Lough Sheelin March 1st – March 5th 2023
‘Believe you can and you’re halfway there’
Theodore Roosevelt
Lough Sheelin opened its waters to a brand-new fishing season on Wednesday March 1st. Early season fishing is never for the faint hearted and 2023 didn’t disappoint, testing the metal of its anglers with near Baltic conditions hovering around 3°C early morning and seldom rising to double figures. A thin east wind prevailed for those first few days, an unpopular wind direction with the reputation of putting fish down. The water remains cold at just over 6°C, from top to bottom and levels are low compared to last year.
March 1st – meteorological spring didn’t feel much like spring with a dead chill, grey skies and the promise of sudden stratification with a blast from the Arctic promised. Regardless of what the weather throws at us there are always those anglers that are chomping at the bit to get out on the water and really nothing will stop them.
The first day saw sixteen boats out on the lake and there was some good fishing to be had for some. Thomas Doherty from Kells landed four trout, heaviest at 3lbs using a Humungus and Peter Ross Dabbler set up and there were several other nice trout recorded. It all seemed to be taking off and the stir of excitement among the Sheelin angling fraternity was palpable. However, Sheelin is Sheelin and as the days passed the bubble burst somewhat and angling catches became more sporadic. Fishing on Lough Sheelin follows an all too familiar pattern where soon the words ‘hard’, ‘difficult’ and ‘punishing’ start to sneak into the vocabulary. Evo Smyth caught a lovely trout around mid-day on the first day, but this was after four hours of hard slog and so Sheelin starts as it means to go on, taking no prisoners and making its anglers work hard for their piscatorial gold.
It is said that trout fishing can be simple if you get a handle on what the fish are eating, once you have that, then you are supposedly halfway there to catch a spotted quarry.
The favoured areas were the shallows. Freshwater shrimp and hog louse are the main invertebrates for March and shrimp in particular are found amongst the rocks and stones in shallow water. Hog louse like the shallows too but they can also be found in slightly deeper areas alongside rock features and reed beds. Other bottom-feeding organisms such as chironomid larvae, snails and caddis will also be on the menu. The bigger trout, of course, will be on a mission to regain condition after the rigours of spawning so more than likely will be after fry – a big meal with little effort. Catches of trout reflected this in that it was the lures that worked best rather than the traditional wet fly set ups. Humungus and Minkies featured heavily and scored the highest successes for this first week into the season. The best was to fish only one fly with the length of the leader at a maximum of two meters. The other most successful patterns were without a doubt the Dabblers in Claret, Olive, Fiery Brown, Golden Olive, Peter Ross or Silver.
The best areas for fishing were Merry pt., Gaffney’s Bay, Inchacup, Derrysheridan and from Chambers Bay up to Crover.
Insect life is almost non existent although there were some buzzer hatches outside Orangefield but nothing substantial enough to tempt the trout upwards.
On Sunday, March 5th, The Lithuanian Fishing Club in Ireland – ‘GoandCatch’ held their first competition of the year on Sheelin. This competition attracted forty anglers from all over Ireland and despite cold conditions forty eight trout over 48cm were caught and released.
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.
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
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.
Competitions
The Kilroy Cup will be fished on Friday, March 17th from Kilnahard pier from 11am to 5.00pm. Prizes will be for the heaviest fish and entry is €30. 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 or from the IFI office at Kilnahard on the morning. Contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033
Recorded catches : 78
Heaviest trout was caught (and released) by Svjatoslavs Gucevics weighing in at almost 6lbs and 60cm in length
Selection of catches
Thomas Doherty, Kells – 4 trout, heaviest at 3lbs caught on a humungous and Peter Ross Dabbler. March 1st.
Craig Newsome, Wicklow – 2 trout, heaviest at 3lbs on lures.
Lionginas Kscenavicius, Dublin – March 4th, on lures, 1 trout at 2.5lbs.
Andris Donoskevics, Cavan – 1 trout at 48cm on lures.
Andrius Bikelus with fishing friend Audrius – March 5th, 6 trout with a total length of 274 cm.
Arnoldas and Kamil – 5 trout with a total length of 230cm on lures.
