Tag Archives: Trout

2013 – A Review: Part 1

Posted on by

January

2013-01-10 14.48.36

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

2013-01-10 16.32.48

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.

2013-02-22 14.30.15

March

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

2013-03-12 12.46.59

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.

2013-03-23 16.35.16

April

April started with more really cold weather.

2013-04-03 10.00.21

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

2013-04-03 14.12.11

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.

2013-04-04 12.14.01

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!

2013-04-04 11.57.08

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

 

 

 

Flat Calms in Winter!

Posted on by

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. 

IMG_3256

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

Posted on by

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.

road

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.

1463746_549912885101720_266635032_n

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.

1476011_668102836553799_1979813968_n

CRASH – Fish on!

splash

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.

release

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.

beached

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.

dabbler fish

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!

best

Waterford Browns on the Move

Posted on by

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.

Bassing it up this weekend

Posted on by

Went bass fishing with Mike yesterday and we had a great session.  We started off with weighted soft plastics in about 25ft of water.  I had a few on a worm in a deep channel on the coming tide.

2013-08-18 17.09.38

We moved about a bit at high tide and Mike had a few beauties on a Feed Shallow plug and I smashed a few on a IMA Hound.

2013-08-18 17.10.56

Just before we finished up Mike had another on the Feed and I nailed a smaller but pretty fish on an IMA Sasuke.

2013-08-18 17.48.30