones in shallow water and although hog louse can be found there too, they can be also found further out where the weed beds are.  Using fly combinations of march browns (supposedly taken for the water louse, Asellus), sooty olives, mallard & claret, Sweeney Todd, hare’s ear and Watson’s fancy or any of the traditional wet fly patterns can produce results.  The best fishing areas are mainly along the rocky shores and exposed points in Chambers Bay, along Kilnahard shore, Merry pt., Arley point, Curry point, Ross bay and the south shore of Derry Sheridan.

This second week in saw the reentrance of the Dabblers in Golden, Pearly, Claret, Silver and Fiery Brown Olive.  These X-factor attractor patterns in size 10 worked well along the shorelines with the winning combination of two dark green dabblers on the top and middle and a minkie on the point brought in a lovely three-pounder for James Smith, Cavan on March 10th.

Trout at this time of the year are feeding hard to regain condition after the rigours of spawning and the restrictive food supply of the winter.  The large attractor lures like the Humungus (in silver), Zonkers, Snakes, Minkies and Boobys are working well as they create the appearance of a large easy meal for a hungry cruising trout. These lures are used to attract the fry-feeding trout, as they offer the chance of a large meal without expending too much energy in water that still hovers just above 6 degrees.  The Minkies are more a refined version of the Zonkers but both are made of fur that is soft and wavy, so with each pull, the back of the fly flattens as it is brought forward, and then blooms upwards when it stops causing an enticing pulsing motion. If the artificial looks vaguely like food and moves like food, it may get a hit. It’s not just the choice of lure, the retrieve is of paramount importance and this can vary from day to day or even hour to hour.  Retrieves can vary from fast and deep, using a Di3 the lure can be striped back at normal pace, whereas with a heavier line, short fast strips with the odd pause in between works well too.  Pearly bodies and grey mink were popular.  A Silver Humungous on an Intermediate, Di3 to Di7 varying from a fast retrieve in windy weather to a slow in calmer climes.

Given that fish may come up for a fly, but rarely down, and that a Di3 will sink to the depths given time makes it the most versatile. Di5 and 7’s will be of little use when the fish are holding at 3ft which will happen as water temperatures rise.

Roll on April as I find most anglers seem to prefer the wait until after St Patrick’s day to make their first foray on this lake.  The local angling club – the LSTPA are hosting their first competition of the season on March 19th, The Kilroy Cup so many anglers will use this as a kick-off point to their fishing season.

 

The lures that worked this week were the Humungus (in black with a thread of silver, gold and rainbow with a bit of red mixed through the black marabou tail), Minkie’s in grey, silver, black and white, black and green Snakes, Boobys, Blue Flash Damsels and Zonkers.

A few trout were caught on teams of wets, the most popular setups included Black Pennels, Connemara Black (size 8), Sooty Olives, Hare’s Ear, Claret Bibios, Green Peter, Golden Olive Bumble and the Glister Ollie.

The Dabblers have always held their own throughout the fishing season on Sheelin, and their tentative reappearance in the capture reports this week was a bit of a relief with the Silver, Pearly, Green  Sooty, Hare’s Ear, Red Hackled and Fiery Brown being the most popular. A size 6 Claret Dabbler fished as a top dropper using a Di3 or Di5 can be good for taking early season feeders here.  The Fiery Brown Dabbler is a very versatile fly representing freshwater shrimp in early season, duck fly in Spring, and sedge for the summer.

There were no ‘best areas ‘this week on Lough Sheelin.  The wind dictated where anglers went and fish were caught ‘here and there’.

Long and lean – released

 

A rocky start – early season Lough Sheelin

 

Looking up – Lough Sheelin’s sea eagle

 

For those anglers who like occasionally to look up instead of down, one or possibly two white-tailed or sea eagles have been spotted adorning the skies above the lake.  These apex predators are the largest eagles in Europe with an impressive 8ft wingspan and can reach speeds of up to 70km per hour.  So, if it’s a day of blanks, look up to see these majestic residents. 

 

Happiness is a Sheelin trout

Competitions       

The Kilroy Cup will be fished on Saturday 18th of March from Kilnahard pier from 11am to 5.0pm.  Prizes will be for the heaviest fish and entry is €20.  This competition has been set at a 16-inch size limit with a 2 fish bag limit.  There will be no permits available for sale on the pier on the morning so please buy your permit online beforehand from shop.fishingireland.info or from the IFI office at Kilnahard on the morning.

Contact 087 9132033 / 086 6619834

Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 949 which strictly prohibits from June 14th, 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 1st to June 16th (inclusive).
  • To fish or to attempt to take or to fish for, fish of any kind other than during the period from March 1st to October 12th in any year.

 

A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times

 

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.

The biggest fish for the week was a 6 ½ lb trout caught by Kildare angler Alexaandrs Berzins using a grey and silver minkie as the point fly.

Total number of trout recorded: 26

Selection of Catches             

Pat Magee, Northern Ireland – March 10th, 1 trout at 2lbs on a small black buzzer pattern at Curry Pt.

Mikolaj Dabrowski, Dublin – March 9th, 2 trout at 4 and 5lbs on Minkies and Humungus.

Jan Zielinski, Navan – March 8th, 1 trout at 4 ½ lbs using lures.

Juliste Wieczorek, Dublin – March 10th, fishing the Western shore on lures, 3 trout averaging 3lbs.

Gabryjel Majewski, Dublin – March 11th, fishing mid lake, 2 trout at 4 and 6lbs on lures.

David Kelly, Cavan – using a golden Hared Nymph fishing at Chambers, 1 trout at 1 ½ lbs.

Miervaldis Kalnins, Longford – 1 trout at 3 ½ lbs fishing Tonagh on streamers.

Raimonds Liepins, Longford – 1 trout at 3lbs fishing the Sailors Garden using lures.

 

Ready for off, Tonagh, Lough Sheelin