Been very busy with guiding and tuition since I got back from the Northwest Angling Fair in Tyrone. At the Clancy festival in Carrick on Suir I did some casting demonstrations and tuition on the local Carrick on Suir Club waters.  This is a super club who are very interested in promoting fly fishing and have worked hard to provide fantastic facilities of members and day permit holders.  They have a really impressive stretch of water along the River Suir.

The daytime trout fishing has been tough in the bright warm conditions but we still had lots of fish on nymphs and dries but no really big ones.  Having said that wild brown trout certainly don’t have to be big to be pretty fish.  Just look at the beauty we had from a local stream the other day.  Remarkable colours.

On the other hand the bass fishing along the copper coast and into Tramore has been awesome over the last set of spring tides.  There were large numbers of fish caught in the Tramore area during night sessions.  When the weather is very warm and sea is calm night fishing over shallow sandy surf beaches can be very productive indeed.  However, as a fishing guide a lot of my clients either cannot or just do not want to fish during those hours so I am faced with trying to get them onto fish in daylight during the same conditions.  This means trying a lot of tactics but the big tides do help quite a bit and we had some fantastic bass recently, with several over 70cm and one over 80cm.

Adapting to the fishing situation is important and we had fish on surface lures, shallow divers and in particularly the soft plastics.  Senko worms are really doing the business along with some paddle tails.

The next spring tides are not far away so I’m really looking forward to getting out there.  Remember the be familiar with the bass angling regulations and practice catch and release.