Emma Stanley reports on how the trout fishing to the end of August:
29 August: Trout Angling has remained quiet as Croneen are not appearing in the numbers expected and fishermen encountered over the past few weeks are leaning towards Pike and coarse fishing over trout.
21 August: There was a well anticipated Fresh on the Little Camcor and the Brosna on Friday night which will hopefully allow Croneen to migrate successfully upstream. There should be some good reports of trout fishing from this week onwards.
“Take only memories, leave only footprints”
It has been both reported to and noted by Birr staff that significant littering is taking place in some areas in the Lower Shannon region in recent weeks. We would kindly ask all who use the water courses to bring home their rubbish or use bins provided.
This very popular series will again be available in UCD this autumn. It forms an ideal introduction for the new Atlantic Salmon Trust – Small Streams Characterisation System Course (http://www.atlanticsalmontrust.org/small-streams-course/).
Following last week’s very well attended “taster class” you would be well advised to book early as places are limited!
Classroom based course, with three Field Trips
Freshwater Detectives
Ireland has a rich abundance of rivers and lakes. This course will examine this unique resource: its sources and origin, its contribution to biological diversity and its importance for the landscape and for humans. The course will teach students the basics of becoming a Freshwater Detective and how, using the presence or absence of specific insects or fish, to read a river corridor or lake shore and to detect the presence of key predators such as otter and mink. The course will comprise six talks and three field visits.
UCD Belfield: 6 Mondays 7.00pm – 9.00pm
Sessions: 9 6 Mondays 7.00pm-9.00pm
Classroom: Oct 2, 9, 16, 23, Nov 6, 13 X3 Field Trips:
Oct 14 ( 3 hrs – River Rye Water, Kildare); Nov 4 ( 3 hrs – River Dodder Dublin)
Nov 18 ( 2 hrs – Sea World Bray)
Brian McCall gives a report of the Irish Kayak Angling Club’s recent meet in Kerry:
Irish Kayak Angling held its 4th meet of the year in Kerry on the August weekend which saw 18 kayakers take part. There was a good swell on the sea and a stiff NW breeze making things awkward. There was plenty of good Pollack to be had on the drift over rough ground. Mackerel were about but not in great numbers. There was a good number of species recorded and the competition on the day being won with 11 species to an individual, Dave. There were some very large bullhuss caught along with cuckoo wrasse, ling, blenny, cod, conger, dogfish, dragonet, mackerel, octopus, Pollack, poor cod, pouting, thornback ray, sand eel, scad, sea scorpion, whiting, ballan wrasse and corkwing wrasse.
The next leg of our competition will be held at Red Strand Co Cork on Saturday September 9th. All the details to be found on www.irishkayakangling.com
Go fishing…
To find out more about Kayak Angling visit www.irishkayakangling.com and register on the forum. Membership is free and the forum is a great resource to learn about safety, venues and techniques. Experienced members will answer any questions you have and everyone is welcome to come to a meet to learn more before taking the plunge.
Articles on beginning kayak angling are available at http://www.topfisher.eu/ and much of the advice on small boat angling is also transferrable to a kayak.
Angling guide Michael Flanagan had a few guests over from the USA in the last couple of weeks who really enjoyed the pike action in the midlands…
YONKERS AT THE PIKE
Brandon McLynn and Dad Jay from Yonkers New York
Jay McLynn and son Brandon were drifting across the Midlands last week, and staying with relations in Ballymahon. Young Brandon had his heart set on catching a pike, and we did the business on Lough Ree. It was not plain sailing and hard enough to get the pike on the move, but we eventually had 7 hits on soft lures, and managed to boat three nice pike. The McLynn lads are from Yonkers in New York, and Brandon’s Gran is looking forward to seeing Brandon pic in Angling Focus.
