Richie Ryan shares some thoughts on flyfishing for mullet…
In January I normally head out with my fly rod chasing mullet so that they can totally frustrate me. You think salmon fishing is frustrating, try mullet on the fly! I will say, however, when you hit it right it can be fantastic fun. As often happens, when hooked, a mullet will head off like a bullet train stripping your line well into the backing. The first time this happens it’s an exhilarating experience. The humble mullet is the hardest fighting fish in the sea I reckon.
Great reward…Mullet on the fly!
If you’re fortunate to have mullet feeding where birds are fed with bread then you’re on a winner. This is where the bread fly can be deadly. The fly fishing is akin to dry fly fishing. Accuracy is not essential as you can move the fly towards the fish. A must I reckon is an indicator of some description. Don’t strike as you would a trout or you will lose the majority of your quarry. Strip striking is essential and will pay dividends I assure you. We are so lucky in the South West of Ireland to have mullet all year round. Unfortunately at some locations the shoals move around a lot adding to your frustration!
Check out YouTube for more guidance or better still purchase Colin Macleod’s excellent book Mullet on the Fly. Everything you ever wanted to know is there.
James from Waterford was up again for another two day pike session with Kevin of Melview Fishing Lodge in Longford. The first day we had to brave the high winds and heavy down pours of rain but the second day only see light winds along with a few showers.
Kevin gets off to a good start
A various selection of dead baits were used over the two days with all of them producing some very good fish, and a big thank you to Screaming Reels for supplying the dead baits at short notice.
James with his 2nd of the dayRoach dead bait tempted this nice pike
Water levels have risen and more bad weather is forecast so not too sure about the fishing over the coming days but will be back with another pike report soon hopefully. All fish released unharmed.
Kevin has over 30 years experience of fishing in Ireland and is happy to offer a guided tour on your arrival, and to advise where the on-form waters in the area are. We can arrange your bait order so it’s here when you arrive. Melview offers free use of 17ft lake boats with engines to our guests (pay fuel only) and Kevin is happy to assist with any pre-baiting requests. Maps and other information regarding fishing are also available.
February doesn’t stand out as one of our better fishing months in Ireland and some people think that the best thing about it is its brevity.
January and February are our coldest months, but temperatures over the past week were one or two degrees above normal, with mean values between 6°C-10°C. Rainfall amounts were quite varied, with below average rainfall for southern areas but above average rainfall elsewhere. The highest amount of rainfall was recorded at Shannon, with 46mm (227% of normal). With yellow wind and rain warnings in place overnight on Friday, parts of the west and south west will more than make up for any reported lack of rainfall to date.
Rainfall is that most important requirement for salmon angling, which is slowly picking up around the country, with more fisheries opening as the weeks go by. The next opening date in the calendar will be February 15th, when an extra handful of salmon fisheries will resume where they left off on September 30th last. Salmon angling was slow everywhere this week, except the Bundorragha River, where Delphi Lodge have reported five more springers since their first fish was landed. Hopefully a fish will be caught before too long on the Moy, the Munster Blackwater,Currane or one of the other open fisheries yet to see a fish in 2022.
Simon Cassidy with his cracking 7lbs 14oz springer from Delphi.
February 15th is also a date that trout anglers will have keenly awaited; it is the traditional opening date for many of our wild trout fisheries in the west and north west. With many trout anglers sorting out their fly boxes over the weekend or prepping their gear for some bricín fishing, we eagerly await the return of the trout fishing reports to these pages! For those trout anglers who will be busy wrapping thread around hooks over the weekend in anticipation of their first casts of 2022, Peter Driver will be hosting his live fly tying show on Saturday evening; this time the focus is on sea trout flies and nymphs.
Coarse fishing was slow this week, although the very active C/M Lakelands Feeder Club were busy again, with another twenty anglers competing on Lough Garadice in Leitrim at the weekend. There weren’t many pikers out either, although one young angler who does deserve a mention is Ruben from Lisdoonvarna who caught some good Corofin pike including a super 15lb fish. Ruben makes his own spoons, although his fine pike fell to a float-fished deadbait. Ruben wins our Catch of the Week for his efforts!
