Bohernabreena reservoirs.

I had an enjoyable afternoons fishing Yesterday. I fished the two lakes up at Bohernabreena, where the river Dodder rises in the Dublin Mountains. I caught a few nice little brown trout in the upper lake, and then walked down to the lower lake and fished for the larger fish there, catching a few of them also.
I had plenty of fish without fishing hard, and found them to be hard fighting in the cold water.
It was a change from my recent hard fishing days. I have also realised, my expectations from a days fishing are very different from the average. I have been fishing on a couple of occaisions recently with someone who would consider themselves a fairly good angler, with a better than average catch rate. His catches have been consistently under 20% of mine.

I have been fishing against anglers of a similar standard to myself for so long it is easy to forget that what I would consider an average catch is for many a red-letter day. When I go with Noel, while he doesn't fish very competitively any more, the ability to catch fish is still there. Noel doesn't mind not catching these days....(I do!!), but he can always pull out a fish or two, even when the fishing is hard and would not be an 'average' angler. Most angling is done outside of the competitive arena, I can forget that on occaision. Even my mayfly time 'week away' is in the company of an ex-international competitor from England, and contains an element of friendly rivalry...
However, if you want an enjoyable few hours fly fishing in beautiful surroundings, just outside of Dublin City, the lakes at Bohernabreena are available to members of the Dodder angling club, annual memberships are available in all the tackle shops for 10 euro!... Small dark flies work best in the reservoirs, if you are thinking of going.

two competitions, two fish, two different results.

I have fished two competitions last weekend. It was hard work, and we had hail storms and cold northerly winds to contend with. I got two fish both days. On Saturday it was a four man team competition and we did not do well, only weighing in* (measuring, it is catch and release) 5 fish between the four of us, not nearly enough for success. I also lost a very good fish when it ran underneath the boat. I had to put too much pressure on it, and combined with a very small hook,a size 16 spider pattern I just pulled out of it. These things happen, and it's always the big ones you remember.... that cliche.....the one that got away.... lots of smaller ones do too, you just forget them.

On Sunday it was a club competition and I was pipped to the victory by another two fish bag with a lovely big trout in it, which put my two good fish into second place by an ounce or two. I was surprised that my two fish did so well though, as I expected a couple of four fish bags to be weighed in, but at the weigh-in there were only 11 fish above 33 cm recorded for the day with mainly fish below the size limit having been caught by most of the anglers. Conditions were hard on Sunday also. It was almost 5 hours in before I got my first fish, finally I got four in total but two were too small to count, so I had a busy final hour and a half as I missed another good sized fish. It shows how varying methods and flies pays dividends, along with changing location I eventually found where the fish were and how to entice them. Not missing the chances you get then results in success, well hopefully anyway. It also shows how perseverance pays dividends and that it is always worth struggling on when conditions are hard.

My next competition is in June, so I can relax and enjoy my fishing until then. Hopefully the weather will improve.

Duckfly time

I have had a couple of days out in the last week. With the mild spell of the last couple of days the buzzer or duckfly have started hatching. The fish are actively feeding on them and I have had some good catches. We stayed out until dark last night on lough Lene, there were some good trout feeding well in the wind lanes. They were difficult to catch though, ignoring dry flies and emergers. I did manage to find a way to get them eventually, three small spider patterns (16's) fished sub surface on a slow to static retrieve. I only managed to land about 50% of the fish though, the small size hooks were pulling out of the larger fish, some also managed to throw the hook by summersaulting out of the water when hooked, tarpon style. It was fun, but not exactly productive!

I had a half day 'stockie-bashing' on Blessington reservoir too. It is fun for a short while, especially after a long winter. I did manage one good wild fish there too, about 3lbs weight. That was on a buzzer pattern too, after I'd grown tierd of catching stockies on lures.

Next week I'll have to start painting again though, and ease up on the fishing, but there again I need to practice for a competition on the 12th.