FLUSHING CONNECTIONS IN KILLBEGGAN
Thomas D’Arcy of Flushing New York
I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with 15 years old Thomas D’Arcy from Flushing near New York, and it’s certainly a small world. The D’Arcy family has relations in Ginnell Terrace, and Thomas father Martin hails from Killbeggan. We had a wonderful few hours and managed to catch a few pike, and it will be not the last time Thomas will feature in our angling reports, as hell be coming over every summer to work on the family farm. The Thomas lad is big into his Rugby, and at fifteen years old is built like a tank, and you never know might wear the green jersey in years to come.
NEW JERSEY BOYS
Danny Zangrilli and dad Paul of New Jersey
The Zangrilli Boys were unwinding here in Westmeath after a family wedding in Donegal, and made the splendid Bloomfield House Hotel their H.Q. over the weekend. We only had 2-3 hours fishing as Paul had the whole family over from New Jersey, and slipped out the back door of Bloomfield for a bit of fishing on Ennell with 9 years old son Danny. The Zangrilli’s have no family connections here in Mullingar, but Danny will never forget his first Irish pike he caught here in Westmeath, and the photograph will take pride and place in the Zangrilli home back in New Jersey for all to see. It was a cracking pike measuring 3 ft long, nearly as big as the Danny Boy. On the way back across Ennell Danny opened up the Honda and got us safely back to Bloomfield.
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.
Inland Fisheries Ireland's Seamus Bradley illuminates these ladies with his aquarium at Glenveagh
There was amazement and excitement aplenty at Glenveagh National Park, Donegal, on Sunday 27th of August when Inland Fisheries Ireland marked National Heritage Week.
Almost 300 children and adults to got up ‘close and personal’ with fish and insects in the wonderful surrounds of the public amenity.
Photo: Fun and games – and learning – at Glenveagh National Park
National Heritage Week was part of European Heritage Days and was a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Commission and is the most widely celebrated participatory cultural events shared by the citizens of Europe. Over 70,000 events are organised every year in order to help raise awareness of Europe’s common heritage and the continuous need for its protection.
Given that the theme for that day was ‘Water’, Inland Fisheries Ireland staff brought along an aquarium with brown trout and salmon of different year classes and in keeping with the overall focus of European Heritage Week this year – the unique link between people and nature – those in attendance heard talks on the life cycles of the various fish species which are present in Glenveagh National Park such as Brown Trout, Salmon, Arctic Char and Sea trout.
Photo: Inland Fisheries Ireland’s Seamus Bradley illuminates these ladies with his aquarium at Glenveagh
Led by Assistant Inspector Owen Kelly, Inland Fisheries Ireland staff also had locally sourced samples of insects from streams and many people were amazed at the abundance and diversity of the macroinvertebrates in each of the samples. Attendees were also given the opportunity to examine these insects in detail with the aid of the microscopes and magnifying glasses.
Children who attended the event were given a fish species poster, fish species book and a Catch-Photo-Release (#CPRsavesfish) wristband as part of Inland Fisheries Ireland’s campaign to highlight a method of angling where a fish is caught and subsequently returned unharmed back into the water, which contributes to the maintenance of healthy fish stocks and ensures future generations can continue to enjoy the recreational and economic benefits of the fisheries resource.
‘Things fishermen know about Trout aren’t facts, but articles of faith’ John Gierach
Lough Sheelin
This week saw a mix of days that were hanging in the balance between summer and autumn. In a way September is a slightly sad month as the creeping onset of autumn marks the end of another summer. The tell-tale signs of Keats’ ‘Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ were in evidence on a few mornings this week with those all too familiar morning chills accompanied by intrinsically woven cobwebs draped endlessly over shore line bushes like some sort of grand mystical architectural design. Christopher Defillon, Navan
Putting that niggling seasonal melancholia to one side, a lot of things happen during this month which tend to bode well for the angler here. The first is that the winds tend to cool the water. Longer nights and autumnal drops in temperature increase this effect and the trout become much less lethargic as a consequence. Now with the spawning season in sight, the fish seem to sense the winter drawing in and will feed voraciously to pack weight on in anticipation of the lean cold months ahead. September is a great month for bring large well conditioned trout to the surface and this is already being seen in the increase of catches of marvelously conditioned fish averaging from 3lbs up to the weight of the week, a 7lb 8oz trout caught by Baltinglass angler Gerry Fogarty using a Red Tailed Peter.
