Home Trout fishing reports Bursting for Buzzers on Lough Sheelin

Bursting for Buzzers on Lough Sheelin

May 6, 2025

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Lough Sheelin angling report April 28th – May 4th 2025

“In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours”

Mark Twain

It has been another tough ‘spirit breaking’ week on Lough Sheelin and I’m blaming the weather. Temperatures rose to a tropical 24 degrees on Tuesday only to crash to sub-zero after dark on some nights. Easterly winds swinging from North to South featured throughout the week and really the only thing our weather here was good for was ‘drying turf’.

It has been a frustrating number of days with sporadic hatches of buzzers and only a glimpse of what is to come when a handful of mayflies were spotted at Crover mid-week. It is like some sort of Chinese torture, we know what is there, we know what Sheelin is capable of – a spectacular potential but the weather keeps dealing painful cuts and won’t let things kick off from a piscatorial point of view.

First of the season – Niall McMenamin with his Sheelin trout

I don’t care where you live, or which fly rods you use there is not a fly fisher alive who wants to wake up in the morning to an East or indeed a North wind blowing. That little proverb which includes ‘Wind from the East, fish bite the least, Wind from the North, do not go forth’ although not always correct is still a good predictor to how fishing is going to be. Both East and North bring cold air which chills down the surface, putting the brakes on insect hatches which has a knock-on effect of keeping the trout feeding at the bottom. To be a little bit kinder to the wind, it can be the angler’s friend in that a bit of chop on the water reduces visibility so fish can’t readily see the flaws going on above the water – baits and chuck and duck casts. Furthermore, the wave action along the shore often stirs up the bottom of the food chain, giving the big trout a reason to feed. Therefore, as a concession, a North or East wind might be favourable to no wind at all.

We have had long spells of hot bright sunshine this week which gave the trout another reason to stay down in the depths. Trout don’t like bright sun for several reasons but they namely stay down as there is simply no food to keep them in the upper layers. Here, during bright weather there is very little food, certainly not in sufficient quantities to hold the trout in the upper layers.

There was some stratification of the water column with a surface reading of 14 at 0.5 metres and 10 degrees at 12.5 metres. Lake levels have shrunk again after the initial rise due to last weeks rain and now that familiar washed-out hemline look is once again visible around the lake.

Anglers fished the lake every day usually in the double figures. A few used the lures targeting the fry feeders with Rapalas, Minkies, Humungous, Woolly Buggers and Cats Whiskers. The Dabblers in Pearly, Silver, Claret and Green were still popular.

Now, into May the majority of anglers here are fishing teams of wets – buzzer patterns and Epoxys. Mayfly nymph patterns were also getting a look in. Nymph fishing will never be the most popular method with most if not all complaining about the slowness required. Like it or not it cannot be over-stressed that, to be successful with nymphs, the speed of retrieve should be as slow as possible, and that contact with the flies should be maintained at all times. Best patterns were Diawl Bach, Pheasant Tail and Hare’s Ear.

Dry fly fishing was there in the mix for this week with Bob’s Bits or Shipman’s in a variety of colours proving to be successful. The best colours are claret, fiery brown, black, ginger, orange, hare’s ear, olive and grey. These colours will cover both the early buzzer rises, our scattering of spring olives and for later, the smaller sedges. Grey Dusters are very effective when the trout are rising to buzzer hatches and the scraggier the better.

Black Pennell, Connemara Black, Peter Ross, Black and Blae, Sooty & Sweep and Sooty Olive on a slow retrieve are worth trying.

Best fishing areas, depending on wind direction were the silted areas of Goreport, Corru, Sailors Garden, Bog Bay and Finea.

It is hard to get things perfect but mereologically speaking we are still in Spring – March, April and May so no need to panic yet. The season is moving on with the May blossom changing from those tapioca like bubbles to branches heavy with white flowers, the cuckoo is back in full throttle around Bog Bay and we have two sea eagles here who have successfully negotiated the winter without being shot or poisoned.

All anglers who have ever fished Lough Sheelin will unanimously agree that this is a very difficult stretch of water, this a lake which will not give up her spotted quarry without a fight so with that knowledge under your belt disappointment should never feature – a trout is a bonus.

Flies and Lures

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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.