Lough Sheelin Angling Report March 17th – March 23rd 2025
‘I have died everyday waiting for you’
A thousand years (Christina Perri)
Many anglers use St Patrick’s day as their invisible marker for that first sojourn out on this lake. The questionable reasoning being that the weather apparently picks up mid March and becomes a little warmer but Irish weather is notoriously unpredictable so I’m not sure if this is just a plausible excuse to self for not facing the cold and metallic grey of Lough Sheelin pre March 17th.
The first few days of the week gone by were cold with biting winds stealing any warmth from the sun but then on Wednesday, the wind dropped and there was a welcome heat which continued until the weekend when rain dampened everything down again and the familiar chill factor returned. An east wind dominated each day with that old fishing saying ‘wind from the east, fish bite the least’ lurking in the background of our minds.
The middle of March is not the time to expect too many rises, deep and slow is the rule of the day and certainly it was the depths that produced the heavier results with the weight of the week tipping the scales at 15lbs, an impressive 78cm caught by Beata Kielak using lures.
The water temperature crawled over 8 degrees and sat at 8.2 from top to bottom with little stratification regardless of a brisk wind churning the water last Saturday. With the onset of milder conditions, small hatches of duck fly appeared in the sheltered coves and inlets heralding the beginning of all things ‘fly fishing’ and the resurrection once again of teams of Black Pennells, Bibios, Connemara Blacks, Mallard & Clarets, Alexanders, Muddlers and Sooty Olives – Sheelin’s traditional wets used to attract buzzer feeding trout. But this little chink of warmth has only just appeared so it will take consistent day time heat to rise the water temperatures, preferably into the magical double figures to get our sluggish cold stupored fish to start looking upward in search of a different kind of diet. March is undoubtedly a slow month for the fly angler- one step forward and two back.
The shallows are still the major attractions to the shrimp and hog louse feeders but going on stomach pumped contents of a recently caught (and released) fish, the trout are also feeding on caddies of damsel and murrough so imitations of these might be a good option.
Trout aren’t in the habit of taking insect larvae this early in the season so flies imitating little fish prove more catchy than nymphs. A number of anglers have reported trout ‘bashing fry’ in the shallower areas of the lake. Nymph fishing for Sheelin comes into its own next month and May, this choice of fishing isn’t for everyone and certainly not for the faint hearted impatient angler which reminds me of one particular local who told me in all sincerity that he would prefer to ‘lick the entire M7’ than fish with nymphs.
Most of the trout caught this week were on lures, silver and gold being the favourite colours. The Humungous, Minkies, Snakes, Blue Flash Damsels and Woolly Buggers worked well – streamer and attractor patterns that create a pulsating movement that really get the trout going. A Hare’s Ear is good when the trout are feeding on shrimp in the warmer shallows. This is a shrimp shaped pattern and can work very well when the trout are locked on to this food. Although I’d like to talk about teams of wets, the successes for the past seven days were mainly down to the fry patterns, large lures and the Dabblers. The Dabblers have been consistently great on Sheelin, fished on an intermediate or slow sink line when the fish are reluctant to surface. A windy day which loosens up the shrimp, snails and hog louse from their hiding place, attracting the trout to mop them up. In this scenario, Dabblers work really well, a combination of a gorgeous George in a dark green colour on the top and two Dabblers behind or a Dabbler in the middle and a minkie on the point. The best colours for the Dabblers early season are Golden, Pearly, Claret, Peter Ross and Fiery Brown Olive both light and sooty.
The best fishing areas for this month and into early April is mainly 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.
Each year, March ushers in celebrations of St Patrick’s day, the start of spring and of course the chance to fish Lough Sheelin once again but March also comes with the ominous warning – “Beware the Ides of March” a familiar quote form Shakespeare’s ” Julius Caesar” in which a soothsayer delivered this infamous warning to the Roman emperor before his assassination. Now there are no assassinations on Sheelin but the ides are there in the form of plenty of challenges and bad days during this month, it is something to be mindful of that Sheelin is a difficult lake to fish and sometimes the attractiveness of early season with the promise of big hungry trout can pale into frustration when it just doesn’t happen but to quote Sheelin’s Michael Kelly ‘it is called fishing not catching’.
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: [email protected]
John Mulvany [email protected] 086 2490076
Competitions
The Ronnie Cox Cancer Trials Ireland competition is being held on Lough Sheelin from Kilnahard pier on the 30th March. Fishing from 11am to 6am. This is a Catch & Release competition. Prizes for longest fish plus loads of other prizes. Photo of measured fish to be provided. The competition proceeds will be donated to cancer trials Ireland. They carry out research and trials on new treatment methods for all types of cancers. Any donated prizes greatly appreciated. Contact Eamonn Ross @ 086 6619834.
Heaviest catch of the week: 15lb trout, 78cm caught by Beata Kielak using lures
Number of catches recorded for the week: 48
Selection of catches:
Mareks Zaborovecs, Wexford: March 22nd, 1 trout at 3lbs on lures.
Egars Kowalski, Dublin : 1 trout at 5lbs on lures, fishing at the back of Church Island.
Karol Fiedorowiez, Poland: 6 trout over 6 days, heaviest at 6lbs, all caught on lures.
Blazej Prasinowski, Uk: 5 trout over 6 days, heaviest at 4lbs on lures fishing from Chambers to Crover.
Nikita Ksutjko: 15 trout since March 1st, heaviest weighing in at over 6lbs, all released.
Radoslaw Adamczyk, Meath: 2 trout fishing lures at the back of Church Island, heaviest at 3lbs.
Janislaw Kaminski, Wexford: 1 trout at 4lbs, March 22nd using lures at Holywell.
Arkadiusz Wisniewki, Westmeath: 2 trout on March 20th, 3 – 3.5lbs caught on Dabblers.
Sobieslaw Filipowski, Dublin: 1 trout at 4lbs using a Humungous, fishing at Crover, March 22nd.
Czeslaw Gajus, Dublin: 4 trout for the week, heaviest at 5lbs caught on Minkies and Woolly Buggers.