The Hatches
Despite the usual meteorological hiccups Lough Sheelin fished well this week with artificials like the Silver Dabbler, Red Tailed Peter, Silver Daddies and Stimulators appearing again and again in the reported catches. As one angler who, favours the Daddies in a big wave, put it ‘this place is fishing like a dream despite the worst of weather’. August & early September is all about the sedge for Lough Sheelin’s dry fly purists
Lough Sheelin offers plenty of food choices to its trout – sedges (in their hundreds), buzzers, daphnia, terrestrials (daddies and hoppers), the odd olive not to mention all those developmental stages in the form of nymphs and emergers. The perch fry have got bigger so the flies targeting the fry feeders should get bigger too. A good plan would be to fish with an intermediate line with a black lure on the point, with droppers of a wet Daddy and Pheasant tail. Sometimes something as simple as a black lure just under the surface will work. Worth a try is to fish Shipman’s, Daddy and Black Lure on the same cast. The drop allows the dries to fish as such and then you end up fishing wet on the retrieve. For some reason Daddies work far better when fished wet and early afternoons have a tendency to be best during the first few weeks of September.
Lough Sheelin’s Buzzer
weird and wonderful meal for the trout – Lough Sheelin’s Least Yellow Underwing
Bumble bee – fish food?
Sedge
The great escape – Cased Caddis larva
The Catches
A beautiful conditioned Sheelin trout
The best areas for fishing on the lake this week was predominantly out in the deep but along the Western shore particularly Orangefield, Church Island, Inchacup, the Long Rock, Lynch’s pt and in and around Kilnahard and Chambers were good as well. Enrico Fantasia, Dublin with his 60cm trout, August 31st
The heaviest fish for this week weighed in at 7lbs 8ozs caught by Gerry Fogarty , Baltinglass using a red tailed Peter.
Total number of trout recorded : 52 Gerry Fogarty, Baltinglass with is one of his four trout, caught on a red tailed Peter
Selection of Catches
Des Elliott, Dublin – 11 trout for 5 days , heaviest at 4 ½ lbs and 3 ½ lbs caught on Black Pennells, Orange Dabblers and Golden Olive Bumbles.
Owen Jacob, Dublin – 2 trout at 2 ½ and 2lbs caught on Muddler variants.
Paddy Brady, Cavan – 3 trout heaviest at 3lbs caught on Dabblers and Hoppers.
Tony Grehan, Dublin – 1 trout at over 3lbs on an Octopus, fishing out from Curry rocks, September 1st.
Gerry Fogarty, Wicklow ([email protected]) – 4 trout heaviest at 7lbs 8ozs, rest between 3 – 4lbs fishing Peters.
Cian Murtagh, Cavan – 1 at over 20″, 1 at 2lbs, both using Mick Kelly’s Silver Daddies.
David Mathews, Dublin – 7 trout for the week, averaging 1 ½ – 2lbs, heaviest at 4 ½ using Stimulators, Daddies and Klinkhammers.
Enrico Fantasia, Dublin – fishing with LoughSheelinGuiding – 4 trout at 50, 54, 55 and 60cm, all on wets.
Carlo Negri, London – 1 trout at 46cm on a Silver Dabbler.
Michael Collins, Dublin – 1 trout at 2lbs on a Red Tailed Peter.
Pat Magee, Northern Ireland – 1 at 1 ½ on a Daphnia imitation.
