Lough Sheelin angling report March 31st – April 6th 2025
‘The simple truth is that in order to become good, you have to be obsessed’
Yngwie Malmsteen
Lough Sheelin has been haunted all week by easterly winds, unforgiving winds which ripped across the water like some unrelenting banshee. I have heard variations of that old fishing rhyme ‘wind from the east, fish bite the least’ over a thousand times and while it is not always correct, this little proverb is a good predicator.
What we must remember is that wind direction doesn’t cause fish to bite, but the reason behind the wind direction often does.
An easterly wind is a cold wind which chills the surface, putting fish down and slows or prevents an insect hatch. An east wind usually blows after a big cold front. A rapid drop in an already struggling water temperature is a shock to the entire aquatic ecosystem, especially the bottom of the food chain, so it shouldn’t be surprising that this wind direction is a kiss of death for catching fish. While our persistent east wind was not, thankfully, a death knell for all anglers this week, it did affect the catch rates over the past seven days and most struggled with reports of poor fishing and frustrating blanks.
As winter tries its very best to hang on for as long as possible, sunny days finally got this lake’s temperature into the magical double figures – a surface temperature of 10.23 with 10.1 degrees registering at 12.5 metres. The nightly frosts are doing their damage by slowing down our transition from Winter to Spring.
Anglers using high-tech and sophisticated equipment have reported that the trout, although visible in excellent numbers, are coming up through the water column but are now turning back when they see the lures, which is interesting as it shows we are on the cusp and the trout are finally transitioning from lures and moving their diet to the stages of fly life.
There were small hatches of buzzer in the hottest part of the day, visible in sheltered bays, in more silted areas and tight to the shoreline but although present this little chironomid hasn’t taken off yet to be of interest to the trout. There will be plenty of other insect hatches as the season progresses but it is the appearance of the buzzer/midge which causes the first major bit of excitment for the trout angler and many wait until these hatches take off in earnest to go out fishing on this lake. As the days lengthen and the weather continues to warm up buzzer activity will increase significantly building up a sufficient density to lift the trout off the bottom region and into the freely available zone feeding which is the chironomid pupae. Trout will feed on the buzzer pupae in relatively shallow water, no more than 10-15 ft deep. Buzzer pupae are easy to target as they lie suspended somewhere between the bottom and the surface, waiting to make that slow ascent to hatch. It is difficult not to get bogged down in an enthomology lesson but to be successful anglers have got to know the rough pattern of fly hatches. It is still too early for emergers but the epoxy buzzer patterns which imitate the pupae will soon be pushing the lures off the top position.
Although we are progressing in the right direction for the fly anglers, this week it was still all about the lures and large fly patterns – Black & Gold Humungous, Silver Humungous, Black Minkies with a flash of silver, Snakes, Woollly Buggers and Cats Whiskers using heavy lines which were reasonably successful in bring the heavy weights up from the lower levels of this lake.
The Dabblers are still there with Eamonn Ross catching a nice trout of over 3lbs on a small Claret Dabbler. The best colours for this attractor pattern are Claret, Pearly, Silver, Green, Peter Ross and Silver.
The best fishing areas for this week have been along the rocky shores and exposed points – the shallows were the water is warmer and the food – shrimp and hog louse is plentiful and easy to access.
The best areas are Chamber’s bay, Kilnahard shore, Holywell down to Crover, Merry point, Curry point, at the back of Church Island and the south shore of Derrysheridan. Some trout still hold the depths of water though, so blind casting if you can cast your line where you think the fish might be and retrieve might trigger a take. Daily choices of fishing spots are governed, as always, by wind direction.
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
Grey Duster Guiding
Kenneth O’Keeffe
Tel: 086 8984172 Email: trout@live.ie
John Mulvany johnmulvanyfishing@gmail.com 086 2490076
Number of trout catches recorded: 37
Heaviest trout recorded for the week: An 8lb trout caught by Kells angler, Tommy Doherty on a Humungous fly using a Di3 sinking line.
Selection of trout catches:
Arijandas Zabilavicious, Meath: 1 trout at 6lbs on lures.
Jonas Jasiulevicous, Portlaoise: 2 trout heaviest at 3.5lbs using lures.
Artem Novikov: 1 trout at 65cm on lures.
Valdas Drivinskas, Dublin: 1 trout at 7.5lbs using colourful lures at Sailors Garden.
Vytautas Andrulewicz, Dublin: 2 trout, heaviest at 5lbs on Pearly and Silver Dabblers.
Gediminas Donelaitis, Offaly: 1 trout at 4.5lbs using lures at Finea.
Zygimanutas Galinis, Meath: 2 trout, heaviest at 3.5lbs, all using lures, mid lake.
Azuolas Klukas, Co.Kildare: 1 trout at 6lbs on Silver and gold lures.
Saule Mazeika, Dublin: 2 trout, heaviest at 4lbs on silver baits.
Vakare Vitkas, Dublin: 1 trout at 3lbs at the back of Church.
Arizandas Zabilavicius: 1 trout at 5lbs, April 6th at Sailors Garden on a 70m Silver Ruki.
