Lough Sheelin Angling Report By Brenda Montgomery, IFI June 8th to June 14th 2015
‘We are such stuff that dreams are made of..’
Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Lough Sheelin June 2015
The weather dented Lough Sheelin’s mayfly season once again this week with undesirable dips in temperatures and changing winds at crucial fishing moments.
Regardless of the seemingly constant unpredictability of the Irish weather, Lough Sheelin’s mayfly ignored the elements and continued to hatch in their billions, clustering like great armies in the trees and bushes around the lake, waiting for an opportune break in the weather pattern to go out on to the lake. The water’s surface alternated from being carpeted with the up winged duns to drifts darkened with hundreds of spent, their wings spread flat on the lake’s surface, dead or struggling in the last throes of life. Witnessing this spectacular natural phenomenon somehow took the edge off the frustration of this year’s mayfly season reassuring anglers that the entomology of Lough Sheelin is alive, well and blooming and that the poor surface feeding of the trout is really only down to the constant cold of which we have no control.
Lough Sheelin’s May Fly – Ephemera danica
It undoubtedly has been a weird few weeks, weeks of waiting, anticipation , expectation, excitement – emotions that changed gradually to be replaced by a creeping despondency as June hit in and with it the realisation that the easy fishing which is associated with the mayfly season is slipping away.
At the moment Sheelin is clinging on to the remnants of the mayfly season, where there is still the hope that with next week’s forecasted ‘muggy’ weather that the mayfly will come good and that the spent fishing will explode into life and deliver the goods to its anglers as it has the reputation for doing. The mayfly is still there in huge numbers and if we get that mildness stretching beyond dark, the spent will go out and the trout will surface in vast numbers to feed.
This week was riddled with disappointment, Monday and Tuesday were the best fishing days and it all happened from 6pm till dark.
Wednesday evening was a painful experience as although the day time temperatures hit the late teens and the evening looked set to be good, temperatures dropped slightly around 8pm just as the spent was going out and everything came to an abrupt end and from there on the week was mixed with cold, north winds and low evening temperatures and few rises were reported.
Despite all the frustration, the Sheelin anglers did not dessert this lake and persisted on with angling numbers this week averaging at 60 – 100 per day and there was still that encouragement among even the most discouraged that it could still happen yet.
Stuart McMurran with this beautiful Sheelin trout, caught June 12th
Fishing has been tough but there were moments this week for some anglers that will stay in their memory forever. One Athlone angler fishing around Chambers Bay on Tuesday night witnessed a fall of spent and the trout coming up to feed as it was approaching 10pm and where previously he’d heard the hum of the majority of boats leaving the lake, heading in to the shore and that was when it happened, a fall of spent and a rise of trout gently picking off the fly as they dropped in the surface film. Heart stopping stuff as he cast his spent pattern towards them and a trout of over 7lbs took and the game began.
That ‘take’ made up for everything – all those previous days and evenings of battling the cold and lack of rises to be replaced by this magical moment which would sustain him till next season – a Sheelin heavy weight – worth its weight in golden memories.
Dessie McEntee, Cavan with his 5lb plus trout, caught on a spent gnat
The flies that dominated this week were the spent gnat patterns and for the past seven days most of the catches were in the late afternoon up to and beyond 11pm.
I’m told the best time for fishing this lake now is to wait until the setting sun brushes the tops of the surrounding shoreline trees, just before it sinks out of sight. This is reputedly the prime time for catching fish on Sheelin in June.
Dan Prunty with ‘the darkest fish I’ve ever had from Sheelin with a magical blue sheen off him in the evening light’
Another good working combination was a size 14 Klinkhammer as the point fly with the second fly a size 14 Sedge pattern. The Wulffs featured strongly as well with the Gray, Royal, Green and Yellow landing some fine fish. On windy days a Royal Wulff ginked at the top to make sure it drags in the wave proved to be a good plan.
The Sedges are starting to make an appearance with a tentative degree of success as it’s still early days for them on this lake.
Other popular patterns were the Mayflies – Green, Mosley and Ginger, the Dabblers (Peter Ross, Green, Silver and Fiery) Epoxy Buzzer, Buzzer variants, Spent Gnat, Sooty Olive, Golden Olive Bumble, CDC Mayfly Nymph, the Welshman’s Button, the Fiery Brown Sedge, the French Partridge Mayfly, the Royal Coachman, the Silver Invicta, the Cock Robin, The Grey Klinkhammers (size 12 -14 (Emerger), the Cinnamon Sedge and Stimulators.
Colin Watterson, Belfast with one of his Sheelin catches
Cathal McNaughton, Antrim with a 2lb 8oz trout caught on a Royal Wulff
Lough Sheelin’s mayfly June 8th 2015
3.5lb trout caught on a Spent Gnat
Russell Owen, Wales with one of his Sheelin catches
When the darkness is light enough – Joe Casey, Athlone with his 7lb plus trout caught at in Chambers Bay on a Spent Gnat, June 9th
Fishing is fishing and not catching and true anglers understand and accept this, there can be tough times but that’s what it’s all about, it’s part of the package. Being constantly around anglers I perhaps get an overload of the negativity about Lough Sheelin’s fishing and bemoaning that fact recently to a good friend and Sheelin advocate, he asked me if I knew where Castlerahan graveyard was, I said I did and the small old forgotten graveyard with bleached tombstones and crooked worn crosses flashed into my mind, now he said how many in that grave yard would rather be out on the lake catching nothing than be where they are now? – puts a different perspective on things I think.