With cold early mornings the best time to fish was from mid morning to around 7pm and it was fishing teams of wets that took in the highest number of fish. Tony Grehan’s ‘lump of a fish’ Sept.1st
Lough Sheelin anglers should stick to the old tried and tested flies when fishing this lake, those fly set ups that have worked repeatedly for each phase of the fishing season here. The flashy tyings with flasher names are really only designed to catch fishermen and not fish. Danny O’Keefe, Mullingar with his trout caught at Orangefield on a red tailed Peter
Angling author John Gierach supports this theory when he wrote ‘ There’s always a hot new fly. Precious few of these patterns are genuine breakthroughs destined to last for a hundred years, but more often they’re idle comments on existing traditions, explorations of half-baked theories, attempts to use new and interesting materials, to impress other tiers, or excuses to rename old patterns. The results are often pointless fads like the craze in some pretentious restaurants or plopping fried quail eggs on everything or calling sandwiches “paninis”. Too long for a 20″ net – Cian Murtagh’s impressive trout caught on a Mick Kelly Silver Daddy
Anglers are in general very evasive about the flies that they are using, something which I find personally very hard to understand as regardless of what particular fly is working, you still have to actually go out there and fish it, as well as according to some of the old timers on this lake, knowing how to work your cast. This week a Northern Ireland angler told me that he was recently at a competition (not Sheelin) where all the flies on the competitors lines seemed to be silver but upon closer examination he realized that their owners had wrapped their secrets in tin foil so that the rivals wouldn’t copy them….. Resting up
We can make fishing too complicated, the best approach certainly for this capricious and challenging lake is to start simple and get more complicated as the fish dictate while never loosing site of the fact, particularly at this time of the season when fish are on the move, is that sometimes all the fish want is to have a fly stuck under their noses. Another fine Sheelin trout
Whatever the flies used, red, claret, gold, orange and yellow are the dominant colours. Artificials with a red chunk of colouring at the back or tail are doing the business (particularly the Red Tailed Peters) with Stimulators and Dabblers in orange, silver and gold combinations hooking up with these ‘on the move’ trout. Anglers that targeted the Daphnia feeders (out in the deep) used Octopus and Orange Bobs Bits while mini Muddlers are still proving successful for fish swimming near the surface. The Muddlers or Muddler variants are a great tying as the muddler head pushes through the water creating a bubble which acts as an effective attraction to the passing trout. Anyone using lures like the Humungus and Minkies should fish them very slowly for best results. A heavy weight for Mick Kelly, Dublin
The Flies
While it was really all about fishing the wets these past seven days, the dry fly advocates got some opportunities this week with evening hatches of sedges (5 -6pm) and trout starting to rise to them. A Klinkhammer worked well as did small (12 -14) brown sedge patterns. Golden Olive Stimi – Kevin Sheridan
The weather conditions are seldom stable here so it was important to take full advantage of the brief moments of wind subsidence when it happened although the flat calm, mirror effect on Wednesday evening was going to the other unwelcome extreme. Sid Rainey’s Hopper fly
The flies most used this week by anglers were the Murrough, the Green Peter’ a Small Brown Sedge (12-14 or smaller), Stimulators, Klinkhammers, Gorgeous George, Yellow Humpies, the Fiery Brown Sedge, the Chocolate Drop, hoppers, the Hare’s Ear Sedge, the red-tailed Green Peter, the Sedge Invicta, the Pearly Invicta, the Mallard & Claret, G&H Sedge, the Black Pennel, the Claret Pennel, a variety of Bumbles and the Silver Invicta. Black Hopper – Kevin Sheridan Shipmans’ Buzzer – Kevin Sheridan
Go fishing…
Up coming competitions
The McIntyre/Guider Cup – Saturday September 30th, starting at Kilnahard 11.0am to 6pm, this is an open fly fishing competition and gives a good warm up before the biggest competition of the season on October 1st. For further information please contact Dessie McEntee on 047 77216 or 086 8937568. The LSTPA Stream Rehabilitation Competition will be held on Sunday October 1st (details later) Carlo Negri, London with his 46cm fish
A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times
BYE-LAW 949 strictly prohibits:
The taking of any brown trout of less than 36 centimetres.
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.
Join the Club…
For anyone interested in joining Lough Sheelin’s Angling Club – The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association please contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033.
We would implore anglers and all other users to wear life jackets for their own safety as well as it being the law.
Life jackets are required by law – SI No 921 of 2005 – Pleasure Craft (Personal Flotation Devices and Operation) (Safety) Regulations 2005.Water rarely gives second chances and a life jacket is just that – it saves your life.
