Bountiful Brownies

This year I promised myself I would do some more trout fishing at the start of the season when salmon are less plentiful. Good numbers of fast growing brown trout are present throughout the Bandon. Rather than employing the usual nymphs or wet flies I decided to fish with small weighted streamers on a fast sinking line, something I've never done on the river. Takes using this method can be savage and I've really enjoyed targeting these yellow bellies after mostly ignoring them for a long time. The biggest I've had so far was just over a pound in weight but bigger trout are about. The last photo shows one such fish which I estimated to weigh over three pounds. When I saw it first I thought it was a salmon kelt but a look at the photos afterwards proved otherwise! In general, the brown trout fishing has got off to a very good start on the river, with french nymphing being particularly effective.

Salmon fishing is picking up and slowly gaining momentum. The first confirmed springer was caught and released on March 5th using a Dee Monkey fly tied on an aluminium tube. Another fish was grassed yesterday, March 20th and also fell to the fly. Water levels over the last fortnight have been perfect and today there is a small rise in the water. A fresh fish with my name on it will hopefully come sooner rather than later but at least a few salmon are running.