Lough Sheelin Angling Report By Brenda Montgomery, IFI June 20th – June 26th 2016

‘In these sad and ominous days of mad fortune chasing, every patriotic, thoughtful citizen, whether he fishes or not, should lament that we have not among our countrymen, more fishermen.’ Grover Cleveland

A 4lb beauty caught by Gene Brady, Cavan using a Murrough pattern

Fishing has been slow and sluggish for the past week on Lough Sheelin. Angling numbers dwindled to single figures during the day with only the evening and after dark hours seeing some sort of a pickup with fishing on this lake.
Lough Sheelin for now is in a kind of no man’s land, caught between the dregs of the Mayfly spents and the beginning of the sedges and for many anglers thrown into this transition is the European Soccer Championship and the political turmoil over Brexit.

The Catches…

The longest day of the year Tuesday June 21st when the sun rose at 5am and set at 10pm was marked spectacularly by Wexford angler David Trent with the weight of the week, a 6 ½ trout, plump and in great condition caught off Stony on a Murrough.

Dara Murtagh with a trout of over 3lbs caught on a Pearly Dabbler off Stony in the late evening

Andrew Brown, Dublin with his trout caught on a Spent Gnat

Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 790 which strictly prohibits

• All trolling on the lake from March 1st to April 30th (inclusive).

• From May 1st to June 15th – no trolling between 7pm –6am and no trolling under engine between 6am – 7pm and

• June 16th – October 12th – no trolling under engine between 7pm – 6am.

• No trout less than 14 inches should be taken from the lake

Rain isn’t a problem for 5 year old Noah Breen Johnston

It won’t work if you aren’t wearing it…
Water rarely gives second chances and a life jacket is just that – it saves your life, so we would implore anglers and all other users for their own safety as well as it being the law under

SI No 921 of 2005 – Pleasure Craft (Personal Flotation Devices and Operation) (Safety) Regulations 2005

The heaviest fish for this week was 6 ½ trout caught by Wexford angler David Trent on a Murrough at 11.30pm.

Total number of trout recorded 32

Selection of Catches

Dara Murtagh, Cavan – 1 trout at 3 ½ on a Pearly Dabbler in late evening fishing off Stony

Peter McArdle, Dundalk – 2 trout at 3 ¾ and 1 ½ lbs using a Spent pattern

Pat Brady, Cavan – 2 trout at 2 and 2 ½ lbs caught on small brown Sedge patterns.

Eamon Connors, Ardee – 1 trout at 3 lbs caught on a Grey Wulff.

John Givney, Cavan – 1 trout at 4lbs caught on a Diawl Bach.

James Kilroy, Dublin – 2 trout, heaviest at 2 ¾ caught on a dry sedge.

Mieszko Bienkowski, Dublin – 3 trout, heaviest at 4lbs on a Diawl Bach.

Antoni Lukomski, Navan – 2 trout at 2 and 3lbs using nymph patterns.

Please remember All anglers are required to have a Fishery Permit to fish Lough Sheelin which must be purchased BEFORE going out on the lake.

A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times

 The Hatches and the Flies…

Lough Sheelin although not alive with anglers at the moment is alive with insect life, with the bays and inlets in particular sporting impressive varieties of sedges, alder flies, buzzers, olives, some spent and the odd terrestrial inadvertently blown onto the surface water.
The terrestrials may have aquatic relatives but none intentionally spend any of their life cycles in the water. Bees and wasps, houseflies, butterflies, caterpillars, spiders and so on are not important to the trout except for those that occasionally fall into the water. These ‘land’ bugs comprise less than 1% of the food consumed by the trout during a season. However, on occasion they are what the fish are after.
All this is an entomologist’s heaven and rest assured the trout are coming up to the surface for their share of that food heaven, albeit sporadically.

Sheelin’s Ephemera danica

This I am told reliably is the ‘hungry month’, when the jamboree of the mayfly is over and the trout are fat, full, disinterested and worst of all very selective. Sheelin follows a very predictable pattern and traditionally and true to form for this year, this lake has slide into a sluggish and seductive peacefulness, a time which only the real trout advocate appreciates and the word fishing takes on its true meaning – dictionary defined as ‘ to search for or attempt to catch something under water’. During the week an Athlone angler made enquiries about how the fishing was on Lough Sheelin, trying hard not to sound apologetic I informed him that few anglers were fishing and the general consensus was that things were tough going, my angler cut across me by informing me that he was a fisherman, he wanted to go fishing and that actually catching a trout would be a bonus.
The weather was unpredictable this week with heavy showers and unwelcome dips in temperatures. Dusk yielded the best fishing results but there were a few trout pulled during the late afternoon. From 11pm onwards there were some excellent rises of trout particularly in Chambers Bay, Stony Island and from Inchacup round into Ross Bay, these trout were feeding on buzzer but were stubbornly disinterested in pro-offered skating Buzzer and Grey Duster patterns.
There were some hatches of Sheelin’s Great red sedge – the Murrough late in the evening and some nice trout up to 5lbs were landed using imitations of this large sedge. The ideal time was at dusk and using short pulls to imitate the natural as it leaves a big wake as it flutters and agitates on the surface. Fished as a single fly either static or skated across the surface on a floating line after treating the hackle with floatant was the most successful way to go.