Ruben and his pike – our catch of the week
In the salt, the Killybegs Mariners were back on the shore again with a good mix of winter species caught in difficult conditions; junior member Christopher Gillespie gets a special mention for his 35cm whiting. At the other end of the country, the Tralee Bay SAC fished at Ventry, where Paul Whelan caught an impressive 37 dogfish, while the West Cork and District SAC fished their match on Ballinwilling beach in East Cork where club members landed ten different species: Pollack, Plaice, Flounder, Rockling, Cod, Painted Ray, Dogfish, Pouting, Coalfish and Conger.
The six-month posts are divided across seven River Basin Districts, covering sixteen counties with recruitment getting underway immediately. Seasonal Fisheries Officers will join teams over the summer months to help protect, conserve and develop fisheries resources working in and around Ireland’s lakes, rivers and coastlines.
And finally – a reminder that the 2022 Tuna CHART programme will be open for applications from February 14th to 28th. Over 1,100 Atlantic Bluefin tuna, the ‘giant of the sea’, have been successfully tagged and released under this ‘citizen scientist’ partnership. For more details on how to apply see here.
And now the weather…
Wet and windy on Friday night with widespread rain and strong and gusty southerly winds bringing a risk of localised flooding. Temps 6°C to 9°C.
Breezy on Saturday with widespread blustery showers in the morning, heavy bursts in places. Some sunshine, with showers becoming isolated towards evening. Highs 8°C to 11°C. Rain will push in again from the south overnight. Lows of 4°C to 6°C in fresh winds.
Outbreaks of rain on Sunday with heavy bursts in places, clearing northwards in the evening. Highs 7°C to 10°C with moderate winds. Clear spells developing overnight with scattered showers along Atlantic coasts. Lows 2°C to 4°C.
Sunny spells and a good deal of dry weather but cool on Monday, Tuesday looks wet with heavy rain possible. Highs of 8°C to 12°C.
The Killybegs Mariners have had some decent fishing this week, the highlights of which were a new club record whiting of 35cm and a tailless turbot! Junior Mariner Christopher Gillespie caught the whiting while senior member Cormac caught the tail-free flattie.
Club record whiting
Club members had to battle the elements at times, but they’ve shown that there are always fish to be caught – whatever the season, whatever the conditions. The main species encountered this week were turbot, flounders, whiting, codling and a few decent seatrout which were caught and released.
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Club record whiting
The club have been keeping their own score with a species record list and, in addition to the record whiting, club member Diarmuid McCallig scored a new shore record fish length with a codling of 29cm.
The River Moy opened for salmon and sea trout angling on Tuesday February 1st, with approximately 10 members of Ballina Salmon Anglers taking to the banks of the River Moy.
Anglers were happy with the ideal water levels for the first half of the week.
Water levels recorded at Ballylahan Bridge on Tuesday morning were 0.64 m rising to 1.498 m by Sunday evening whilst water temperatures were normal for the time of year, ranging from 9.3˚ Celsius to 9.8˚Celsius.
No salmon were reported caught for the week from any of the fisheries on the Moy.
Last week we reported on the first fish being caught at Delphi. Well it appears the fishery has had a run of spring fish, as 5 more fish have been landed since then.
Simon Cassidy makes a cast on the Bundorragha River, Delphi Fishery.
After Jurgen Mantel’s opening fish last week, Meath angler Simon Cassidy was next to score. Simon landed a lovely 7lbs 14oz ranched fishing from Cooleens on a Monkey Dog fly.
Simon Cassidy with his cracking 7lbs 14oz springer from Delphi.
Not content with one fish, Simon was back on the river the next day, this time landing a wild fish estimated at 7lbs, which gave him a great fight. All wild fish are released at Delphi, and Simon released this one quickly. He even got a nice video of the great fight and release.
