Well 2022 will not be remembered as a vintage mayfly season by any means, although reports from other lakes suggest the poor hatch was not limited to Corrib. Hatches could only be described as patchy at best. Weather conditions certainly did not help either, with windy weather prevailing for most of the month, indeed quite a few days were completely unfishable due to high winds.
Tom Doc Sullivan had a great report on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/tomdocsullivan) and while he acknowledges the poor mayfly hatch, his clients still enjoyed some good fishing at times and managed to boat some fine trout. As he says himself “2022 May was tough, no point in putting it any other way. It was one of the toughest Mayfly seasons for a while. This was a pity because it was a lot of anglers’ first trip back after two years of lockdown. We do have to remember that Corrib and Mask are wild fisheries and are subject to a whole number of reasons and causes that affect our fishing, some are obvious and some aren’t. So when they’re not on song sometimes we have to accept it.”
“The best action I had on Corrib interestingly was at the end of May start of June. One rod for four days had 16 trout, this included three trout in or around the 3lb mark and another 4 in or around the 2lb category. Most of these fish were on dries and it’s worth noting one of the days was a blank, 1st of June, as it was a scorcher. The lough was quiet then and I think this had a bearing too as we could rest drifts.”
Peter Driver from Piscarifly was a guest of Tom’s during May and shared a nice video of one of his trout going back strongly.
Caenis
Now that the mayfly is over, anglers’ attention switches to the next hatch – in this case the Caenis, which hatches off very early in the morning and can provide exhilarating sport on dry fly for those early risers. The windy weather hasn’t helped, but Larry McCarthy from Corrib View Lodge says that fishing has been very good this week, with fish being caught every morning. Given a spell of settled weather (will we ever get that?!) the Caenis fishing should provide good early sport for the next couple of weeks at least.