Sedge time is exhaulted by many as being the cream of the trout fishing season and June itself is an all systems go month when along with sedges, small fry, buzzers and nymphs of many kinds are relished by the trout. A size 8 Pheasant Tail Nymph with a varying coloured thorax will often take a trout feeding on the newly hatched roach and perch fry more so than a specifically tied fly imitating lure.  A good plan is to fish them in very slow draws on a long cast and floating line.

The trout are mainly feeding in the evening and for this week it was the buzzers that that seemed to be on the top of the menu.
Buzzers, midges or chironomids – non biting mosquitoes, call them what you will are plentiful on Sheelin particularly on those sultry overcast days. They start life as a bloodworm and live in soft muddy places. These blood red worms get their colour from oxygen and haemoglobin held within their bodies. When they get near to hatching they lose this red colour and take on a more sombre appearance. They make their way from the lake bottom up through the water columns to the surface by a wriggling swimming action. They swim towards the surface then stop either to catch their breath or to wait for the right hatching conditions. When they stop wriggling towards the surface they slowly sink back down before swimming upwards again. When they eventually reach the surface they hang from the surface film and hatch out in to the adult buzzers or midge. Bloodworm fishing can be very good on Sheelin but July is a better month for this and we need more constantly humid days and of course anglers must head for the silty areas not the rocky shallows. The three cast combination for Sheelin’s bloodworm has to involve red for this lake’s larvae is predominantly dark blood red with only a smattering of translucent grey colour – red on the point, dark fiery brown in the middle and claret on the top dropper is a winning combination A few bloodworms have made an appearance here but the weather hasn’t been right, it’s too early and the trout are on another diet sheet for now but this window of fishing opportunity should be watched closely.

‘Oh what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive’.

– Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)

Buzzer hatches can be spotted by either looking for the adult fly or finding the shucks in the surface film. Dry adult buzzers waking the surface is difficult fishing, flies such as the Bibio, Soldier Palmer and Muddlers, scratching the surface to add life work well on Sheelin. Shipman’s and Bob’s Bits are good for in the surface buzzer fishing, just sub surface are the wets and spiders and sub surface we are into the Epoxy patterns. Buzzers don’t move much so fish static which means all stages from emergers down should be fished this way.

G & H Sedge

Named after well-known fly anglers John Goddard and Cliff Henry, this is one of the best dry patterns of all time. The duo made a study on the silhouette of sedge flies as they skittered over the water’s surface when trout would chase and eat them.  Using buoyant deer hair, they sculpted the material until it matched the insect’s wing and body shape.  They ended up with a nearly unsinkable fly that when retrieved produced a realistic wake that trout loved.  When the caddis fly hatches, the emergent adult tries to swim as fast as it can to the safety of the bank.  This frantic dash for survival creates a v-shaped wake.  Large sedges like the Murrough can be imitated by this pattern but it pays to have it in many different sizes as it is a great fly to use to imitate any dry or emerging sedge.

The flies most used this week by anglers were the Murrough, a Small Brown Sedge (12-14 or smaller), the Raymond, the Bibio, Watsons Fancy, the Fiery Brown Sedge, the Chocolate Drop, the Grey Flag, hoppers the Hare’s Ear Sedge, the Sooty Olive, the Wulff (grey and in green) the red-tailed Green Peter, the Sedge Invicta, the G&H Sedge, the Black Pennel, the Claret Pennel, the Welshman’s Button, a variety of Bumbles, the F fly and the Sweeney Todd. The Klinkhammer is a deadly fly with the Raymond, Dunkeld, Silver Invicta, Silver Invicta (with a red body), the Cock Robin Dabbler and the Kelly Fox Squirrel Spent all going that extra mile and bring the trout up.

Alder Fly, Lough Sheelin

The larvae live in the silt and emerge as an adult in the end of June. They aren’t an insect that interests the Sheelin trout much but an imitation can occasionally get a result.

Campto Buzzer, Kilnahard, June 2016

Lough Sheelin’s Sedge

Lough Sheelin’s Damsel Fly

Lough Sheelin is blessed with an abundance of these insects. Anglers report that trout take these flies, I’m not convinced but still another one maybe for the fly box.

Competitions

The McDonnell cup will be held on Saturday August 6th on Lough Sheelin, fishing from 11am till 6pm from Kilnahard pier.. This competition has been fished catch & release for the last four years, which proved to be very successful. Measures will be provided for all boats with the cup awarded to the longest fish. This competition is open to members of the club only but membership is available on the day

There will be lots of prizes on offer and this day is generally viewed as a great day out.

For further details contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033.

A look around Sheelin…

Brenda Montgomery IFI