Lough Sheelin Angling Report – March 14^th – March 20^th 2022

‘And ​like the moon,

we must go through phases of emptiness to feel full again’ 

Aimee Kitching

There is no dressing this one up, or even trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, fishing was ‘brutally hard’ on Lough Sheelin for the week that’s gone by. The main culprit was the weather which remained consistently challenging for trout fishing with dipping sub-zero nocturnal temperatures coupled with day-time gusty fresh south easterly winds producing waters that veered from choppy to stormy 5ft waves. Difficult weather rarely sees a boatless lake and this week was no different as there was always a sighting of one or two in the more sheltered areas. Sheelin takes no prisoners and although trout were caught it was a mentally exhausting slog with one angler putting in ten hours of casting for seven trout. Temperatures are still under 10°C, below this magic figure trout are reported to be more sluggish and slow, sticking to the bottom menu of hog louse and freshwater shrimp, above this temperature things liven up and there is more movement for food, either ways the temperature is 7.5°C so we are still in that ‘slow’ area.

Lough Sheelin is a shallow lake, maximum depth, marked out by IFI’s yellow data buoy is 14 metres, the persistent winds have churned up these shallow waters causing extensive discolouration adding another hurdle to the trout anglers list.

Last Saturday, March 19th, the local club – the LSTPA held their first competition of the season, the Kilroy Cup. This is a fishing event that is often used by anglers as a stepping stone into their new season. The weather could not have been worse as a night frost burnt off to give a bright sun settled in a cloudless sky coupled with a nasty south easterly wind which built up to alarming speeds producing waves of over 5ft in some areas resulting in very poor water clarity. Thirty-four hardy souls soldiered out with the top six fish weighing in at all above the 3lb mark. The winner of the cup was Navan angler John Baker with a fine trout of 5.56 lbs and a second one of 3.46 lbs.

March can be a seriously disappointing month for the fly angler, all that excitement, enthusiasm and preparation can be crushed as early season Sheelin trout are notoriously reluctant to cooperate. There is an old saying ‘It’s not worth casting a fly until there are leaves on the trees’ and there are certainly no leaves on the trees here. Water temperature, as mentioned before, is probably the biggest factor, statistically we are more likely to have snow at Easter than Christmas and late March more often feels like winter than it does spring. Put simply, the lower the water temperature, the less active the trout will be. The less active the trout are, the less they need to feed and consequently less likely to take a proffered fly. Anglers have to find where the trout are and many have reported somewhat despondently that they simply cannot find them but they are there, lying flush to the bed feeding on what’s available to them in the deep and very unlikely to sprint after a swinging wet fly combo. In order to catch a fish, the fly must be sent down deep and practically put on the trout’s nose to get a strike.

It would be wonderful to be able to write about the teams of wets, the old comforting traditionals of Mallard & Claret, Sooty Olives etc. but these fell off the angling band wagon for this week, all the successes were down to the large attractor patterns and lures – Dabblers, Zonkers, Minkies, Snakes, Humungus etc.  big gaudy fly creations that would not look out of place draped around a participant in ‘Come Dancing’. Trout will slash at these lures, perhaps for territorial reasons or they could  simply be mistaking them for a big meal like fry whatever the reason, these brightly coloured lures, streamers and attractor patterns are what are getting the results on Sheelin for now.

One fly that did well on the lake this week was the ubiquitous Woolly Bugger, despite its strange name I am assured that it the right hands this one can do damage, its popularity attributed to its versatility. This unusually named fly can be tied in almost every colour imaginable but the most popular colours are black, brown and olive, with purple and white right behind. What trout are thinking about when they hit a Bugger is anyone’s guess. To human’s eyes it could be fry, a grub, a stonefly, a dragonfly nymph, a damselfly nymph, the list is endless and perhaps that is what makes it such a great all-purpose pattern. It is a nymph, a streamer and an attractor all in one, sure where could you go wrong with all these eventualities covered.

In the sheltered bays and inlets when there were the occasional pockets of warmth, small hatches of buzzer and duck fly appeared but nowhere near enough to tempt a grumpy sedentary trout from the depths. Poor water clarity put a stop to nymph fishing and wet fly casting was all on the blind achieving very poor results.

Lough Sheelin has the largest trout carrying capacity of any lough of comparable size in Ireland – over 100,000 trout and in that mix, there are some very big fish. There is one elusive trout, the biggest of them all, nicknamed by the locals as ‘The General’ and reputed to swim in a line from Holywell to Clarke’s (Chambers Bay). When temperatures warm up, things will change, and the fly angler will have plenty of chances on this capricious stretch of water including the opportunity to catch ‘The General’.

The lures that worked this week were the Humungus (in black with a thread of silver, gold and rainbow with a bit of red mixed through the black marabou tail), Minkie’s in grey, silver, black and white, black and green Snakes, Boobys , Blue Flash Damsels,  Cat’s Whiskers, Titanic Bug Black,Woolly Buggers and Zonkers.

Images from the week past

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The Dabblers have always held their own throughout the fishing season on Sheelin, and there tentative reappearance in the capture reports this week was abit of a relief with the Silver, Pearly, Green  Sooty, Hare’s Ear, Red Hackled and Fiery Brown being the most popular. A size 6 Claret Dabbler fished as a top dropper using a di3 or di5 can be good for taking early season feeders here.  The Fiery Brown Dabbler is a very versatile fly representing freshwater shrimp in early season, duck fly in Spring, and sedge for the summer.

The best areas to fish were Chambers Bay, Kilnahard, Holywell, Crover and the Southern side of the lake.

Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 949 which strictly prohibits from June 14^th, 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 1^st to June 16^th (inclusive).
• To fish or to attempt to take or to fish for, fish of any kind other than during the period from March 1^st to October 12^th in any year.

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

Christopher Defillon 

evasionpecheirlande@gmail.com (+33685964369) evasionpecheirlande.net

https://m.facebook.com/christopher.defillon?refid=0&fref=seaperch#

Michael Farrell @ 087 4194156Telephone: +353 43 6681298 Email: loughsheelinguide@hotmail.com

Grey Duster Guiding
Kenneth O’Keeffe
Tel: 086 8984172 Email: trout@live.ie

John Mulvany  johnmulvanyfishing@gmail.com 086 2490076

D.C Angling & Guiding Services – contact David @ 087 3946989

A catch & release policy is always actively encouraged on the lake

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.

 The biggest fish for the week was a 5.55 lb trout caught by Navan angler John Baker.

 Total number of trout recorded: 23

 Selection of Catches             

• Bogdi Chelaru, Dublin – 1 trout at 4lbs on a Humungus
• Thaddeus Zamfir, Naas – 2 trout averaging 3lbs using Snakes and Minkies
• Uriel Kowatczyk, Dublin – 1 trout at 5lbs using large lures.
• Kevin Sheridan, Cavan – 1 trout of 3.386 lbs
• Pat Gallagher – 1 trout of 3.39 lbs
• Ciaran Flynn – 1 trout at 3.73 lbs
• Paul McArdle, Dundalk – 1 trout at 3.49lbs
• Noel Bennett – 1 trout at 4lbs at Holywell using a Zonker.