Lough Sheelin angling report May 5th – May 11th 2025
“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water”
Loren Eiseley
Now, settling into the month of May, there is a kind of invisible pressure resting over Lough Sheelin. We are entering into a phase of the fishing season here that is fraught with expectations often intertwined with disappointment and frustration – the mayfly season. “Mayfly madness” a fitting term to describe the excitement and frenzy of fishing during a mayfly hatch, when trout are actively feeding and the opportunity for anglers to capitalize on this and catch the trout of a lifetime is, allegedly a done deal.
The good weather, I think, has maybe made anglers think that the Mayfly is going to be earlier than in previous years here but that simply has not happened. There have been some good hatches but the trout with a few exceptions are not surfacing except for the odd one here and there, early morning or late evening. Daytime temperatures peaked at 21 degrees, water levels have dropped, and the water column stratified with a surface of 16 degrees and 12 degrees in the deep. The winds throughout the week favoured East which added another hurdle to good fishing. These past seven days with searing heat, bright sunshine and winds that simply would not behave made for pretty brutal fishing conditions here.
This week was all about nymph fishing. There are some very experienced fly fishers here who refuse to nymph. “Dry or Die” is a term bandied around by a few of the dry fly purists which is fine but those with that unyielding attitude simply did not catch fish on Sheelin this week. There wasn’t much room for the ‘chuck & duck’ teams of wets or spinning lures either, it was all about the nymph with a small amount of buzzer fishing using epoxies thrown into the mix. While many anglers prefer the delicacy, finesse and surface water action of dry fly fishing, using nymphs is almost always more productive. Nymphing on Sheelin works, plain and simple. Trout reputedly spend 90% of their time feeding underwater, whether this number is accurate, the point remains the same: trout do a lot of eating under the surface. A trout will rise to eat a fly on the surface from time to time without a hatch, but normally the dry fly action occurs coincident with some part of an insect hatch. There was very little surface rise, perhaps an odd trout to the spent in the evening but not worth getting excited about. Anglers reported sporadic surface plucks in the very early morning but little interest from the fish in accepting the imitations of feather & fur.
The lake was busy in certain areas throughout the week. Trout catches recorded were sparse compared to angling numbers fishing and there were more blank days and good sun tans reported than actual trout. Regardless of our scorching mid-day heats and contrary wind directions some really good trout were caught albeit all on the nymphs. The heaviest was a slab of a trout at over 8lbs by Sligo angler Paul Colreavy.
Back to the technique of nymphing on Lough Sheelin. For those wanting to catch fish and trying to convert to this fishing technique there is no doubt about it that, nymphing can be a slow, a methodical process requiring patience and attention to detail. Sometimes, the anticipation and waiting for a bite can feel like a test of endurance. For Sheelin, some effective nymphing techniques included indicator nymphing, high-stick nymphing and sight nymphing with other factors like water depth and not having your line too tight (to accommodate a take which reportedly can happen at ten mph…) coming into play. This too will pass so if this type of structured and slow-paced fishing isn’t your cup of tea then wait it out until the mayfly really kicks in and in the meantime just enjoy being out there in the wealth of wildlife – two sea eagles, an osprey, terns, coots, swallows and of course the cuckoos in the bog areas serenading anyone who cares to listen.
Now, past the first week in May the majority of anglers were fishing the nymphs with a few using teams of buzzers, mainly epoxy. The most productive was the nymph fishing which necessitated a very slow retrieve, not popular with many in this ‘frenetic and fast-paced’ world. The most successful patterns used were the Pheasant Tail, Hare’s Ear, Prince Nymph and Copper John. Variations of these were used with reasonable successes.
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. The Spent Gnat is getting a look in with a nice 5 pounder caught by Martin Ryan on a Spent Gnat pattern at Ross.
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, Gaffneys, Merry Point, Plunketts Point, Bog Bay, Stony Islands, Finea and around Church Island. All locations are wind dependant.
IFI’s tagging project is active on Lough Sheelin so all anglers are reminded to keep an eye out for a blue tag with the requirement to note the number, size of fish and to ensure trout is released.
I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Derek Evans on May 6th, long time angling correspondent for the Irish Times. Derek had been writing for the paper since his retirement as a printer and was well know for his “Angling Notes” column. I had the privalage of knowing him, our paths crossing on several angling occasions, out on Lough Sheelin and at various competitions. Everyone has their own memories of this “true gentleman” with his wealth of knowledge on angling but mine are of a man, highly proficient in angling reports and yet willing to step aside for someone who wasn’t as experienced, he would always ask me ‘do you want this one or will I’ if we were both covering an event, that courtesy and respect, which are rare commodities was always there and I appreciated him more for that. We had just one slight clash but because of it he will be remembered by me forever, I had submitted an angling report to him where I had talked about the Red Arsed Green Peter fly, the Irish Times published the article but Derek had changed my wording to Red Tailed Green Peter and chasitised me later in jest (I hope) about being uncouth. I confess I have never used his “Red Tailed” wording again retaining the familiar and historical name but every time I write Red Arsed Green Peter I always smile thinking about Derek and his failed attempt to make a lady out of me. I have included Scott Jackson’s Red Arsed Green Peter in this report as a thumbs up to this amazing man and I’m sure wherever he is he’ll forgive me for it.
Sheelin Fishing Guides:
John Mulvany johnmulvanyfishing@gmail.com 086 2490076
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.
Heaviest trout: an 8lb plus trout caught by Paul Colreavy using nymphs
Number of trout recorded: 42
Selection of catches:
Martin Ryan – 1 trout at 5lbs on a spent, May 9th at Ross.
James Barry – 1 trout at 6lbs on nymphs, May 9th.
Niall McMenamin- 1 trout at 5.5lbs using nymphs, May 9th
Paul O’Reilly – 1 trout at 2.5lbs on mayfly nymphs.
Richard McPhail – 3 trout heaviest at 3lbs using buzzers and nymphs.
Kevin Curran, Drumshambo – 3 trout at 4, 6 and 7lbs all on mayfly nymphs.
Paul Colreavy, Sligo – 2 trout at 3 and 5.5lbs on nymphs and 1 trout at 6.5lbs using epoxy buzzers.
Paul Owens, Dublin – 3 trout heaviest at 5lbs, all on nymphs.
Sean Dempsey, Athlone – 9 trout for the week, heaviest at 7lbs, all caught on nymphs.
Darren Harten, Cavan – 1 trout at 6.5lbs on nymphs.
