Spring Coneheads

Well not long now at all to the new season and with more rivers open on January 1st hopefully a few fish will be caught, water permitting. The river Bandon is open thankfully, just waiting to see if it will be open for spring fishing as for the past few years the river has been catch and release from February 15th until May 12th. With a quota of 1,162 fish for the year there is a good chance it will be open, we shall wait and see.

Having tied a few coneheads for coloured water, it was time to tie a couple for clear water.

All tubes above are 15mm brass tubes with brass coneheads. No fear they'll get down nice and deep. Bound to get some cold weather this winter yet so fishing deep will be a necessity. Looking back at the photos now should have wet the silver doctor a tad, looking well fluffy! Can't wait to fish it though, hopefully it will do the job and it is very much a proven pattern. 

Lately I have also been toying around with bodyless coneheads. These are composed of feather and fur materials tied on a small length of plastic and a cone put in front.

As the tube is so small and not wide enough to fit a hook into I'll use the swing tube at the back.

As you can see here it is simple to change the appearance of the swing tube by adding any material to it you like. This in itself gives the conehead a body and hopefully with the quick movement of the swing tube, the glint of silver, pearl, green, etc will act as another trigger point for the onlooking fish. Very much looking forward to seeing the movement this set up will achieve. Another advantage it will give is that it will be useful to carry if you happen to be fishing for trout and come across a salmon, especially during spring. These are light enough to cast on a trout fly rod but heavy enough to achieve some depth.

Lastly, 3 patterns tied on bottle tubes which will be useful in slower water.

Some sea trout flies and salmon farming

Below are 3 sea trout flies that I could never be without. Rarely have they ever let me down.

I find them very versatile and be they on the point, dropper or fished solo sea trout cannot resist them. Brown trout are also fond of them and for some reason the Executioner seems to winkle out some of the better brownies. 

Another fly I tied lately, and will be the last conehead for coloured water that I'll tie in a while, is the Calvin's Conehead. Cannot wait to try it!

Went for a walk along the river yesterday and in less then a 500m stretch I counted 4 trees out in the middle of the river. The last big flood seems to have caused some damage and one of the trees was ripped from bank, leaving it very unstable. On a bright note I did see some redds so spawning is well underway! To have the chance of seeing salmon spawning live, click here. It is an underwater camera situated on the Suldalslagen River in SW Norway.

One change I've made to the blog is the addition of the new camera in Bandon town. This is a live feed and is very useful to check out the level of the river before venturing out! You can see it on the left hand side of the page.

Lately there has been a lot of talk of the current proposal of salmon farms on the west coast of Ireland and along the south west also. The proposed farm in Galway Bay is to produce 15,000 tonnes of salmon which is huge. Another farm is proposed for Bantry Bay and if these get the nod many more are in the pipeline. We are currently trying our best to stop it from going ahead as the sea lice associated with these farms will have disastrous consequences for migrating salmon smolts and coastal roaming sea trout. Basically, our current population of both wild salmon and sea trout will collapse.

 A protest is being held on main street Carrigaline on the 15th of this month outside of Minister Coveney's office. If you can make it and show your support brilliant, it will give Mr. Coveney something to think about while eating his Christmas turkey! A petition is also online here, do please sign it. To read more on the subject a website has also been set up, http://www.nosalmonfarmsatsea.com/. 

If you would like to submit an appeal, send your submission off to www.bim.ie. Closing date is December 12th.

Do please show your support as everyone's say on the matter can make a difference.