Tag Archives: fly fishing

Spring Salmon Flies

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Here are a few salmon flies for the Spring.  Some Irish rivers will be open very soon and of course the Munster Blackwater will open on February 1st.  Experience says the best fishing will be between Ballyduff and Fermoy.  Some cold weather with low clear water would be ideal.

Black & Green Double

Black & Green Double

Black and green can be a good combination in the spring.  It is worth noting that when the water is low and clear you don’t always have to fish really big heavy flies.  I also like flies with some yellow in them in the spring.

Yellow&Orange

Yellow&Orange

Of course any combination of yellow, orange and black is great for salmon.  The profile of flies tied with arctic fox always looks good.

Arctic Fox Profile

Arctic Fox Profile

If you are faced with high coloured water then some big bright tube flies are worth a go.

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So if the river is good order it will surely be worth a try.  However, always be mindful of kelts and baggots at this time of year!

2013 A Review – Part III

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September

Normally reliable this past season fishing was tough due to high temperatures, drought conditions and algal blooms.  But we still managed to catch some nice fish!

Night fishing for seatrout

Night fishing for seatrout with Conor and the lads

Maury after landing a nice autumn fish on the Blackwater

Maury from Tyrone after landing a nice autumn fish on the Blackwater

Gurnard on soft plastics with Kuba

Gurnard on soft plastics with Kuba

Casting tuition on Lough Derg

Casting tuition on Lough Derg

October

In October the bass fishing picked up a bit!

Darren with his first ever sea bass.

Darren with his first ever sea bass.

And the water in the lakes started to clear up.

Tom "Doc" Sullivan from Galway with a cracking Knockaderry Bow

Tom “Doc” with a Knockaderry Bow

November

With the rivers closed it was more saltwater fishing and of course the Waterford lakes fished well.

A quality Vantry trout

A quality Vantry trout

And a trip to the Irish Fly Fair in Galway which was fantastic.  I really enjoyed giving a talk there on winter tactics for stillwater trout.

At the Irish Fly Fair in Galway

At the Irish Fly Fair in Galway

Denis O Toole with some of his templedog style salmon tubes

Denis O Toole with some of his templedog style salmon tubes

December

The year comes to a close.  And a chance to catch up on some fly tying.

Dabbler

Dabbler

But with all the mild weather there are still some seabass caught along the copper coast when conditions are good and the lakes continue to fish well.

Mick catches at Ardaire

Mick catches at Ardaire

A cracking Ardaire bow

A cracking Ardaire bow

With only a few days left in the year and with winds estimated at 150kph Shane and I managed to fit in one more days fishing.

A super Ardaire Bow

A super Ardaire Bow

Stillwater Fly Fishing Course

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This course will take place at the excellent facilities of Ardaire Springs Angling Centre on Sunday February 23rd 2014 at 9.30am.  At a very affordable price of just €60 per person this course will cover:

  • Dry Fly
  • Wet Fly
  • Lures
  • Nymphs/Buzzers

All aspects of these techniques will be covered including tackle choice, leader set up, fly selection and presentation.  The course tuition will last for approximately 4 hours and course participants can fish on at Ardaire for the rest of the day. We will be available to provide further advice if needed.  Course participants will also be provided with a set of course notes.

If you want to learn about stillwater fly fishing or just improve upon your current knowledge book a place by contacting Ned at 086 812 8937 or myself at 087 2965712.  Places are limited.  A booking deposit of €30 applies.

A quality Ardaire bow.

A quality Ardaire Rainbow.

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

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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!

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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.

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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!!

2013 – A Review: Part 1

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January

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In January the Waterford Reservoirs fished well with some quality trout caught on Knockaderry  in particular.

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February

February was a month of fishing shows.  First the Hooked Live show in Citywest where I gave a talk on fishing tactics and I also attended the Angling Ireland Expo in Swords.  The latter is the only of the two that is going ahead in 2014 but it should be a cracker.  I didn’t get much fishing in but I did get a few hours in on Ardaire Springs for the hard fighting rainbows there.

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March

March is a busy month with the Waterford Reservoirs reopening but this year the cold weather just continued.

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The River Suir opened for fishing on the 17th but the highlight for me was our annual trip to Lough Corrib for the Duckfly Hatch.  In 2013 we hit Cornamona in freezing conditions with no Duckfly to be seen.  We wondered if all our early season reservoir fishing in severe conditions might prove an advantage? It certainly didn’t hurt as we caught some cracking wild brown trout.

