Tag Archives: fly rods

Go Deep or go Home!

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I had heard a few times that the western Lough’s can fish well at the end of the season to daphnia feeding fish in the deeps. There can also be a chance of dry fly fishing with sedges and daddies.

With this in mind I contacted my pal and Corrib boatman Tom Doc Sullivan to see if a trip would be worthwhile. Tom really knows his stuff and he told me to make the journey. However I wouldn’t be fishing any of the drifts I had fished on previous trips. It seemed like – go deep or go home!

I was joined by my mate Dave who has also fished the lake before but never at this time of year. Preparation had gone well and I was armed with a Mackenzie FX1 10ft #6 and #7wt. Tom had recommended tying up some bright daphnia patterns to pull on an Airflo Fast Intermediate line. As usual he was spot on.

We didn’t know what to expect but followed Tom’s advice and with good conditions we had great sport catching beautiful wild Irish trout in a fantastic location. 24 trout landed in 2.5days fishing is awesome.

We learned a lot about fishing the lake at this time of year and it was brilliant to have several nice trout take our dry flies.

There is still a month left and the great thing was there wasn’t as many boats out compared to mayfly time. The weather was much milder than some of our early season duckfly and olive fishing trips too.

We will definitely be contacting Tom around this time next year and if prospects are good we will be back.

Blackwater salmon

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Recent guided sessions produced some nice spring salmon from the Munster Blackwater river. This season the water levels have been quite high on our local rivers and fly fishing opportunities have been fairly limited. Luckily the weather has been improving and the rivers reached a better if not ideal fly fishing height, particularly in the upper stretches. As a consequence we managed a few very nice salmon.

My guests were using two outfits, one was a 13’7 Mackenzie Atlas rod matched with a Mackenzie Phased Density Shooting Head in Float/Sink 2 and a short leader to a White Francis fly.

The other client used a 15ft Mackenzie FX1 GRAPHENE Rod matched with a Mackenzie Float/S1 shooting head and attached to the business end was a local shrimp fly pattern called Hick’s Bug. The guys were blown away by this kit and when good fish came the were even more impressed.

So some very happy anglers and a nice tackle test was a great result. The river is coming into good order again after the latest flood so fingers crossed for some more action. Tight lines!

Mackenzie Pro Team!!!

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I am absolutely thrilled to officially announce that I am now the newest member of the Mackenzie Pro Team.  They say a picture says a thousand words and if you ask me the rods in the photo below are all smiling from ear to ear!!

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I met Scott Mackezie some years ago when he visited Ireland and we got on really well.  We stayed in contact through social media etc from then on and I watched closely as he developed his range of DTX rods.  At the same time I was developing my guiding business and expanding on the range of casting clinics and fishing courses I deliver annually.  Towards the end of last year I tried his double handed rods when my good pal and buddy Maurice Cahill was using them.  As expected from a rod designed by a multiple world champion spey caster these rods were top class.  This year I have used the single handed rods several times and they really are exceptional.

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The old adage ‘there’s no I in team’ applies as these guys are real TEAM players which makes everything so much easier.  I am looking forward to working closely with Scott and fellow Pro Team Member Maurice for the future.

Thanks guys!