Early March saw wet and windy weather, but any milder day saw small hatches of chironomids starting to appear, and wet fly fishing picked up, with anglers putting away the trolling rods. There was a spell of mild dry weather just after St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th, which saw the first big hatch of the season on Corrib as the duckfly hatch got underway. Good hatches were reported from Oughterard all the way down to the lower lake, with fish moving everywhere.
Mark Driver from Piscari Fly guiding and tackle shop in Kilkenny visited for a day in mid-March, and fishing buzzer patterns, he landed a couple of nice fish and met a few more, calling it a good day with nice conditions and good sport.
Larry McCarthy from Corrib View Lodge reported great hatches during that week, with plenty of fly congregating over the islands in the calmer conditions, earlier than normal according to Larry. He reported good fishing both to buzzer and dry fly, with the weather particularly suiting fishing dries.
Fishing guide Kevin Molloy of Baurisheen Bay Boat Hire (tel. 087 9604170) also observed great hatches of fly, and said there was a great show of fish, plenty feeding at the surface and decent fishing, although bright sunshine made it a tad less easy. Although conditions worsened in the last week of March, affecting duckfly hatches, there was still decent wet fly fishing to be had, with Peter Ross, various dabblers and Hare’s Ear patterns working well. Kevin had Bernie McMahon out one day and they had 3 fish to the boat. Olives were just starting to appear at the end of March, and Kevin and Daithi Ryan had good fishing to wet fly patterns on Good Friday, with 8 fish to the boat between them.
Fishing guide Tom Doc Sullivan (www.tomdoc.com) reported some small hatches in the Doorus area, but overall considered it a poor duckfly in that part of the lake. Despite poor hatches, wet fly fishing was reasonably good; Conor Maguire fished with Tom for 2 days and had 9 fish on wet duckfly patterns. There was good buzzer fishing on occasion when conditions allowed, with fish to 4.25lbs coming to the boat.
Go fishing…
