Early Grilse on the Bandon

Joining in on the dawn chorus Saturday morning paid off with a sparkling, stocky grilse of about 5lbs on the fly. Its great to see these entering the system now, along with some good sized springers. The best fish I heard of at the weekend tipped the scales at 11lbs.

Once again the green butt cascade produced the goods and it is without doubt my favourite salmon fly, especially for fresh fish. Dressed in sizes to suit the water level you wont go far wrong with one tied to the end of your leader. When I started fishing with the standard cascade I couldn't conjur a pull but when I acquired a dressing which included the fluoro green trigger point there was no looking back. 

Hand lining, as the fly was  coming to the end of its swing across the main current, induced this fish to take with conviction. It pays to always retrieve a few yards of line before recasting as it just might inspire a following fish to pounce. Keeping the fish in the water while being unhooked made sure it swam away with gusto. 

Grilse, especially the early fish, don't take their time in ascending the river even when the water is low. Whilst having a quick flick with a spinner on Sunday a host of trout followed the flying c to my feet and next cast it was a grilse which had just entered the pool. Unfortunately it showed no more interest but walking back upstream I could see the same fish slowly creeping its way up at a leisurely pace.

The photo above is of a similar sized, very fresh salmon I observed last year in a lower volume of water just downstream of Dunmanway, approximately 35 miles upstream from where the river enters the sea. It will be very interesting to see how the fishing develops with the next rise in water levels!