The last fish of the season..

I got this 6 lb 14 oz beauty on the final day of the season on lough sheelin.

It took a silver invicta on the point.

I moved one other fish for the day but it just followed the flies without taking. Later I increased the fly size to try to induce a take, and this fish followed the flies again. This time I stopped the retrieve and waited for a few seconds, then lifted the rod. Thankfully he had the fly in his mouth at the time. :)

Following on from my previous post...

I didn't win the next Saturdays competition sadly :(
I did win the following competition though :) It was fished on the upper Liffey river.
I have had quite a bit of sucess this year, catching well even though most anglers are struggling with the conditions. The loughs have not fished well at all this year, and with all the rain we have had the rivers are often unfishable. I have only failed to catch once this year however and I must be averaging about 6 fish per day on the loughs, and probably about the same on the rivers.

two good days on the river...

I fished two competitions last weekend, both on rivers. I won the club competition on Saturday with the best three fish (a 3 fish bag limit, I caught about 8 takeable fish in total).

On Sunday it was the provincial championships, where I came second on my beat behind the overall winner. He and the beat winners of the other 4 beats will represent the province later in the year. I ended up as first reserve, my points total being the highest runner-up out of all the beats. (In fact my points were higher than some of the other beat winners, but to allow each beat to provide more than one qualifier is unfair on those drawn on the poorer beats that cannot hope to compete against a better beat draw. )
I was happy with the result, the winner deserved his victory, and fished very hard for the day. I did not work nearly as hard, but just fished to catch and enjoy the day. I stopped and watched the eventual winner for about 15 minutes in the morning session, and knew he was going to do very well, his work rate was high and he had the right methods and flies for the day.
I had decided to fish a team of spider patterns and a gold-head nymph, rather than dry fly (the winner was fishing dry, and then covering the water again with goldhead nymphs!!) and perservered with the method. I caught a couple of good fish too, up to 35cm. I only caught one below the 20cm minimum size, so my techniques worked in that sense. My fishing was a lot more relaxed than would have been needed, but I wanted to enjoy the day, and with the company of my steward (umpire), who was extremely pleasant, I arrived back at the "weigh-in" (points tally- it was catch and release) feeling relaxed and happy with my day.
I was actually surprised to be top runner-up, because even though I knew I was 2nd on my beat I had thought others would have had more success on the other beats. I am looking forward to this Saturdays second leg of the club competition for the 'trout cup', I feel in the mood to repeat last weeks result and ensure I win it!

I really should fish the rivers more often...

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.

The season is well under way....

I may take a trip down the country next week, but I have a couple of Fishing competitions in the next fortnight, so I will be busy with them. Of course I've had a couple of days out this week too..... sucessful ones on the lake. I am due to fish a river competition tomorrow, but with heavy rain yesterday, last night and more today, things are not looking good. The river will be high and coloured at best, in a full filthy flood at worst. This means the fishing will be extremely hard or a waste of time....mind you it will sort the men from the boys, only the boys will bother turning up! :lol:

Fishing for brown trout again...

Iwas out fishing yesterday morning. It was the first time since my last post as the weather has been less than suitable. We had clear skys for a change yesterday, although with strong winds. The conditions were only just fishable with the fly rod. I did manage a few trout though. I hooked one fish about 1.5lbs, solidly in the root of the pectoral fin...I thought I had a big one on! The fish took a run of about 30 yards when I hooked it, then was able to kite across the waves when I tried to gain some line back.......ahh well, it fought like a six pounder. I left about 12.30, there were ominous dark clouds approaching. About 10 minutes after I got into the van to come home the heavens opened with heavy rain and sleet, driven by the strong winds. It pays to watch the weather, and a half days fishing was preferrable to half a days fishing and a drenching in icy conditions. For information on my Painting click here

Another successful day on the lough.

I fished the opening day on lough Lene in Westmeath yesterday. Conditions were hard with the weather cold and with strong blustery winds. I did manage to get one good fish, just short of 2lb, and missed another couple, the main reason being that it was difficult to control the flies in the surface in the strong blustery wind. The Claret Dabbler worked again, although I'd tried half the flies in my fly box prior to getting a fish.

I don't expect to be out again for a while, we are due to have a cold snap with snow and strong winds. It won't be good fishing weather.

Time marches on....

I am away fishing on Saturday, March 1st. It is the start of the season for the majority of trout fisheries. I will let you know how I got on.