Lough Sheelin Angling Report By Brenda Montgomery, IFI – June 16th – June 22nd 2014

The contentment which fills the mind of the angler at the close of his day’s sport is one of the foremost charms in his life …
Rev. William Cowper Prime

Charlie Hendron, Ballymena – Lough Sheelin June 2014

As temperatures soared into the mid-twenties during the week, the Sheelin anglers struggled with daytime fishing. A lethal combination of searing heat and bright relentless sunshine stretching well into the evening drove the trout down deep into the cooler recesses of the lake, this along with the fact that the trout are stuffed from the previous few weeks gluttony on the prolific hatches of mayfly made everything very difficult and more than challenging for the average trout angler.
Trout don’t like bright sunshine and intense daytime heat for a number of reasons, the main one being that the top layer of the water becomes warm, almost hot and therefore has less oxygen in it than the cooler lower regions which make the trout want to stay in the more oxygenated areas and are reluctant to surface.

Bill Chapman, Belfast with his 5 ¾ pounder caught on a Grey Wulff

It has been said that trout avoid the sunlight because they don’t have eye lens and that the bright sunlight hurts their eyes, this is however, one of those things that’s only partially true. Fish don’t have eye lens but the light from the bright sun doesn’t hurt their eyes. Common sense should tell us that because if it did then they would avoid the bright sunlight and many species of fish don’t avoid bright light.
Although some species of fish do avoid the bright sunlight, it’s not because it hurts their eyes. They avoid it for other reasons. They prefer to hide from their predators in the dark, shaded areas of the lake, or they prefer to hide as predators themselves.
Many species of fish have excellent low light level vision compared to their prey. These fish prefer to feed during low light levels. The brown trout is one of those species of fish.

The eyes of a fish are round. Their two round lenses allow them to see clearly under water. The human eye lens is flat and when opened underwater, things become blurry because of that. Brown trout prefer to feed in low light levels usually the evening or during the night time and early morning or a cloudy overcast day can be good. Trout rely on low light conditions to hide and pounce on other fish and crustaceans. They use the element of surprise. Usually large brown trout are well hidden during a bright sunny day. They will be underneath the crevice of a large boulder, undercut banks, or anywhere they can find to hide out of the direct sunlight. Large brown trout feed on other fish, nymphs and crustaceans. They don’t normally do this on the surface in bright light.

It may be over but it won’t stop there……….James Blunt

Lough Sheelin is a very beautiful lake and this week without the interruption of boat traffic it encompassed the epiphany of perfection as it stretched out in front of us, mirror calm in the early mornings dusted with a summer mist which returned to form a veil on the surface water in the late evenings.
After the frenzy of the mayfly it appears that all has gone quiet and things have gone ‘dead’ but although Sheelin appears to be having a rest at the moment, a lot is happening out there for those anglers who want to look. Most of the fishing action took place during the evenings, throughout the night and into the early hours. This lake this week saw some serious hatches of sedges, the biggest recorded for many years.
The Murrough ‘the large red sedge’ is starting to make its appearance felt and fished well after 9pm. This lake’s fishing is totally controlled by the weather and this week a north wind blew down the lake on some evenings which badly affected the sedge and murrough fishing basically causing the fly life to disappear. A change in wind direction can make a hatch seemingly vanish or retreat into the shoreline.

The mighty Murrough and its artificial imitation
There were big hatches of caenis but for caenis fishing the water has to 100% calm, it has to be warm and the best time is very early morning and late evening, any hint of a wind and caenis just doesn’t happen. It’s very difficult to get the timing right but when things click this sort of fishing can be heart stopping.
There were big hatches of mayfly in certain sheltered areas but because evening temperatures dropped the spent did not go out although on some evenings a number of 4lb plus trout were caught using the Spent Gnat. As was the case in the previous week, the trout appear to be searching out the spent so this fly would still be recommended as a strong contender to catch fish for a few more weeks.

A Sheelin spent gnat – June 2014

The Sheelin trout are wary, choosey and picky and although they do break surface occasionally, because of the weather they are mainly feeding on the bottom and so will need some serious enticement to come up to the top.

The Sheelin angler has to work and work hard to get it right.

Good flies to use are really anything that has red in it and abit of silver threaded through. When fishing a team of wets in a wave a winning combination would be a stimulator as a top dropper, something with claret and silver as a middle fly and perhaps a golden olive bumble on the point. The sedge fishing is coming into its own now so small sedge patterns are beginning to work well. 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.

Hoppers fished on a slick can be very good with the balling buzzer in the late evenings fished around Bog Bay and Goreport bring in some successes as well.
The flies most used this week by anglers were the green Mayfly, the Spent Gnat, a small Brown Sedge (12-14 or smaller), the Bibio, Watsons Fancy, the Fiery Brown Sedge, the Chocolate Drop, the Sooty Olive, the Wulff (grey, royal and green), the red tailed Green Peter, the Welshman’s Button, French Partridge, the Golden Olive Bumble, the Stimulator and a selection of Dabblers.

4lbs 13oz trout caught in Chambers Bay

Silver Dabbler and Peter Ross Dabbler (good pattern for fry feeding
www.finneysflies.com

Frank Doherty, Navan with his 4 ½ lb prize and one of those flies was responsible!

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.

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

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

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

The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association will be hosting a Youth angling day in July. This popular event will include fly tying, fly casting and trout fishing followed by a Bar B Q. For further details contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033

A 3lb 6oz trout being carefully released

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

Most of the fish featured in these angling reports are returned carefully and safely to the lake
It won’t work if you are not 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

So please put on and keep on that life jacket until you are back on dry land.
Caoimhe Sheridan, Cavan – getting it right

Lough Sheelin Guiding Services (www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com) 087 1245927

Michael Farrell @ 087 4194156  Telephone: +353 43 6681298 Email: [email protected]

Rising Trout Photography by Oystein

Most of the fish featured in these angling reports are returned carefully and safely to the lake
The heaviest fish for the week was a trout of almost 5lbs caught by Mark Wilson, Whiteabbey, Co.Antrim using a Lawrence Finney Green Peter Muddler with legs fishing in Gaffneys Bay.

Total number of trout recorded for the week: 27
Selection of Catches

Graham Smith, Cavan – 2 trout at 2 and 2 ½ lbs, both caught on wets using a Golden Olive Bumble and French Partridge.

Oliver Reilly, Cavan – 1 trout at 3 ½ lbs on a Spent Gnat at the back of Church Island on June 20th.

Martin Wilson, Antrim – 4 trout heaviest was 4lbs using a Lawrence Finney Spent Gnat pattern and 3 trout weighing in at 1 ½ to 2 lbs on a Green Peter.

Mark Wilson, Antrim – 1 trout at 2 ½ lbs using a Claret Elk hair sedge.

Brenda Montgomery IFI