Lough Derg Brown Trout on Spent Gnat

Was up in Clare last weekend and had an unexpected trip out on the boat on Lough Derg with a friend. Mayfly fishing is only beginning to gather momentum now, on the Derg at least. Fishing has been tough going and it has started later than usual, with fisherman suggesting the hatch could last another 3 weeks. Fortunately the evening I got the opportunity to venture out the weather was relatively kind to us in that we had an overcast sky and a gentle south westerly wind. I've fished this lake on the boat before a couple of times during the mayfly hatch, but to no avail in less than good conditions.

Last Saturday we set off at 6.30 on our search for a trout. On our first stop we saw a good few gnat coming out but very little coming up to take them. We persisted for a while though, tracked a couple of fish and Mike was the first to hook up. If you intend to keep a trout on Lough Derg it must be over 14 inches and this fish didn't quite make it so we slipped it back without fuss.
Not wasting any more time on a relatively unproductive spot we made for another spot, slowing down at a couple of slicks on the way. These slicks are glassy looking lanes of water and it's always worth a look here as fly often accumulate and feeding trout are quite easy to spot. Making our way slowly along the next stretch we spotted quite a few spent gnat coming out so we set up a drift. Almost immediately we found cruising trout sipping fly off the top of the water. Now, I hardly ever fish dry flies but watching these trout picking flies off of the surface film and casting out for them is really exciting, edge of your boat seat stuff! It's all visual and you have to keep your nerve and deliver a perfect cast to have a chance to fool one of these spotty creatures. Around 20 minutes into the drift and I had my first take. The fish played strong and after the initial strike and jump stayed deep. A few minutes later and I slipped the net under the beauty below.

Measuring over 14 inches I estimated the trout to be a pound and a half. Best trout I've had off the lake, happy days! Obviously there are much bigger trout in the lake, but I was delighted to catch this and on a method I don't often use. Fishing on I caught one more trout, a bit smaller than this one so it went back and Mike also lost one more, which looked like it would have passed the size limit. After this a light drizzle descended and even though we tried a couple more spots nothing was happening.

If I was a bit more clued into this fishing I could have had a couple of more. One lesson I learnt, always cast upwind to a travelling trout. This is the way they usually run as the fly are being blown towards them and if they turn downstream its easier to recast that way. Having 2 in a boat, our tactic was to target one fish at a time, one casting upwind and the other downwind. Since there wasn't too much ripple on the water I used a long, tapered leader consisting of 6 foot 14 lb, 4 foot 12 lb and 4 foot 8 lb fluorocarbon.