Shane O'Reilly of Inland Fisheries Ireland with the 1902 Cork Collection of Salmon Flies
Daire Whelan and Tom Doc Sullivan of the Ireland on The Fly podcast talk to Shane O’Reilly and Peter Kealy about the 1902 Cork Salmon Fly Collection…
We wanted to delve a bit deeper into the story to find out how the flies were rediscovered after over a hundred years and what is in the collection exactly and so we spoke to Shane O’Reilly from IFI who was involved in bringing the digital book together as well as Peter Kealey, a fly tier from Armagh, and friend of the late Ted Malone who was central to the Cork collection being recovered.
Keith Sherry and Jimmy Morgan got their first pike of the year at the weekend. The pair were fishing on the River Inny with Jimmy catching the best of the day at 15lb.
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This was their first time to fish at this particular location and the local farmer told Keith and Jimmy they were fishing a popular spot. As it happened they met no one else out fishing. It was cold but so bright they didn’t think we have any luck, but stuck at it, deadbaiting as they always do at this time of year. In the end they were happy to have had a fish each, even if that was all they had for the day.
The lads next angling adventure will be on Lough Iron, we’re looking forward to hearing how it goes!
Alfie, Leon and David with thier pike which was safely released after a quick photo
David Hunt was fishing at the weekend his nephew Alfie and son Leon. Lough Sillan has been fishing really well for for David lately, even on short sessions. Arriving late at the lake there were few other anglers about, but they found their usual spot was taken by another angler. Feeling a bit disappointed David brought the boys to another bit of shore not expecting to catch anything at all that afternoon…
As they were out for only a couple of hours they were travelling light, just a couple of lures and unhooking tools. The weather was windy and the water choppy, so after a bit they changed from a jerkbait to a weighted shad.
Alfie, Leon and David with thier pike which was safely released after a quick photo
The change turned what could have been a dull day into one of great excitement. The Westin bull teez matched to a 10g jig head proved too tempting for the pike and they were soon playing a fine fish. The successfully landed the pike, got a quick photo and safely released it. Not long after they were into an even bigger fish, but this one played harder and threw the hook. The left the lake not one bit disappointed and delighted to have hooked two good pike.
Aidan Traynor from Connacht Predator Anglers reports on a catch and release event held on Lough Corrib on Sunday…
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We held our Trout Masters event on Lough Corrib on Sunday 21 March. It was a great day with lots of fish caught and released again. The anglers had lots of craic and banter and the weather actually played ball for once.
Finishing in 3rd place was Simon Langan, in 2nd place was Igor Klosowaki & Rafal Pelec, and in 1st place were Krzysztof Michonski & Łukasz Znameic
Igor also had the longest Trout of the day with a fine fish of 57cm
Lough Sheelin Angling Report – March 14th – March 20th 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.
A rock and a hard place (Lough Sheelin early season)
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.
Measuring up
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.
Mercurial magic
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.
Woolly Bugger (K.Sheridan)
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.
Buzzer pupae, duckfly patterns and a Griffiths Gnat dry buzzer
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’.
Not The General, but no cadet either
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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Beautifully marked L. Conn trout for Martin Kenny
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 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.
Mairt Devers with the first Moy salmon of the 2022 season
Philip Thornton reports from the River Moy…
Week 7 on the River Moy saw the first salmon of the 2022 season being caught on Friday evening last. The fresh 10 lbs. spring salmon was landed on Padden’s Pool on the Knockmore Fishery downstream of Foxford by experienced local angler Mairt Devers. Delighted with his catch Mairt stated it took him ‘almost forty years to land the first fish’.
The prospects of some more fish to be landed saw a small rise in angling effort over the weekend but to no avail. However, as spring finally made an entrance and with water levels dropping prospects for the coming days are looking a lot more promising.
A few anglers ventured out when the weather allowed and had some action to the fly during the week. Ian Wise was into action releasing a trout just over 1 lbs. from Flannery’s Bay. Lucky angler Martin Kenny had a beautifully marked trout weighing 1.75lbs. on a Claret Bumble in Cloghans Bay.
