Dan O’Neill’s Angling Blog – The River Whispers 5:

This week, I speak to Adam Twiss from Colorado, who talks a bit about his angling journey. Anthony ticks some new species off his list and gives some tips on how he went about doing it. Dry fly fishing is starting to heat up a bit so I take out a guest in search of trout on the fly. A recent photoshoot brings memories flooding back.

Adam Twiss emailed me some time ago and was very eager to get on the River Nore and see what it had to offer. After our trip, I asked him what he thought of the River and the fishing.

“I have been wanting to tick Ireland off the bucket list for some time now. I have had friends that fished the Nore with Dan and suggested I go for a cast. I was unable to bring my rod and gear, but Dan kindly lent me his gear. The river looked pretty and had no shortage of trout surfacing and hugging the bottom above the bridge. We started out dry- dropping and had many trout on a size 22 quill nymph. As time went on, we moved into slightly deeper water and found that a slightly larger nymph worked better. A pheasant tail on a size 18 was the favourite by far. I really wanted to try to swing wet flies, as I have read about it, but I have never tried. Dan gave me a 10ft 5wt and set it up for swinging wets. Dan made a few casts to give me the jist of it and then i took over. I must say it’s a very relaxing way of fishing, and I found myself drifting away in a world of my own. I wasn’t in that world too long, and I got a hit. It startled me a little, but I managed to auto-pilot the strike, and I was in. A beautiful brown trout on the wet fly, what a reward. I certainly will be back to Ireland to fish and really enjoyed fishing here”.

Giving the fish of his local waters a rest for ten days Anthony decided he wanted to try for something a little different on holidays. Mullet were on his list since June of this year. Here is how his first mullet trip went.

“I love watching mullet swimming about. Everyone I meet fishing for them says it’s difficult, so I didn’t expect to catch one on my first trip. The area we stayed in on holidays had some streams nearby that filled with water when the tide came in a little. I thought this might be a good spot to try and to research a little. There were many small mullet around and other fish that I didn’t know what they were. My grandad told me that bread was a good bait for them so i got a loaf from a nearby shop. I dampened the bread, mushed it up, and added a tin of sardines. Mixing it all up, I was going to use that to try to attract the mullet and get them to feed. We threw in some in a spot i picked, after about 5/10mins a lot of garfish were swimming around and some sea bream. Every now and again there was a flash just under the water. I knew this was something a bit bigger, so I put some bread on a float rig set at 18 inches. It took about 5 minutes, and the float went down quickly. I struck and caught my first mullet. It fought really hard and didn’t want to give up. It wasn’t huge, but I really enjoyed catching it. I also caught some sea bream that weren’t very big but fun to catch. I got to tick off some fish from my list on holidays. I will be back next year hopefully for tuna”.

There is something very special about watching the water surface for a rise. Watching the flies swarm over the water brings me back to my early days. Looking at these flies and their fantastic shapes and styles of flight. Recently, I got to share this with a client on the Nore.

“Is there anything that is more relaxing than sitting on the edge of the riverbank watching the flies as they cloud up and down the river? Looking up a beat and watching a trout sip a fly. The feeling of urgency to get to that fish sometimes is best overcome as there are many more between you and that trout, they just haven’t shown their whereabouts yet. Today I had the Cadence 8ft 6in 3wt rod with me and dry fly pack. I headed to pebble beach with a plan to fish up by the sally’s in the various pools. I had some flies tied by Kevin Oates with me, which I was confident in. With my client Ralph, we slowly headed closer to the river’s edge. Watching for little features that caught our eye. We made several casts to a small drop-off we could see. The fly landed perfectly and slowly moved in the current, only to be met by an open mouth. A beautiful brownie sipped in our offering. Ralph didn’t disappoint and set the hook perfectly, followed by some acrobatics by the brownie. Some fish followed, and each was as exciting as the next.”

Recently I took part in a photoshoot for Marriot Bonvoy and American airline Delta, it will appear in there in-air brochure so I had been practicing my casting for a couple of weeks in advance. The Irish weather didn’t play ball, and it was overcast and a little windy. A perfect fishing day but not so good for getting the perfect picture. The day started with some close-up pictures and some fly casting. It was great to be able to share some casting with the crew and make it a fun day as well as “work day”. I have done many photoshoots for similar things to this over the time I have been angling. I remember my first fishery manager Matt Bolger, bringing me down the river with what was then a state-of-the-art camera and taking a few pictures and saying “right that’s perfect let’s go”, a 15min job. Now, there were different light rebounds, fancy cameras and 15 crew. I wonder what matt would have made of this scene and smile warmly at the response I think he may have had. I really enjoyed the day and got to meet some people who love what they do and their passion shone through, I even got some tips on how to take a better photo.

With the dreaded off-season approaching, I will be starting my Saturday casting clinics again. I will also look at the correct cleaning and storage of your equipment now that it may be put away for a few weeks. For information and availability, contact me on Facebook messenger or at the details below.

Ph: 0857652751

Email: [email protected]