For a review of some recent guided days and casting tuition click on the link below.
Author Archives: gamefishingireland
Kick Sampling the Waterford Reservoirs
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Following on from his last visit to Waterford where Dr Ken Whelan caught a superb 8lbs brown trout after kick sampling the margins of Carrigavantry, he was back again but this time it was Knockaderry Reservoir. To say Ken was impressed with the rich variety of quality food items available for the resident trout would be something of an understatement. Each area of the lake sampled showed some fantastic aquatic insects. There were everything from tiny fish, various caddis, chironomids, water worms, leeches, to nymphs shrimps and water boatmen.
One scoop of the little sample net near the boat dock contained some cracking damsel nymphs. Any trout would be glad to get hold of these beauties.
There was also some serious snails in the margins and lots of hoglouse.
snails
After the sampling was completed Ken had a try at catching some trout. Conditions were more suitable to nabbing a rainbow trout as it was very warm and bright. There were a few rainbows rising in the wind lanes and Ken managed to catch several of these on emergers.
They were very hard fighting trout and some of the overwintered rainbows were fin perfect and of a good size. Nice going Ken.
Ah! – That’s Bass.
First saltwater fly session of 2014. Click on the link below to find out how I got on.
Ah! – That’s Bass
A Day on the Water with Ken Whelan
I was privileged to spend a day on Carrigavantry Reservoir with renowned fisheries scientist Dr Ken Whelan. This was Ken’s first visit to the Waterford Reservoir but I doubt it will be his last. It was a very enjoyable and rewarding experience to spend some time with Ken who has such an in depth knowledge of fisheries related matters. Ken had his aquatic insect collecting kit with him and we tried several areas of the lake to see what food sources were available for the trout.
Ken was very impressed with the rich diet of food available for the trout at this lake and it was no surprise to him that the fish are always in such excellent condition. We found olive nymphs, bloodworms, buzzers, various caddis, damsel nymphs, dragonflies, beetles, shrimps, water boatment etc in the lake.
Dragonfly Nymph
Water Boatman (moulting)
After the “science bit” I took Ken out fishing on the lake for a while. We caught a few overwintered rainbows that were feeding subsurface.
I suggested to Ken we change tactics and try for some of the larger brown trout present in the fishery. Conditions were good and I was confident as to where the fish might be. After a little searching Ken hooked into into something very large. After a superb fight I netted a MONSTER brown trout for him. He measured the length (64cm) and girth (40cm) of the fish which we estimated at 7.5lbs to 8lbs weight. He then released the magnificent fish for some lucky angler to catch another day.
The wind picked up and we tried one last drift before I had to leave and as it seemed to be our lucky day as Ken managed another fine brown trout of around 5.5lbs.
A fantastic end to a fantastic day. Once again the Waterford reservoirs lived up to their excellent reputation. Looking forward to some more fishing adventures with Ken later in the season.
Monsters on the Move
The MONSTER Waterford browns have been active in the last two weeks. We have had some cracking sessions on both Carrigavantry and Knockaderry. With the warmer weather hatches have increased resulting in good surface activity on the calmer days. Expect to see black and grey buzzers hatching on the mild calm days and lake olives on the less pleasant days. The first of the damsel nymphs are also making an appearance on the trouts diet. On my last trip to Knockaderry I had some fine brown trout on both wet fly and on buzzer.
Carrigavantry also fished very well to light buzzers and dries. I had two days there recently taking Kuba and Martin out on different occassions. Kuba managed some lovely browns on his trip.
Martin and I landed a mixture of rainbows and browns on dry flies when I took him out.
River Trout Fishing Course a Great Success
We had a full house for the river trout fishing course on the Ballyduff Bridge Fishery. The day started off cool and overcast but it warmed up a bit in the afternoon. In the morning we looked at tackle choice, casting and some key techniques such as wet fly, streamer fishing and various nymphing methods. There was a great focus and willingness to learn amongst the course participants.
Maurice even managed to hook and land a nice trout during the demo!
