Tag Archives: brown trout

Festival Fishing

Posted on by

I was delighted to be asked to some fly tying and trout fishing demos at the Clancy Brothers Festival in Carrick on Suir today. There was lots going on and a fair old crowd about enjoying the mild weather. My good friend Kuba came along and as usual took some cracking photos.

marching band

marching band

I spent the first hour and a half tying flies, concentrating on salmon and seatrout flies.

Fly tying

Fly tying

A few of the local fly fishermen dropped by and asked lots of interesting questions. It was great to get some nice comments on the flies on display.

IMGP0487

Next on the agenda was a wild trout fly fishing demo. The weather was fairly bright and I knew the town waters would be very heavily fished by local fly anglers and those expert Carrick bubble & fly men.  Catching wild trout here could prove tricky and there was also a very stiff downstream wind that was going to make nymphing difficult, but not impossible. I set up a nymph duo rig under an indicator and I must have got the depth just right because I managed 3 trout in the first three casts.. . . . Result!

 

fish on

fish on

They weren’t very large trout but welcome all the same. I’m always impressed by the beauty of these Wild Suir trout.  The highlight of the evening for me was the great interest shown by the local people, especially the kids, when they saw me catching those trout. I managed 6 nice wee trout in a very short space of time proving once more how fantastic the river Suir really is.  A big thanks to the organisers and everyone who dropped by to the fly tying area and fishing demo. Looking forward to next year already.

2 festival flies!

2 festival flies!

For more info on the festival click here.

A Day on the Water with Ken Whelan

Posted on by

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.

IMG_3886

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

Dragonfly Nymph

Water Boatman (moulting)

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.

Rainbow CV April 2014

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.

Brown 2 April 2014

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.

Brown 3 small April 2014

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

Posted on by

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.

IMG_3834

IMG_3849

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.

IMGP9302s

Martin and I landed a mixture of rainbows and browns on dry flies when I took him out.

Facebook-20140421-070155

Waterford Lakes

Posted on by

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.

image

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!

image

When conditions are suitable Carrigavantry is a super buzzer lake.  If the midge are hatching keep an eye out for rising trout sheltered areas.

image

The big bows put up an awesome scrap on a 5wt.

image

These lakes are well worth a try in the coming weeks. Details on permits etc are available on the club website. Www.waterfordflyfishing.com

Lough Bumbles

Posted on by

Tied up a few new bumbles to try on Lough Corrib this March.  The bumble is a great top dropper fly in a wave.

IMG_3651

For these flies I have decided to use black, claret and reds.  A few trigger points with fluorescent tags, holographic tails and jungle cock cheeks will hopefully draw the fish.

IMG_3649

The most likely fly to hatch in late March is the duckfly (a black midge) so these bumbles are tied on standard wet fly hooks in size 12 and 14.  You don’t have to tie all your bumbles really bushy.  You can tie some a little sparser for calmer conditions

IMG_3652

Looking forward to giving some of these a try.

IMG_3658

Snakes but No Ladders!

Posted on by

Dave from Waterford Angling is going to fishing in New Zealand later this season so asked me to tie up a few snake flies for him to try on his trip.  The first pattern I opted for was a Black Sculpin Helmet.  The Helmet should add weight and black is a great colour for browns.

IMG_3530

The next pattern will hopefully work for him on the lakes there.  It uses White Barred Rabbit, bright braid and has bead chain eyes.

IMG_3532

I couldn’t send him off to do any streamer fishing without flies in brown and olive.  These are always great colours. I decided not to add weight on these ones so Dave can let his streamer line pull them down.  I did add realistic eyes though.

IMG_3534

IMG_3536

While I had the materials out I got to thinking about these flies and that the big attraction of them to trout has got to be their movement in the water.  However, when fishing on stocked lakes these flies can work well fished slowly. In this case what I wanted though was a bit more body to the fly and a splash of colour without taking away any movement.  So I came up with this variation.  Trials start soon  . . . .so watch this space!

Snake Mk II

Snake Mk II

Boobies and Rampant Rabbits at Ardaire Springs!!!!!

Posted on by

I took Kuba, Dave and Frank over to Ardaire Springs yesterday. We were joined by Mick who is really getting into this Winter stillwater fishing. The guys started fishing and nothing was happening except for one Mick had on a bloodworm.  I decided to try my new articulated zonker in the hope of a decent fish, and it worked!

prof

I showed the guys the fly I caught on.

Articulated Zonker with diving vane

Articulated Zonker with diving vane

Mick said he didn’t have any of these articulated Rabbit flies with Vibrating lips but he would try a snake fly and I gave Kuba one of my chartreuse snakes to try.  Everyone started to smash fish!

Mick catches on his Rabbit Fly!

Mick catches on his Rabbit Fly!

Someone made a comment that the Rabbit flies were rampant.  SO for the rest of the day snake flies and zonkers were known as Rampant Rabbit flies!!!!!!

A nice bow for Kuba on a Chartreuse Snake

A nice bow for Kuba on a Chartreuse Snake

After lunch the day changed and the fishing got really really tough.  Dave and Frank picked up a few fish on static bloodworms and Kuba caught a nice brown on one of my Dabblers.

A nice brown caught on a dabbler

A nice brown caught on a dabbler

I managed to winkle out a few more on a small Booby before we finished up.

bigrelease

The guys commented on how they had really enjoyed the day and picked up a few new fishing techniques.  The banter was great and everyone caught fish!!