Mariners back in action with the league outing number 9 of 12 on good Friday and the weather was fantastic with big crowds walking on the white sands for the west Donegal sunset.
Fifteen anglers lined the beach all glad to be back out and test the gear before our club trip away next weekend to Mayo along with president Joe Biden.
Groups of anglers huddled around chatting as bites were slow but a jumping rod on the tripod announced a nice double of a turbot and a seatrout for Stefan. Shortly later and another fine few trout were landed by Dessie and Sean before another for Stefan. Longer casts found a coley for Cara and a dog for John.
Stefan Martin with a fine seatrout
Flounders were scarce and mostly small turbot were caught but a 23cm flounder for Pat Byrne was enough to take the longest flattie prize of €45.
Another good trout for Sean Harte
2nd place prize of €45 was won by John Cunningham with dog and turbot.
And 1st place on the night winning €90 was won by Stefan Martin with a few trout and turbot.
And one for Dessie McGinley
Lucky peg draw was won by Noel Kennedy at the weighin.
Well done to everyone… Next stop Belmullet next weekend on the club trip.
Yet another successful week for anglers out on Carrowmore Lake. The Easter week saw more anglers venturing out on one of Ireland’s most productive spring salmon fisheries. A total of 8 salmon were reported (6 released) averaging 8lbs.
Amongst the successful anglers were Eamon Giblin (7lbs.), Brian Corcoran (8lbs.) and C. Fogarty (10 lbs.), both Cork and local angler Mervyn Corway who caught and released an 8.5lbs. fish. Successful flies included Clan Chief Muddler and Jaffa patterns.
Mervin Conway with a nice springer 😉 on Carrowmore Lake
The final day of the Lough Muckno Four Day Easter Festival saw local favourite Darren Fairhurst prevail from Adam Wakelin and Phil Ringer in difficult conditions on the Monaghan venue. Peter Horbinski, who was in with a decent shout from day one, had to settle for the 4th and final place on the podium.
Muckno can be a great equaliser and the competitive nature of this venue was re-emphasised on the final day with the top three angers again returning great 6kg plus weights in almost unfishable conditions including strong wind and exceptionally high water.
The venue will now close for the mandatory period of seven days prior to the practice week for the World Club Feeder Championships, which will commence on Monday, April 17th.
Ireland will be represented by the CM Lakelands Feeder Team and the Lurgan Coarse Angling Club, with both teams well acquainted with the venue. There will be stiff competition for the Irish teams, particularly from Germany and from those visiting from across the Irish sea.
Bob Foyle, Club Secretary, with a trout touching the 50cm mark
Terryglass Angling & Conservation Club held their John Egan memorial trophy over the Easter weekend and the fishing was pretty impressive for the time of year. Two members had 20 trout over three days, nine of which were measured at over 36cm, with many taken on a 6cm Rapala. There were plenty of pike on the move at the weekend too, making it a busy weekend on the water for participants.
Luke Drea & Jack Rodgers fished Lough Sheelin on Monday and found the weather to be ‘mixed’ to say the least. They began fishing the Crover shore, but with a strong wind whipping the water, that part of the lake started to dirty, making fishing tricky.
They considered their options over lunch, and suitably refreshed, they braved wind, wave and rain to head over to the lee shore in the shelter of Ross Castle. No sooner than they arrived than it started pelting hail to add to the general discomfort…
But their fortunes changed just as the hail abated when a decent trout grabbed Luke’s Humongous and he managed to manoeuvre it to the net, bringing a bit of sunshine to an otherwise tough day. The fish was quickly released and Luke managed to rise another fish shortly later that didn’t stick. So, a typical Sheelin day in April, tough conditions and hard fishing, but the reward is all the better when it comes…
Lough Sheelin angling report April 3rd – April 9th
“Success in not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts”
Winston Churchill
Displaying gold
Although moving towards mid-April, we are still in early season on Lough Sheelin and for this week that meant early season trout tactics and less than prime fishing conditions. An ideal springtime trout fishing day would be one that opens with sunny skies before transitioning to a cloudy afternoon that promises to make the trout less spooky as they feed in the warmer shallows down along Holywell, Crover, Merry point and around by the Stony Islands. Putting to one side this piscatorial fantasy, the water levels are still stubbornly high here and are slow to recede due to the sporadic downpours. Some boat owners have been caught out with the volumes of rain and many boats are being flooded and, in some cases, have sunk. One boat, with the unfortunate name ‘The Floater’ is almost totally submerged at Goreport with only the bow sticking forlornly out of the waves, something like an extract from ‘The Titantic’.
Sinking dreams
Despite flood levels, water temperatures are still climbing and are clinging by the fingertips to 10°C from top to bottom.
The experts tell us that trout become much more active at above 10°C but although trout are moving up through the layers with the odd one going air borne, things are still a little slow in the transition and emergence department. Day time temperatures peaked at 15°C on some days and with this heat came good hatches of duck fly, spoilt only by strong gusty predominantly southerly winds. It is very difficult to get the right mix this early in the season and although there were plenty of buzzer hatching, they seemed to be all around the office at Kilnahard with a reluctance to get out on the water where their presence was most needed. Sheltered areas, away from the chill and chop of the waves resulted in a nice little bit of duck fly fishing with some traditional wet flies – the Cruncher, Sooty Olive, Black Pennell, Dunkeld and Mallard & Claret.
Met Eireann promises a rise in temperatures and with this month forging ahead, happily leaving winter behind, buzzer fishing should take off in earnest.
