One man who can turn his hand to all types of fishing is Wexford Guide Gerard Doran of South East Angling Services, he catches some fine trout with fishing colleague Jay and reports:
With last weekends forecast looking poor due to high winds it was decided that myself and Jay would take advantage of the reasonable day that was forecast midweek. A stocked fishery was chosen that can produce some good sized hard fighting rainbow and brown trout.
On arrival the conditions looked fair with high hopes to have a good days angling ahead. Fly and light lure rods were set up and before no time we were fishing. Most fisheries (rightly so) will not openly allow or advertise any form of lure fishing but if you ask fishery owners kindly explaining the use of light guage, single barbless hooks and great care taken there is often no problem. Fishing in a responsible manner with the correct equipment it places no extra stress on the fish than alternative methods.
I started fishing the fly rod with sinking line, short leader down to a olive damsel on the point. Jay geared up his Tiro 1-12gm lure rod with a 4gm Hansen lure and was the first into a small brownie after ten minutes. Some fish were showing interest but it was decided a move was in order to a different area of the lake. We caught browns and rainbows on a regular basis to about 2lbs on lure and fly breaking for lunch with perhaps thirty fish including a first fish on the fly for Jay.
During lunch tactics were discussed and I decided to pack away the fly rod to fish lures for the afternoon. The remainder of the day produced fish almost every cast to the point where we stopped fishing several times. Typically fish took on the drop or during a pause in the retrieve. Effective lures on the day were as follows:
Metals: Ima Gun, Hansen Stripper, Small Wedges & Mepps (all modified before use)
Soft lures: Tronix HTO shads, Ecogear minnows, Daiwa dfin shads all on 3gm jig heads.
Quick hooking along with barbless hooks ensured fish were landed and returned in seconds without handling the fish at all. We estimated that we caught 100+ fish for our efforts, Not bad fishing for January.
There is a large number of stocked fisheries in all parts of the country that offer good angling from boat and shore so get out there and enjoy what they have to offer. If you would like to learn the skills necessary to successfully target rainbow trout or brown trout using lure or fly get in touch. All equipment can be provided if required.
Make a booking…
Gerard Doran,
South East Angling Services
Web: www.southeastanglingservices.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 086-3769727