After a break for tea and sandwiches we continued on by demonstrating dry fly and dry/dropper tactics. Despite the cold wind and lack of a hatch on the day, one wee fish even rose to my black gnat when I was giving a few pointers on fishing dries. The guys all fished on for a while in the evening and it was good to see them picking up a few fish on wet flies and weighted nymphs. The next course is the Salmon Fishing Course on May 18th also at Ballyduff Bridge Fishery for the great value fee of just €80 per person. If you are interested in learning about salmon fly fishing or improving your technique, then get in touch.
Drowes Salmon Fishing Workshop
Drowes salmon fishing workshop went great last weekend.Click on the presentation below to get the full review.
What a team!
Mighty Mike
Mike from Clonmel joined the Waterford Fly Fishing Club for this year and while he had been catching some quality trout he was keen to learn the nuances of buzzer fishing, particularly with the large browns that were moving in the lakes already this season. So we arranged to meet up at Carrigavantry on a day with a nice light southerly wind. Conditions were looking good for some buzzer fishing and there was a reasonable amount of small buzzer hatching too. Once we were on the lake I was showing Mike how I fish buzzers on these lakes when WHAM! I was into a serious trout. It turned out to be a superb brownie. Just what we were after.
After a quick photo the trout was released back into the lake. A great start but now to get Mike into them! It took a little while and a few missed takes and then Mike nailed one. It was as pretty a brown as you could hope to catch in the lake and it was really big too.
Mike continued to catch and release a few more smaller fish.
And he finished off his session with another large brown. Needless to say he was a happy angler at the end of the session.
Waterford Lakes
The Waterford lakes have been fishing well of late. When the temperature is up and the winds light there has been a great midge hatch. Emergers have been working well for the large browns averaging 5lbs.
Dabblers and bumbles are always good at this time of year. Be sure to use strong tippet for the hard hitting Knockaderry bows. Some of these are 4lbs plus!
When conditions are suitable Carrigavantry is a super buzzer lake. If the midge are hatching keep an eye out for rising trout sheltered areas.
The big bows put up an awesome scrap on a 5wt.
These lakes are well worth a try in the coming weeks. Details on permits etc are available on the club website. Www.waterfordflyfishing.com
Corrib Duckfly Weekend 2014
We spent the weekend on Lough Corrib. As usual we stayed in Grasshopper Cottage, Dooros. For us, this is an ideal guesthouse, overlooking the lake, and where the owner knows his fishing on the Lough. It is also just over the road from where our good friend Tom Sullivan lives. He is always a great help to us when we go to Corrib. We like fishing around Cornamona, you can generally find a sheltered bay somewhere!
The start of the weekend was horrible weatherwise, bitterly cold and strong winds. We knew from last year that with little duckfly hatching in such conditions the fish might be feeding on hoglouse.
This proved to be the case as is evident from the photo above, and we caught on dabblers and hoglouse patterns.
The Sage One 7wt performed great for pulling wets. I think the 6wt would be an ideal “all round” rod.
The forecast was much better for Sunday – warmer weather, light winds, and no rain. Time to change tactics. We set up the 7wts with smaller wets (duckfly emergers). The fast intermediate lines were replaced with slow intermediates and hover lines. On the Sage One 5wt it was a full floater and buzzers. I also prepared a leader with 2 CDC dry duckfly patterns in case there was a good rise.
Conditions were very good and a lot of fly hatched. We caught on wets and buzzers.
After lunch the lake went calm and we spotted trout rising in one corner of a bay. We switched from buzzers to dries. I hooked one trout on a shuttlecock fly but failed to land it. It was a good days fishing where we kept two trout that we had spooned. They had been feeding on buzzers rather than hoglouse.
Lessons learned:
– there is no guarantee of good conditions in March so be prepared for tough weather and fishing
– you have to adapt to the conditions and what the trout are likely to be feeding on
– when the conditions are good the potential for great fishing is certainly there
– make sure your digital camera is properly charged for the weekend so that you don’t have to use your phone (oops!)
We will back again around the same time next year. Hopefully we get a full weekend of good weather.
Game Fishing Ireland 