Please put on and keep on that life jacket until you are back on dry land. Another day passes on Sheelin
A reminder that Dick Warner’s Great Irish Fishing Odyssey series continues tonight, September 4, on eir Sport 1.
At 7.30pm, in an episode entitled ‘Pike’, we learn that some of the largest pike ever caught in the world have come from Lough Derg, where Dick meets his guide for the day, Paul Bourke.
This is followed at 8pm by an episode called ‘Roach’, in which Dick makes his way to Dublin and joins Josie Mahon and Oisín Cahill of the Dublin Angling Initiative to introduce angling to a group of boys and girls.
Sid’s been burning the candle at both ends again in Wexford and his angling insomnia is paying off – a thumping 23 bass in a night’s work, most of them in the 3lb – 5lb class with nine more over 60cm including an estimated 11lber.
Wexford Silver
Sid thought he was in for a specimen when a large fish smashed his lure and took line from the reel in an instant. After a hard scrap a nice lump of a fish revealed itself – one Sid estimated to be in the region of 9lb. Then, a few casts later, another solid fish grabbed hold and headed for Wales.
Soft lures did the trick again
Sid held firm and so did his leader; following another series of hard runs Sid landed (and returned) a fish measuring 74cm from the snout to the tip of the tail, with a girth of 43cm.
The reward for a hard night’s work
A dream fish for those who sleep – a good night’s work for those who don’t.
If you’d like to fish with Sid you can get him at:
After testing the waters in 2016 for shark fishing in the Celtic deeps, Wicklow Boat Charters skipper Kit Dunne seen the potential and has moved 1 boat to Kilmore Quay until the end October 2017…
Conor Devine with his first Blue Shark on Saturday.
The first weekend went out with a bang, Conor Devine’s crew fished 30Nm offshore in the deeps on Saturday landing 7 or 8 Blue Shark and 1 Porbeagle. The mood was great and the craic good as they made the first trip a massive success. Shane Devine had a massive day with his Blue shark and Porbeagle, and he wins the Wicklow Boat Charters top. All prizes will be presented at our awards in December.
Henry Kelly Blue Shark
On Sunday Henry Kelly, (now known as Henry Sharknado Kelly), started the day with a fine Blue Shark of 78lb weighed, 70lb on calcs, the day ended with the biggest of the day when Daniel O Kelly took a Blue Shark of 85lb weighed on the boat.
Daniel O Kelly with his 85lb Blue Shark.
All in all its a great start, and a great sign of things to come, now we know we can get Blues less than 20Nm off, and we dont have to go the 30Nm offshore to the deeps.
Porbeagle and blues are available off the south Wexford coast if you go looking…
Thanks to IFI for the support in investigating this area last year.
Go fishing…
Angling Charters are offered on a full-day, half-day and evening trip basis and can be tailored to suit your needs. Two boats available – Lisin and Castle Maiden. All levels of anglers are catered for. Anglers will benefit from your skipper’s angling experience and local knowledge with advice and guidance on-hand at all times.
SPECIALIST ANGLING CHARTERS
Specialist Angling Charters are offered for those who wish to target specific species, specimen fish or try new methods of angling.
ANGLING COACHING
Whether you’re a Club, Individual, School or Junior you can have an angling coaching session or programme tailored to suit your needs.
There were some nice water conditions over the week with good water levels on Tuesday (0.26m), a big flood on Wednesday (0.56m) and nice levels on Friday (0.26m). The gauge average for the week is good reading 0.27 metres. The fishery was not particularly busy with 32 visiting rods fishing for the week. Despite the good conditions over the week we do not have many fish recorded to date so far. Daniel Arnold recorded a 5lb grilse caught on a fly from beat 7 on Friday and we await word of other catches.
The forecast for the coming week is for continuing wet weather and I would expect good water levels at times over the week once again.
Make a booking
For info/bookings etc on the Owenea Fishery –
Tel: 074 9551141. (9am to 1pm April to May & 7am to 1pm June to Sept).
Grey Duster Guiding
