Springers Wait For May

A week into the month of May and the spring salmon fishing on the Bandon has picked up tremendously! Up until the beginning of the month it is fair to say fishing was fairly slow. Just a couple of fish were grassed in March and fishing gained more momentum in April but all in all, given the great water, numbers of fish caught were modest.

However, with the arrival of swallows from South Africa came springers from the Atlantic in better numbers. Over the last few days catches have increased considerably and I was lucky enough to land my first fresh salmon of the season on May 7th weighing 7.5lbs . Having fished through a couple of pools with the fly and spinner unsuccessfully I finally found myself at the right place at the right time!

With the overcast conditions and a tint of colour in the water I opted for the ever reliable black and copper flying c. This fish must have only just come into the pool as the fight wasn't exactly electrifying, a sure sign of a hard running fish. It's an observation that has been echoed by others recently, with everything caught being mint fresh. Sure is nice to get the first proper fish of the season under the belt!

April wasn't totally devoid of sport for me either though. My heart skipped a beat for a moment mid month as I thought I had hooked a decent fish but when netting it I realised I had indeed caught a very well mended baggot .

If in doubt its always best to put a fish back. A quick look in the gills before leaving her go revealed maggots, a reliable indication of an old fish.
While salmon were thin on the ground a foray around some local estuaries was called for to see if there were some early bass or sea trout knocking about. Fishing with small metal lures, slob trout and sea trout found it hard to resist!

As can be seen from the photos all the trout, bar one sea trout which I din't take a photo of, were in great condition and at times fed ravenously. Retrieving the lure straight attracted no interest whatsoever, but jerking the rod tip and moving the lure erratically, trying to mimic injured baitfish, did the trick. All trout were returned and hopefully we can catch them on the fly during a warm summers night.

To end this post, the following is a video of the once famous and world renowned salmon fishery on the River Shannon at Castleconnell. Filmed back in 1995, it demonstrates how successful this fishery was even in more recent times when proper fishery management was applied. The fishery manager, Michael Murtagh, was clearly a very knowledgeable man and really brought this place to life again after the ill effects endured post installation of the hydro electric dam in the 1930's. Just look at the calibre and quantity of fish that were caught! He has since retired and the fishery is now derelict, although glimpses of the past are sometimes still seen today. I lived in Killaloe for a year and was lucky enough to fish it and land a couple of fish on the fly. Even though it is a shadow of its former self, the fishery possesses incredible fly water that instills you with confidence in every cast. More information for permits to fish the Shannon and Mulcair rivers can be found on the Limerick and District Anglers Association website.

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.

Opening Week on the River Bandon

Rain, rain, rain...and more rain! The beginning of the 2014 salmon season across the country has been extremely difficult on a lot of rivers due to the continuous low pressure systems crossing the country. Luckily some fisheries such as the Drowes, Waterville, Delphi and Killarney Flesk are picking up spring salmon but for most the biggest challenge lies in being able to get near the river! As you might notice these systems have lakes, a huge contributing factor to their spring time success. A major effect of a lake is to stabilise river levels, hold back excess volumes of water and filter the water so that it is clear in the outflowing river (although the Flesk flows into Lough Leane).

The Bandon opened to a roaring flood of over 2.0 metres on February 15th, rendering it unfishable. Since then we have had a further 4 floods. However, in between these events it was possible to go out and wet a line. There have been no reports of fresh fish as of yet but no doubt a few are running with all this water. The best reported catch so far is a 3lb brown trout released on the fly. So far I have released 10 kelts and met a number more. I thought most of them would be gone by now with all the high water but this hasn't been the case as other fishermen have also been meeting a few. Due to the river levels I have been mostly spinning as I want to get the lure down as deep as possible and fish it around slowly. A good tactic has been to cast straight across river or slightly upstream, leave the spinner sink a few seconds, flick over the bale arm and leave it come around like you would a fly. One kelt came to the fly rod but the river has been mostly too high to fish the fly effectively for spring fish. Below are 2 photos of how the river is looking today, February 26th. The first is the "Swimming Pool" above Baxter's Bridge and the next is the "Rocky Hole".

When the water comes down to a more appreciable height I hope the following flies winkle a fresh fish or two out for me.

The tube flies in the top photo are tied on brass/copper tubes as well as one slipstream aluminium tube. Patterns, starting from top left going clockwise, are a Scandi Green Butt Cascade, Dee Monkey, Scandi Green Highlander, Gold Bodied Willie Gunn and Grizzly Green Butt Cascade. Flies in the bottom photo are tied on size 9 salar double hooks. Patterns, starting from top left going clockwise, are Green Highlander, Silver Doctor, Kinermony Killer Shrimp, Pearl Park Shrimp and Ally's Shrimp. Here is a closer look at the Scandi Green Butt Cascade with Pro Soft Sonicdisc.

Rainbow Trout at Ballinlough Lake, Leap, West Cork

Finally all the stormy conditions that we experienced in the last month have fizzled out. Now that the weather has calmed down the prospect of going out fishing once again has become more realistic. A buddy of mine has grown increasingly more enthusiastic about fishing lately and invited me to come and join him at Ballinlough Lake last weekend. Needless to say I jumped at the offer!

I've only fished for rainbows a handful of times and on each occasion I enjoyed it immensely. You often hear stories of how stocked trout are terrible fighters and come to hand like a drowned bag. Well, this is definately not applicable to the trout in Leap!

Tactics for the day were to fish relatively deep and slow. Rob used a slow sinking line and a team of 3 flies to start with. Patterns included a black booby, zonker and shrimp pattern. I opted for my Guideline 4cast sink tip line (5 inches per second) matched with a conehead black wooly bugger. On our second drift my fly was engulfed and we had our first fish of the day in the boat.

Every couple of drifts I managed to pick up a fish but they weren't exactly jumping onto our flies either. This was good though and added to the challenge because the novelty can soon wear off if your quarry are overly forthcoming! My last fish was my best fish and no exaggeration it took me nearly 10 minutes to net after all its jumping and long runs.

Enough was enough at this stage for Rob and I suggested he change his approach. Off came his cast of 3 flies and I gave him one of my conehead wooly buggers, this ones colour being olive. Taking the oars, I set us up to drift over the area where we had our best trout so far. With renewed confidence in his set up, he was putting out a lovely line, letting his fly sink for a few seconds and slowly retrieving it back to the boat. 5 minutes into the drift and BINGO the line went tight and I eventually slipped the net under Rob's well earned trophy trout.

We ended the day with a nice few fish between us, not a bad way to get 2014 rolling! As you can see from the photos the trout in Ballinlough are in great condition and they really are fit and powerful. I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a winter fix and as an added bonus it is set in a stunning location. Details for permits are on the photo below.

Finally, for anyone interested in taking up lure fishing for bass, the lads at Absolute Fishing are setting up a course on how to get started, free of charge. The course will cover everything from the gear you will need, tides and safety to learning how to read the water and work your lures effectively for optimum results. For more information on the course click here and if the notice is too short there is no need to worry as they will be doing more in the future.