The next day Luke Drea and Jack Rogers were both fishing the Meadow Pool. Luke landed a fine 8lbs 8oz salmon on a Monkey Dog, and just a few minutes later Jack had a 7lbs 14oz springer from the same lie on a Wilie Gunn. Great sport!
Jack Rogers with another nice spring fish from Delphi.
Despite lovely water, no fish were reported then until yesterday, the 9th, when Galway angler Denis Quill landed a fine 10lbs 15oz fish from the Meadow Pool on a Willie Gunn.
Any fish killed were ranched fish from the Delphi hatchery, the wild fish caught was released.
Go fishing…
At Delphi Lodge, with many years of experience with the timing of the best runs of fish, we have in place a price system that offers both great value fishing and lets our anglers know when they have the best chance to catch a fresh run spring salmon or a summer grilse or Delphi sea trout.
Saltwater flyfishing guide Richie Ryan kicks off the mullet flyfishing season with 3 fine fish which could only be tempted with a delicately presented bread fly. All fish were safely released to the water.
Pete Davis of West Cork and District SAC put together this great report of their recent club match on Ballinwilling beach in East Cork:
Sunday evening, February 6th, saw the second outing of the year for West Cork and District SAC. Venue for proceedings was to be Ballinwilling beach in East Cork. East Cork in general and the Garryvoe and Youghal beaches in particular can on their day offer up shore angling on a par if not better than anywhere in Europe. Ballinwilling on its day can be a fantastic venue, especially in Autumn and Winter being most noted for Cod, Bass and Painted Ray catches amongst the usual suspects. In summer time it still throws up plenty of Dogfish and Flounder but it’s the dark evenings and churned up seas that bring out the best of it. Equally, it can be a venue that will drive you mad, pulling your hair out in frustration as in sub optimal conditions it’s a difficult venue to pull fish from to any particular pattern.
26 anglers fished on Sunday, 21 senior and 5 juniors. Arriving for check in, the weather was somewhat brisk to say the least with some squally horizontal rain along with a strong breeze sending a man scurrying to get into his waders, hiding under the boot lid! Curiously, it seemed that as soon as we had hit the beach and struggled to set up the beach shelters that the wind and rain virtually disappeared and it made for a pleasant enough evening on the weather front all things considered.
The strong winds that had blown all weekend had been blowing off the land and whilst it made for clean seas, easy to fish, it certainly didn’t help proceedings from a fish perspective. Ballinwilling in February was virtually flat calm with only a gentle roll coming in. Not ideal for here unfortunately but that’s been the story of the past few fixtures and there isn’t a thing a fella can do about that only get on with it. First casts were sent out at 5pm as daylight faded into dusk and the hunt began in earnest.
Several fish hit the cards as some of the resident flounder made an appearance on the first cast with Liam Davis on peg 10 managing a nice high 20s fish to get off to a flier. Things however in general were quiet. Ken Hogan on peg 12 managed a couple of flounder in quick succession mid comp as did I but they weren’t around in any huge numbers to keep the run going and there was no pattern as to where they were coming from either distance wise. Anglers were caught in something of a quandary, chase the scarce but high scoring dogfish or stay small and try and accumulate a number of smaller bits and pieces. In the end, there weren’t really enough fish around to strongly swing things in either direction. The end pegs fished reasonably well with 1st and second coming from alternate ends. The middle of the beach lived up to its (harsh but fair on this occasion!) nickname of “The Hungry Acre” and fish were hard to come by. Such is the way of match angling and we have all been there!
Come 9pm, lines were drawn and results were counted. Tom Collins on peg 26 took top spot on the night with Jamie Santry in second place from peg 1. Evan Collins with 2 of the 5 dogfish taken on the night and a good coalie won the Junior section and would have been second overall on the beach had he fished as a senior with Liam Davis in second place with a mixed bag of 5 comprising 2 flounder, 2 rockling and a whiting. Noah Tahran, another Junior Angler took the longest flatfish pool, a cool €130 with a fine painted ray of 78cm with Jamie Santry managing a strap conger of 49cm to take the longest roundfish pool. Well done to all!