The Duckfly commenced their annual appearance on Cullin during the week with a small number seen in some areas. This heralds the start of the fly-fishing in earnest with larger hatches expected over the coming weeks and hopefully this will improve the fishing.
Peter Roche, Cloghans and Gary Binley, Foxford, fished over the weekend for a few hours and Gary unfortunately lost a trout estimated at 2lbs. while using a Humongous. This fly has been stirring up a bit of interest from the trout lately. They both rose a few more trout during their short time on the lake.
Over the past seven days, rainfall amounts were well above average for all but some northern parts of the country. Total rainfall ranged from 25 to 70mm (1.3 to 4 times the normal amounts) with the southeast being the worst affected. The coming week will have much more settled conditions, with most places expected to have less than 10mm of rainfall which is 10 to 40% of the average.
The past week was also cooler than the average for all but some eastern areas, with average temperatures a degree below normal. The good news is that, for a change, we will have a warm and bright long weekend, with temperatures expected to reach the heady heights of 15°C in parts with good sunshine.
The forecast for Saturday – courtesy of Met Eireann
Anglers of Ireland – many of you have four days of mild and pleasant weather ahead, so get out there, wet a line in the sunshine and enjoy your St Patrick’s weekend. Please make the most of it as fine weather rarely lasts – and don’t forget to let us know how it goes – reports@fisheriesireland.ie.
Salmon angling has been slow this week after the heavy rain caused big rises in water levels on many rivers; however, the dry weather in the coming days mixed with dropping water levels should see an increase in activity on the rivers. It’s normally around this time of the year that we see the first reports of spring fish from the Boyne, so with water levels looking good around Navan, we hope to have something to report from there next week.
The Leinster Coarse Anglers gave it their best shot on Garadice last week, but strong winds and poor conditions hampered their efforts. The coarse angling festival spring season is now in full swing, with the St Patrick’s Festival on Inniscarra weighing in some good bags last weekend and the Muckno Patrick’s Festival due over the coming weekend. Muckno festival organisers are calling all coarse anglers to get involved in events held on the lough and help to secure a bright future for angling. They want to ensure that that recreational fishing is seen as a priority activity for both Lough Muckno and the Castleblayney area into the future. After this weekend, the Easter festival will be next on the calendar, so do contact the festival organisers and get involved.
Festival season on Muckno
There were fewer pike anglers out in recent weeks, with the ‘traditional’ pike season drawing to a close as seasons open up for other species. The Limerick Pike Anglers haven’t put their rods away yet though, thirteen hardy pikers turned up for their fifth round of the league over the weekend where fifteen pike were landed.
Some of our charter fleet are back in action and more will be taking to the water as the weather warms up and the strong winter winds ease off. If you’d like to take a trip on a charter boat near you for this coming season, please check out our directory and make a booking. On the shore, the Killybegs Mariners have been as active as ever, with some surprise catches of fine sea trout. Meanwhile, on the west coast, the Galway Bay SAC are holding the first leg of their Master Angler club league on Saturday March 26th on Renvyle beach. The club are recruiting new members so check out the GBSAC Facebook page for more details and contact information.
Back on the water in Galway
In Other News
Anglers have been flooding to help victims of the war in Ukraine via a raffle being run by regular contributor to these pages Marcin Kantor. Marcin has received pledges of prizes from numerous angling businesses around Ireland and he will be holding a raffle to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day so please support this good cause.
They’re inviting observations, views and comments on the review and development of Ireland’s Marine Strategy Part 3: Programme of Measures, under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC). Read about it and how to make a submission here.
And now the weather
Wednesday night will be mainly dry with clear spells and lows of -2°C to +2°C with frost and icy patches. Light to moderate southerly breezes freshening along the west coast overnight.
St Patrick’s Day will be mostly cloudy with showery rain moving eastwards across the country, breezy from the west but brightening through the afternoon. Highs of 9°C to 13°C with overnight lows of -2°C to +2°C in light breezes.
Friday will be mild and dry with good sunny spells with temps of 10°C to 15°C and moderate south to southeast breezes, coolest along south and east coasts. Friday night will be dry and clear with a light to moderate southeasterly breeze. Lowest temperatures of 3°C to 6°C.