A juvenile brown trout caught & released in Walkers Bay
‘Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive’ (Walter Scott)
Fly fast, mate quickly, die young.” If mayflies had a motto that would probably be it. That’s because these elegant insects have among the shortest adult lives of any insect. Indeed, scientists have named this group of insects the Ephemeroptera, Latin for “short-lived flyer.”
Researchers believe the record for shortest adult life span belongs to the female mayfly called Dolania americana. After spending a year or more living on the bottom of a stream in its aquatic nymph form, it emerges as a flying adult — and lives for less than five minutes. During its brief adult life, the mayfly must find a mate, copulate, and lay its eggs back into the water from which it came.
Though mayflies may be short-lived as adults, they play a crucial role in the health of Lough Sheelin. Because they occur is such large numbers — a swarm of hatching mayflies may contain millions of individuals — mayflies are a vital link in the food chain. Anglers, for instance, know that fish love to eat both the flying adults and the worm-like larva, which often live under rocks on river bottoms. Mayflies also provide important clues to water quality. Large populations can indicate clean water, while their absence may suggest some kind of pollution problem. Unfortunately, researchers believe pollution has already driven two species of North American mayflies to extinction.
Scientists, however, aren’t the only ones keeping a close eye on mayflies. Poets, too, have become captivated by their sweet, short lives. The California poet Darren “Gav” Bleuel, for instance, had this to say about the insects:
“The Mayfly never sees the dawn But once before his end. To think he’s born, Upon the morn, Yet not see one again.”
Paul McMenamin’s Sheelin 3 pounder
Ivor Doherty, Mullingar with his magnificent Sheelin trout
Jonathan Kerr, Belfast with his Sheelin trout
Gary Houston, Warrington with a Sheelin classic (released)
Casting into the evening – June 10th
When the real meets the unreal – Lough Sheelin, June 8th 2015
‘Lifting it in’ – Lough Sheelin June 11th
Russell brings it in
Lough Sheelin’s mayfly June 2015
The dance of the Mayfly – Church Island June 9th 2015
Lough Sheelin’s mayfly
Lough Sheelin Guiding Services (www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com) 087 1245927
Peter Ffrench Mullin, Co.Armagh
Lough Sheelin June 10th 2015
For anyone interested in joining Lough Sheelin’s Angling Club – The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association please contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033.
Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 790 which strictly prohibits
- All trolling on the lake from March 1st to April 30th (inclusive)
- From May 1st to June 15th – no trolling between 7pm –6am and no trolling under engine between 6am – 7pm and
- June 16th – October 12th – no trolling under engine between 7pm – 6am.
- No trout less than 14 inches should be taken from the lake
It won’t work if you aren’t wearing it…
Water rarely gives second chances and a life jacket is just that – it saves your life, so we would implore anglers and all other users for their own safety as well as it being the law under
SI No 921 of 2005 – Pleasure Craft (Personal Flotation Devices and Operation) (Safety) Regulations 2005
Jonathan Peppard, Dublin all set to go fishing
A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times
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 heaviest fish for the week was a 8 lb plus trout caught by Frank Kelly, Cavan using a Spent Gnat on Tuesday June 9th.
Total number of trout recorded: 203
Selection of Catches
Dessie McEntee, Cavan – 1 trout at 5lb plus caught on a Spent Gnat
Colin Watterson, Belfast – 2 trout at 2lbs 13oz on Yellow Wulff on Monday June 8th and 1 trout at 4 lbs 10ozs using a Wulff pattern.
Gene Brady, Cavan – 1 trout at 4 lbs on the Spent Gnat
Dessie Smith, Westport – 2 trout at 7 ½ and 3 ½ lbs on Spent patterns June 8th.
Thomas Rooney, Newry fishing with his friend Seamus – 2 ‘lovely’ trout at 3 and 8lbs on Thursday June 11th on Spent Gnat.
Anthony McCaffrey, Derry – June 11th 4 trout on the spent, averaged 2 ½ – 3 ½ lbs.
Paul Burke Kennedy – 1 trout at 5 ½ lbs on a Spent Gnat.
Stuart McGargon, Belfast – 2 trout on June 9th, 1 @ 3 ½ lbs on a Spent Gnat, 1 @ 4 ½ lbs on a Royal Wulff.
Simon Ruthland, England – 4 trout fishing the spent on Monday and Tuesday evening, heaviest weighed in at 7lbs, all released.
David McCoy, Belfast – 4 trout averaging 2 ½ – 4 ½ lbs using Spent patterns on Monday evening June 8th, fishing from 6pm to midnight. All released.
Mark Henderson, England – 2 trout at 2 ½ and 3 ½ lbs caught using size 14 Spent patterns, all released.
Peter McArdle, Dundalk – June 9th 4 trout all averaging around 3lbs, 3 trout on Friday June 12th, 2 at 1 ½ lbs and 1 at 4lbs. All caught using Spent Gnat patterns.
John Dwyer, Dublin – 5 trout for Monday and Tuesday, heaviest weighed in at 5lbs caught Tuesday June 9th on a Klinkhammer variant.
Cameron Ferror, England – 3 trout on June 8th, using Spent and Wulff patterns, heaviest weighed in at 4 ¾ lbs (all released).
Mooring at Church Island, June 14th
Brenda Montgomery IFI