I spent yesterday visiting my Mother. It was an enjoyable day. I took the dog bunny hunting across the fields...no bunnies but lots of birds to chase, so she was happy. Today I left her behind when I went fishing. We decided to fish a river, rather than the lough as we were not sure of the weather conditions. Noel is a member of Clane Anglers, so he took me to the River Liffey. It was an enjoyable day, I had about 12 'takeable' fish, (28 -35 cm) and numerous smaller ones. I also lost two good fish after playing them for a while, small hooks and heavy current again. One of the fish was on for about 5 minutes and I never even saw it. I didn't really mind losing it but I'd have liked to have seen it so I knew what size it was. I saw the other one, he cartwheeled a few times..LOL...it was about 1.5 lb, (40cm) and I managed to let him go just when I thought he was mine....
The successful flies were very small bead-head nymphs again. Fished either upstream or on a dead drift down the river. Conditions were almost ideal. Waterlevels were quite low and the river was easily waded, unlike my last trip. There were a few Olives hatching sporadically, not enough to really encourage dry fly fishing, but enough for the occaisional fish to show. We finished early though as the rain came, and it was heavy and unrelenting, but we got a longer dry spell than we expected (up until 5 pm) so no complaints there. We had nearly had enough fun by then anyway... Tomorrow I spend in the studio, but I need to tie up a few flies for Noels trip West for him too. He wants a few of a particular pattern that he can't get in the shops...and he doesn't tie himself, so I'm happy to oblige.