Saturday will be dry and mild with sunny spells. Highs of 10°C to 15°C with light to moderate southeasterly breezes. Showers will move up from the southeast overnight with a possibility of isolated thunderstorms. Lows of 1°C to 6°C.
Showers will clear to the west on Sunday morning and the day will be mainly dry with sunny spells. Continuing mild with highs of 10°C to 14°C and moderate east to southeast breezes.
Lough Sheelin Angling Report, March 7th – March 13th 2022
By Brenda Montgomery, IFI
‘Forget all the reasons why it won’t work and believe the one reason why it will’
Mercurial magic
‘Why do we do it..’ the opening lines of an AIB sponsorship advertisement about the sport of camogie and the hardship involved in the training when there is often no hope of winning anything. This finishes with the reasoning that it is because ‘it is in our blood and part of our people’ – well, the same could be said for early trout fishing on Lough Sheelin, anglers driven by the need to fish despite the reality of daily blanks and near baltic conditions.
This is only the second week into the season, it is still very early but for the past seven days anglers fishing this lake have been made very aware of the month they are in – March ‘in like a lion and out like a lamb’. The lion for this week came in the form of persistent south to south easterly winds, some nightly frosts and freezing morning fog accompanied by showers of hail, sleet and heavy rain.
Local anglers here are fond of rattling off the lines from an old angling rhyme ‘winds from the east, fish bite the least, winds from the west, fish bite the best’, but the wind direction itself may not be as important as the accompanying climate factors. Wind from the east normally signals that bad weather is approaching. When the wind blows from this direction, the barometric pressure drops and the decrease in air pressure can cause the fish stomachs to shrink slightly. It could be enough that the trout’s will and need to hunt decrease. Winds from the south and west tend to improve fishing. It’s one theory anyway and certainly, the predominance of the easterlies did nothing to enhance the fishing here.
Fishing Lough Sheelin for the week that’s gone by has certainly not been for the faint hearted but nonetheless a few boats graced this temperamental water each day, producing enough trout catches to keep an angling reporter happy. While large lures certainly dominated the first week of the season, this second week saw an edging in of wet fly fishing – line set ups of small buzzer patterns, March Browns, Sooty Olives, the Kate McClaren and Bibios. In those rare milder moments when the sun actually graced us with its presence, there were small scatterings of buzzer and duck fly hatches confined to the very sheltered bays and inlets and anglers reported encouraging nips and tugs using wet fly and nymph combinations.
For the trout angler, March is a very uncomplicated time of the season to be fishing. Hatches are simple, confined to tiny black buzzers and the odd duck fly and also the nymphs which are now becoming unsettled off the lake bed, moving around and heading for the surface – all enticing trout food. There isn’t the myriad of confusing flies and their stages that is the situation later on. Patterns that cover these small category of insects will cover most trout on the hunt for flies. In limestone lakes, like Sheelin, trout will be spending a lot of their time grubbing around the bottom and in the weeds for food, freshwater shrimp and hog louse are the main invertebrates on the menu. Freshwater shrimps favour the rocks and stones in shallow water and although hog louse can be found there too, they can be also found further out where the weed beds are. Using fly combinations of march browns (supposedly taken for the water louse, Asellus), sooty olives, mallard & claret, Sweeney Todd, hare’s ear and Watson’s fancy or any of the traditional wet fly patterns can produce results. The best fishing areas are mainly along the rocky shores and exposed points in Chambers Bay, along Kilnahard shore, Merry pt., Arley point, Curry point, Ross bay and the south shore of Derry Sheridan.
This second week in saw the reentrance of the Dabblers in Golden, Pearly, Claret, Silver and Fiery Brown Olive. These X-factor attractor patterns in size 10 worked well along the shorelines with the winning combination of two dark green dabblers on the top and middle and a minkie on the point brought in a lovely three-pounder for James Smith, Cavan on March 10th.
