Home Trout fishing reports Buzzer bonanza bring big trout to Sheelin anglers

Buzzer bonanza bring big trout to Sheelin anglers

May 5, 2023

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Lough Sheelin angling report April 28th – May 5th 2023

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.”

Ashley Montagu

Marcus Gageby, Dublin with his 57cm trout

This was an exciting fishing week on Lough Sheelin, marked by superb catches of heavy trout averaging from 3lbs up to the heaviest at 8lbs being landed. On May 1^st, fishing friends Martin McDaid and Fergal O Connor caught seven trout on buzzer patterns, four tipping the scales at over 5lbs. These anglers then hooked up and landed two trout at precisely the same time, struggling to keep them away from each other for 15 mins, and eventually landing both trout which weighed in at a hefty 7.5lb and 6.5lb respectively.

Water temperatures rose to 13 degrees with daytime temperatures peaking at 19. The best fishing days were the bank holiday Monday and Tuesday May 2nd, reflected by ideal conditions of warmth and soft westerly breezes crimping the lake’s surface. Trout love buzzers, these tiny midges reputedly accounting for over 50% of their diet. This is buzzer time and Lough Sheelin rose magnificently to the occasion.

Early to mid week saw enormous hatches of buzzer particularly in the siltier areas of the lake – Sailors Garden, Finea, Goreport, Bog Bay and Rusheen. Anglers reported plenty of balling buzzer. The balling buzzer is a term used by fishermen to describe the occurrence when a mass of male flies surrounds a single female in an attempt to mate. This ball of food is very tempting to the trout who are always on the look out for a big meal with very little energy expenditure. Anglers imitate a balling buzzer by using large fuzzy looking patterns which are played on the surface so that the imitation bounces enticingly on the surface hopefully triggering a response from the feeding trout.

The Americans refer to buzzer fishing as something of a black art and for some anglers it can be a bit like that – mysterious and maybe a little sinister. The Sheelin trout were rising in large numbers to the egg laying buzzers but although they were very visible and audible, for some they weren’t that easy to catch. When the trout go on to the dries it can be tricky to get a hook up and also if there are masses of food on the surface as well as underneath it can really be a question of pot luck whether a trout picks the artificial or not. Lough Sheelin is stuffed full of trout food and this is the time of year that the doors of the larder seem to have swung open and the choice for our piscatorial friends is huge.

The best methods for catching trout this week were either using the Washing Line method or the Bung.

The washing line method is a generic term used to describe a floating point fly (dry buzzer or hopper) with nymph patterns on the droppers. This method allows the angler to fish multiple flies in the action zone, it covers the surface and the sub surface – adults and the copious nymphs down below. A simple range of flies in a range of sizes is all that is needed to cover a variety of depths depending on the conditions.

The Bung method is basically a floating pattern that can hook fish as well as acting as an indicator to register a take. The idea is to cast the flies out as far as possible and allow the chosen flies to settle to their optimum depth. After this has been achieved, a steady figure of eight retrieve is employed.

This week, when I asked every angler what he caught his trout on, he immediately replied ‘Buzzers’ and when you push for more this might be followed by an uncomfortable extension of ‘those little black ones’. So for the benefit of those who are having difficulty with the buzzer patterns on Sheelin here it is: –

For trout taking adult buzzers, a popular fly used was the ‘F’ fly which is also good for imitating adult sedge. Another good pattern was the hoppers. The adult flies can be fished static but retrieving a dry fly with a slow figure of eight worked best. Towards the end of the evening rise when the fading light makes it difficult to spot the fly, a gentle retrieve can be very effective and a change to a larger fly can often land an end of the day fish before night closes in.

Black Pennell, Connemara Black, Peter Ross, Black and Blue, Sooty Olive among others were successful, with the flies being retrieved very slowly. A small black dry fly to imitate the egg-laying female worked well if the fly was kept moving.

Surface feeding fish will take a duckfly Pupae, or Sooty Olive (Size 12). A small Claret & Mallard, Fiery Brown or Dunkeld may also take fish. For the evening rise the angler must determine if the trout are feeding on adult flies as they return to the water to lay their eggs, or if they are taking a pupa as it emerges. For feeding fish on adult flies returning to the water, fish a Sooty Olive size 12 on the bob, a Duck fly on the middle and an Olive Variant on the point. For those fish feeding on pupae as they emerge, fish a Sooty Olive and a couple of Duck fly pupae. In either case, the flies are fished on a float line and cast in the path of a feeding trout. The line is not stripped back. All that is required is an occasional twitch of the rod tip to give the flies life.

We are hurtling towards the mayfly season here with a report today of a sighting of a single mayfly close to the ring of rushes, down the western side of the lake.

The buzzer fishing while excellent now will soon be replaced by the most eloquent insect of them all – Ephemera danica.

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.