Seniors:
1st Tom Collins 6 fish
2nd Jamie Santry 4 fish
3rd Derek Kendrick 5 fish
Juniors:
1st Evan Collins 3 fish
2nd Liam Davis 5 fish
3rd Noah Tahran 1 fish
Whilst the fishing hadn’t been electric with 47 fish shared between 26 anglers, its worth noting that this is not the best reflection on how good a venue this can be. On the night, 10 species were taken which is a better indicator as to the nature of this beach. We had Pollack, Plaice, Flounder, Rockling, Cod, Painted Ray, Dogfish, Pouting, Coalfish and Conger. It really is a beach that can throw up anything and well worth fishing.
Join the Club
WCADSAC are now taking a bit of a break with our next confirmed fixture coming up on May 7th at the Slob Bank in Youghal. We may end up slipping another one in during April if our fixture list gets a rejig. We are still open for members and despite having fished 2 comps already, we still have 7 matches remaining if you are interested in joining and having a crack at it. We are a friendly, progressive club with a healthy senior and junior contingent fishing matches in a great atmosphere. If you are interested in joining us, don’t hesitate to get in touch via our Facebook page. Until next time, tight lines to all, I’m off to try and hatch a plan as to how not to get beaten by 14 year olds….
The club was formed on march 19th 2009, in the small picturesque harbour town of Kinsale County Cork. We’re an inclusive club, this can be seen in our membership profile; from anglers who are new to match fishing all the way up to members of the Irish World Shore Team 2010, two of which are in the club! The club holds circa 10 competitions per year, members are encouraged to practice a catch and release policy in the interests of conservation. Anybody wishing to join our club is always welcome, just use the contact us page and we will give prospective members full details. Web:http://westcorkanddistrict.webs.com/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Cork-and-District-SAC/201776589958897
Dan O’Neill, Fishery Manager at Mount Juliet reports from the River Nore where the close season will open on March 17th…
At last the close season is nearly at an end. I for one will be glad to be spending more time with the fly rod and less time with the fly tying vice. This time of year is always exciting for anglers, new methods for some, new patterns for others. It’s quite possible I have tied enough flies to last me for the next 4 seasons as I usually end up doing.
Half of these, if not more, will be bartered away on the river bank in exchange for another anglers creation. Simple little things like this are what draws me to fly fishing more and more. Getting out of the hectic lifestyle, news reports and day to day “issues”.
Angling has become a more popular getaway in the last 18 months. People just need that getaway to let their mind wander and break the cycle of everyday life. I don’t ever find anything as rewarding as explaining this to someone, then taking them fishing to see for themselves that the trout have not driven me completely mad. For the most part they do find it exactly as I have outlined and the journey begins. I read somewhere a saying that will always stay with me “you will lose your mind, but find your soul”. Most anglers will agree with this as I believe we have all lost our mind at some point when the trout will do anything except sip down your dry fly offering leaving you questioning your tying skills or even worse your fishing buddies tying skills. Yet we all long for that night where every fish that we cover sips down that fly and the complements you pass to your fishing buddy about his incredible tying skills. I am looking forward to meeting fellow anglers on the river this season and bartering some of my creations with them (if you will have them). I wish you all a safe productive season ahead.
Membership
I have 6 trout membership spaces free for the coming season.
For information on day tickets or memberships please send inquiries to : Doneill@mountjuliet.ie
Mount Juliet House is set on a large estate, which offers private fishing on 2.5 miles of the middle to lower reaches of the River Nore. Mount Juliet Estate offers fishing of the highest quality, just a short stroll away from the Manor House. There is a fishing room on site in the Manor House for your convenience i.e. for storage and drying of fishing equipment. Mount Juliet Estate can also provide the necessary equipment on site if needed.