Trout at this time of the year are feeding hard to regain condition after the rigours of spawning and the restrictive food supply of the winter. The large attractor lures like the Humungus (in silver), Zonkers, Snakes, Minkies and Boobys are working well as they create the appearance of a large easy meal for a hungry cruising trout. These lures are used to attract the fry-feeding trout, as they offer the chance of a large meal without expending too much energy in water that still hovers just above 6 degrees. The Minkies are more a refined version of the Zonkers but both are made of fur that is soft and wavy, so with each pull, the back of the fly flattens as it is brought forward, and then blooms upwards when it stops causing an enticing pulsing motion. If the artificial looks vaguely like food and moves like food, it may get a hit. It’s not just the choice of lure, the retrieve is of paramount importance and this can vary from day to day or even hour to hour. Retrieves can vary from fast and deep, using a Di3 the lure can be striped back at normal pace, whereas with a heavier line, short fast strips with the odd pause in between works well too. Pearly bodies and grey mink were popular. A Silver Humungous on an Intermediate, Di3 to Di7 varying from a fast retrieve in windy weather to a slow in calmer climes.
Given that fish may come up for a fly, but rarely down, and that a Di3 will sink to the depths given time makes it the most versatile. Di5 and 7’s will be of little use when the fish are holding at 3ft which will happen as water temperatures rise.
Roll on April as I find most anglers seem to prefer the wait until after St Patrick’s day to make their first foray on this lake. The local angling club – the LSTPA are hosting their first competition of the season on March 19th, The Kilroy Cup so many anglers will use this as a kick-off point to their fishing season.
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A turbulent Sheelin, Crover shore, March 9th
Reaping the benefits of persistence
Receding water levels
Lough Sheelin, March 9th
Red Sooty Olive (Kevin Sheridan)
Magical spots
Shrouded in freezing fog, Lough Sheelin March 10th
Epoxy Buzzer (Kevin Sheridan)
No Burning bush Crover, Lough Sheelin
Letting it go
Kevin Sheridan’s March Brown – a traditional early starter for Sheelin
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 and Zonkers.
A few trout were caught on teams of wets, the most popular setups included Black Pennels, Connemara Black (size 8), Sooty Olives, Hare’s Ear, Claret Bibios, Green Peter, Golden Olive Bumble and the Glister Ollie.
The Dabblers have always held their own throughout the fishing season on Sheelin, and their tentative reappearance in the capture reports this week was a bit 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.
There were no ‘best areas ‘this week on Lough Sheelin. The wind dictated where anglers went and fish were caught ‘here and there’.
Long and lean – released
A rocky start – early season Lough Sheelin
Looking up – Lough Sheelin’s sea eagle
For those anglers who like occasionally to look up instead of down, one or possibly two white-tailed or sea eagles have been spotted adorning the skies above the lake. These apex predators are the largest eagles in Europe with an impressive 8ft wingspan and can reach speeds of up to 70km per hour. So, if it’s a day of blanks, look up to see these majestic residents.
Happiness is a Sheelin trout
Competitions
The Kilroy Cup will be fished on Saturday 18th of March from Kilnahard pier from 11am to 5.0pm. Prizes will be for the heaviest fish and entry is €20. This competition has been set at a 16-inch size limit with a 2 fish bag limit. There will be no permits available for sale on the pier on the morning so please buy your permit online beforehand from shop.fishingireland.info or from the IFI office at Kilnahard on the morning.
Contact 087 9132033 / 086 6619834
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.
Mick ‘The Fish’ Flanagan has been putting in the time on the midland loughs this week. Mick hasn’t seen any worthwhile hatches of duckfly yet to switch from lures to flies, but thinks it could be only days away.
In the meantime, Mick has found fish feeding in 12-15ft of water and tempted them with his ‘Red Breast Stickleback’ lure. Mick has inherited some unusual lures and flies from his guests over the years so he always makes sure to give them a swim; this week he caught some good trout on Owel and Ennell by doing just that.
Some of Mick's photos
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Make a booking
Midlands Angling provide a top class Guiding service covering many of the top coarse and game waters across the Midlands. Visiting fly anglers have landed some fine trout while out with Midland Angling Guides, pike anglers also recorded some net bursting catches including many pike over 20lbs. Top waters include Lough Ree, Ennell, Owel, Lene, Mount Dalton, and Glore Lake just to mention a few.
Michael Flanagan Midland Angling
Pike and Trout angling guide.