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April

April started with more really cold weather.

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However it was a great month for buzzer fishing on Carrigavantry.

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For me the highlight was when the weather picked up enough to take Luke and Leah out on Knockaderry for a few hours.  I think there was more time spent having picnics than fishing.

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Guiding other people is awesome but taking your own kids out fishing is SPECIAL. The brief session was capped off with one of the nicest fish I have ever landed from that lake. AWESOME!

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Stay tuned for Part 2 where I will be reviewing the second 4 months of 2013!

 

 

 

Flat Calms in Winter!

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The weather has been pretty good recently for this time of year but no wind means flat calms on a reservoir and this is far from ideal for the boat angler.

Flat Calm on Vantry

Flat Calm on Vantry

Factor in the cold weather on a stillwater that hasn’t been stocked for some time and you can expect some pretty tough fishing.  BUT you can still catch some quality fish like this cracking brownie!

Nice Vantry Brown

Nice Vantry Brown

These were exactly the conditions that faced me on a very recent trip to Carrigavantry reservoir.  My tactic for the fishing session was to set up  a 10ft 6wt rod with a full floater and 4 of my own buzzer patterns on a 20ft+ leader.  I always have confidence in fishing buzzers on this reservoir no matter what the time of year.  The no. 1 thing you have to remember though is to fish these buzzers extremely slow or static. 

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At times the fishing was really tough with no drift whatsoever.  But perseverance and a a little luck where the wind blew ever so slightly (just enough to move the boat along) for about 30 minutes meant I landed 3 browns and 3 bows for the session including the ones pictured above, this brown:

Spotty Brown

Spotty Brown

and this SMASHING bow!

Superbly Conditioned Bow

Superbly Conditioned Bow

Small Water Winter Tactics

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It’s that time of year to try the small water trout fisheries rather than packing away your fly fishing tackle.  I recently visited Ardaire Springs in Mooncoin with my friend Kuba to show him some of the tactics I would use on a small water in winter time.  Kuba is a great guy and has experience working for a fly fishing magazine in Poland.  In fact he still submits the occasional fly fishing article.

The weather was somewhat wintery as we set off on our journey to Kilkenny, although not quite as cold as I would have liked.

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When we got to the lake I set up 2 rods.  A 10ft 7wt Hardy with a sinking sweep line and a 10ft 6wt Hardy with a full floater.

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A few fish were cruising the margins just below the surface.  I quickly tied on a black fly and dropped it as close to a trouts nose as I could manage for my first cast.

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CRASH – Fish on!

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Once I had caught a fish or two from the margins in one spot they moved out further and into deeper water after the disturbance. I walked around the lake targeting fish along the margins in this fashion for a while.  A few more anglers arrived so I decided to opt for a change in tactics which met with instant results. Just a look at the bend in that Hardy 10ft 7wt!

bendy rod

I switched to lure on a sinking line and caught a few nice rainbows. Kuba put on a lure (saltwater fly!) and had some success with that also.  Some visiting anglers from Cork were having good success with BIG Snake Flies on really fast sinkers.  A few more fish and it was time for lunch.

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With the fish having seen all manner and colour of lures I figured that something more subtle would work best after lunch.  There was a spell of about 2 hours where the fish went sour and the other anglers were really struggling.  Even guys fishing the ever reliable bloodworm weren’t catching.  However, my decision to switch to a dabbler on a sweep line caught me several nice fish.

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When I went back over to where Kuba was fishing he looked quite surprised that I was catching on a dabbler but that’s fishing.  I demonstrated the technique I was using to him and caught a few more fish in the process.

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It was a very enjoyable day and we agreed to return to Ardaire Springs around Christmas by which time the weather should have turned colder and I can hopefully demonstrate some more tactics and techniques to Kuba. With a bit of luck we will catch lots more quality fish!

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Waterford Browns on the Move

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Fished Carrigavantry this morning for 5 hours.  The day started off cold but I spotted a few damsel nymphs making their way to the margins and that gave me an extra confidence.  The first few drifts produced three nice brown trout to a dark dabbler, one of which was real belter of a fish.  As the day warmed up the rainbows also came on the take.  I finished the session having caught four browns and four rainbows and missing several more good takes.  To see some pictures click here.