Lough Sheelin Angling Report – March 21st – March 27th, 2022

‘Some people dream of success… while others wake up and work hard at it’

‘I thank whatever god may be for my unconquerable soul’ Invictus, William Ernest Henley

It has been another punishing week for the anglers fishing Lough Sheelin. The weather which had temperatures on par with Spain, hit day-time highs of 18°C plummeting to sub-zero after dark. The water was flat calm on most days and when the wind did pick up a little, it was all easterly in direction which didn’t do the already taxing fishing conditions any favours. Water temperatures have risen to 8.2°C for the surface to 7.9°C on the bottom of the lake (readings courtesy of IFI’s Data Buoy). Water levels are dropping leaving a rope of broken reeds on the lake shore with that washed out faded hemline effect along the perimeter of the water, edged with a generous scattering of bleached stones.

Lough Sheelin’s easterly winds

Cold water, patches of discolouration, flat calm and lethargic fish makes early season trout fishing here no walk in the park and certainly not for the faint hearted but still our anglers battle on. Boats were sparse during the week, but angling numbers did pick up at the weekend particularly Sunday. Wednesday was the pick of the days with some trout of over 5lbs being caught on lures and a few on attractor patterns. The Rambler fly was responsible for a lovely three pounder over at Ross. The best areas for producing fish was the Southern side of the lake from Curry point round to the Sailors Garden. The best time to fish was between 3 and 5pm.

Sheelin perfection

The water is still cold and because of this trout and everything they feed on moves in slow-motion. Most feeding is occurring within inches from the bottom. Trout are moving to a maximum of 30cm to a lure or attractor and then going straight back down again, at speed, therefore keeping the fly or lure in the strike zone and moving at the right speed are the only ingredients for success.

Back to you

Lough Sheelin is dominated by the fly-fishing fraternity so giving space to write about large lures is perhaps an unpopular thing to be doing but the fact is that it is the lures that are predominantly doing the business here. Early season has always been about those large patterns – Zonkers, Minkies, Humungous, Snakes, Cats Whiskers, Streamers, Wooly Buggers, Panthers and Rooster Tails. Because of the cold the trout want to get value for movement so they will strike at something they think is a substantial snack – effort for exertion. Fry are small and fat and fast, so it makes sense from an angler’s point of view that the lure retrieve imitates this – fast. Conventional retrieves like a figure-of -eight or short foot-long pulls, simply aren’t swift enough to make the fry pattern look real. Lures like Zonker, Snake and Minkie are made of fur which is soft and wavy, so with each pull, the fly flattens as it is brought forward and then it blooms upwards when it stops, causing an enticing pulsating motion which is hard to resist for the trout. Fur and Feather imitations are the way to go.

The Snake

There were a few flies caught on teams of wets – buzzer and duck fly patterns but most of the catches for now, at the end of this first month of the season, has been on the lures.

There is hope appearing on the horizon for the fly angling purist as spirals of buzzer and duck fly hatches pivoted into the air when mid-day temperatures soared to an unseasonable 17°C and 18°C. There were a few olives coming off the water but there are still no major hatches yet to entice our selective trout to move upwards. Once the water temperature rises to that magical piscatorial number of 10°C all that nutritious forage of nymphs, insect larvae, water boatmen and adult chironomids will start moving and with them our elusive trout.

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), Minkies in grey, silver, black and white, black and green Snakes, Boobys, Blue Flash Damsels, Cat’s Whiskers, Titanic Bug Black, Woolly Buggers and Zonkers.

Bloody Butcher (K.Sheridan)

Duckfly fly patterns include: Black Pennell, Connemara Black, Blae & Black, Watson’s Fancy, Bibio, Mallard & Claret, Duckfly, Sooty Olive, Cock Olive, Peter Ross, Fiery Brown, Claret Dabbler and Golden Dabbler, Hoglice patterns, Coch-y-Bondhu, Duckfly Pupa and Emergers. Sizes 10-14.

Buzzer pupae & duck fly patterns

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 always actively encouraged on the lake

Catch & Release

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 7.2 lb trout caught by Mullingar angler Ciaran Newman on a Minkie

Total number of trout recorded: 15

Selection of Catches             

  • John Brady, Cavan – 1 trout at 3lbs using a lure at Ross
  • Andree Nazilk, Maynooth – 1 trout at 5lbs using a Minkie at Church.
  • Laimis Pavilionis, Navan – 2 trout at 3lbs and 4.5lbs using Snakes and Zonkers.
  • Vincent Campbell, Wexford – 1 trout at 2lbs on a Woolly Bugger at the back of Church Island.
Gerard McCreesh’s Sheelin