13 year old Victoria Sakowicz with her Sheelin catch
Buzzers and duck flies are all members of the globally distributed family Chironomidae, non-biting midges. Interestingly in certain parts of the world (not at Sheelin) they can be called lake flies, sand flies, muffleheads or chizzywinks but whatever the name, anglers are generally referring to large midge pupae or adults in slow or still water. An angler who ignores the opportunities buzzer fishing bring on Lough Sheelin does so at his peril, as buzzers make up an enormous part of a trout diet and buzzer imitations particularly from mid-April on will work just as well as lures and produce excellent fishing here. The easiest way to track down a hatch’s coordinates is to actually spot the midges flying off the water. Epoxy buzzer patterns imitate the midge’s shiny, gas-filled body and patterns that imitate the bursting out or emergence from pupae to adult. Many buzzers do not survive long enough to get past the pupal stage as the trout are very fond of feasting on these bugs as they writhe and squiggle upwards towards the surface.
There are a mind boggling selection of buzzer patterns but some of the best ones are the Shuttlecock black CDC buzzer (great for to imitate emerging buzzers, letting it drift when the trout are rising to buzzers), a single buzzer on a shortish leader, Silver Bead Black & Gold buzzer (on its own or in a team, the bead gets the imitation down into the water) and a single adult Black Buzzer fished on the surface or pulled to sink below the surface film. When fishing with buzzers, it is important that you retrieve the flies very slowly. This is an art that cannot be rushed.
Emerging buzzer pattern
There were some nice trout caught this week, mainly by casting lures with a small amount of flinging of flies. Successful lures ranged from large to medium, all of which were brightly coloured with some not looking out of place in a hair piece shop. Other popular lures were the Humungus, the Minkies, Snakes and Cats Whiskers. The trout were all in great condition, ranging in colour from butter yellow with well defined spots to a pale silver sprinkled with smaller markings. Angling numbers averaged forty plus on Saturday and Sunday with week days sporting smaller numbers.
The heaviest fish caught was by Dublin angler, Mervyn Clarke using a Silver Dabbler. The Dabblers are still going strong on this lake with the Sooty, Claret, Silver, Golden Olive, Pearly and Green being the most popular. I am reliably told that once you have a dabbler on your cast and you can get that cast over a fish then you will catch.
The best areas for fishing successes were Holywell, Crover Shore, Goreport, Bog Bay, Stony and at the back of Church Island.
A solid piscatorial weightPat Gallagher’s 5.5lb trout caught on a Golden Olive DabblerSheelin’s buzzer
Kevin Sheridan with his 3.4lb trout
Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 949 which strictly prohibits from June 14th, 2017 onwards:
The taking of any brown trout of less than 36 centimeters.
For a person to fish with more than 2 rods at any one time.
To fish with more than 4 rods at any one time when there is more than one person on board the boat concerned.
For a person to take more than 2 trout per day.
All trolling on the lake from March 1st to June 16th (inclusive).
To fish or to attempt to take or to fish for, fish of any kind other than during the period from March 1st to October 12th in any year.
"...best of the last trip was 5lb 5oz which I must admit I thought would weigh a bit more from looking at the size of it."
David Norman of Angling Adventures West Cork tells us he is pleased to have a personal 100% success rate for Mullet Bread Fly this season! unfortunately that’s just a two for two result so far has he’s only been out twice due to the shocking weather we’ve all had through the past weeks.
Still, that’s eight fish with a few more lost. Best of the last trip was 5lb 5oz which looked like it would weigh more going by the length of it.
“…best of the last trip was 5lb 5oz which I must admit I thought would weigh a bit more from looking at the size of it.”
David has been lure then fly fishing since the mid noughties with some of the best guides and anglers in Ireland and abroad.
Kayak fishing by lure & fly now takes him and his guiding guests beyond the shore to target Pollock, Bass or Wrasse with the chance of other species such as Codling, Coalfish, Mackerel or Garfish.
Shore fishing at night is also a very special experience.
French anglers Philippe, Bruno, Julien and Bernard get off to a great start to their fishing holiday at Melview Fishing Lodge in Longford with 32 pike in two days, which is a great result considering the high water levels.
Bernard gets off the mark
Again, these guys are no strangers to Melview Lodge and the surrounding waters as they have been visiting before and have been looking forward to getting back out on the water. For these guys it was all casting using various hard and soft lures in depths from 2 meters to 4 meters.
Bruno takes from a shallow spotPhilippe with his first
Host and guide Kevin said, the guys have got off to a great start given the high water levels and flooded areas. There will be a full report next week to see how the guys finished up…
Anthony Weir from Tulla and District Angling Club reports that once again the weather was set against club members. This time the 9 intrepid coarse anglers who fished at Clondorney on Sunday were the victims.
The predictions of double figure weights proved inaccurate, also the venue itself falling foul of the poor conditions, but the 9 stuck it out to the final whistle and everyone caught. Well done to
1st Ian Kelsey 6lb 11oz
2nd Anthony Weir 5lb 3oz
3rd Clive Slater 4lb 11oz
1 of 7
Tough times for Tulla anglers
Join the Club
Tulla District Angling Club is a Pike and Coarse fishing club founded over 50 years ago. They are based in East Clare, Munster, Ireland.
Emmanuel from Italy is over for 5 weeks on a work experience and is a guest of Kevin’s at Melview Fishing Lodge. His passion is fly fishing for pike and trout…so during a little time off, he was able to fit in a few hours fishing. Over the next few weeks he hopes to have a bit more spare time to add to his catches.
