Its been a while!!

Having been away for a year and a half working and travelling in Asia and Australia I am now back on the river. Driving into Bandon and passing the river it was great to see it in great nick and dropping slowly. While away I kept a track of how the fishing was going and while it was a washout of a summer the salmon fishing has been brilliant with plenty caught, and a lot of them big.
Since the 31st of August I have been putting in a good few hours, mainly on the fly upstream and downstrem of Bandon on Bandon Angling Association waters.

 

 

 

The closest I've come to catching salmo salar was on a size 8 orange Ally's Shrimp with a silver body fished off an S1/S2 tip at the head of a pool. Literally the 1st cast of the morning it just smacked the fly and charged down river. However as soon as I lifted into it I could feel it wasn't hooked right and it was off within 10 seconds. I never saw the fish so don't know what size it was. But a fish on the hook after the first cast, surely more were to come...not a sniff. The nearest I came to one was a follow from a grilse which chased my flying c right to my feet.
At the moment it looks like there is no great amount of fresh fish coming in, only the odd one off the tides. Fish are in the river but not fresh and will become increasingly difficult to tempt until fresh fish come in and stir them up. Being Septmeber and with building tides at the moment I'm sure a run of those silver bars is just around the corner!
It hasn't been a total blank though and I have managed a couple of sea trout. Fresh trout are running and the photo of the one below is typical of the size for the time of year.

 

Tomorrow I'm heading for Killarney and will be spending a few hours on the Laune with the fly rod. Been a long time since I fished so cant wait to put a line across this beautiful river.