Tag Archives: rainbow

Taking the Mick!

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My pal Mick had heard we had been putting the Mackenzie DTX single handed 10ft 7wt through its paces over at Ardaire Springs recently so he decided to have a go there himself.  Having fished the lower Suir for years Mick was very familiar with the Mackenzie Spey Rods but had not yet tried any of the single handed rods.

The average trout at Ardaore is a very good size and there are plenty rainbow trout in the 4lb to 6lbs range.

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These are broad well finned hard fighting rainbows that can really test your tackle.

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Mick is a very good angler and has a habit of catching decent fish so it came as no surprise to me that he managed one of the even larger rainbows in the fishery although this one just fell short of being a double.

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After a quick photo the trout was safely released.

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When I asked Mick to sum up his trial of the rod he used just two words “top class”!

 

 

 

Course Update

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So far we have had a great response to the Matching the Hatch Course to run in Courtlough Fishery on January 18th. Further to Derek Evans article in todays’ Irish Times angling column please find below some additional detail on the course content:

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Phase 1: (classroom) – slides and images as an introduction to small still water entomology, including images of what we may find in the lake. A summary of the various life cycles (including fry) and the sequence of insect hatches throughout the season.  Details of important terrestrials likely to feature on the trouts diet during the year.

Getting prepared in the seminar room.

Phase 2: – collecting and sorting the insects into groups along the lake shore

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LUNCH BREAK

Phase 3: – going through the fly boxes and tying in the imitations with the natural animals. Emphasis will be placed on how the insects, crustaceans / snails move and how the flies move in the water and at what depth.

Articulated Zonker with diving vane

Fry imitation Articulated Zonker with diving vane

Shrimp

Shrimp Imitation

Phase 4: – angling approaches, equipment and tackle, techniques and set ups

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A place on the course would make an ideal Christmas gift!

Savage Fishing

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The local reservoirs have been fishing well lately.  Today was another great example when Wayne who has returned to Ireland from Australia had a super session on Carrigavantry.  The fishing was quiet in the morning but fish were moving.  I suggested a few tactical changes and after lunch he was just slamming the resident bows on dries.

fish on

Fish on

These were not easy fish to fool but when they did hit the takes were just SAVAGE!

A quality bow.

A quality bow.

We even managed a few double hook ups which came as a surprise to Wayne as earlier in the day a lot of these fish were not interested in his offerings.

One each safely in the net

One each safely in the net

It was very pleasing to see that Wayne is a fan of catch and release.  He rarely ever keeps a trout.  One trout that we spooned was his bag limit for the day.

CPR (Catch Photo Release)

CPR (Catch Photo Release)

 

Snakes but No Ladders!

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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.

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

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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.

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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!!!!!

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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!!

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