Salmon Leap for Joy

The rain has come at last and not a moment too soon for salmo salar. Gone is the sight of low, almost stagnant water to be replaced by a high, oxygen filled flow. In a nutshell, the season will be remembered for the lack of water rather than the lack of fish. The levels preceding the recent rain had a lot of people saying it was the lowest they had ever seen the river. Below is a photo illustrating just how low it was at one stage; a medium sized river reduced to nothing more than a mere trickle.

By night I fished the river Bandon for sea trout on the fly, returning fish up to a pound and half in weight. Algae made fishing almost impossible at times. The seasons end drawing closer was enough motivation for me to make the most of the final few nights.

As I mentioned in my previous post I had all but stopped fishing for salmon. But luckily a small, dirty flood during the 3rd week of September saw a few fish moving and I unfortunately lost 3 fish whilst spinning. I put this down to the water being so full of algae as the fish, although forthcoming, just couldn't see the lure properly. Next day the fresh water had run off and so had the suspended debris. At least one fish of about 6lbs still had a desire to attack my spinner. Playing her quick and taking a photo of her in the water ensured she swam off like a rocket.

Rising water on October 6th saw an increase of 6 feet in levels, releasing the resident salmon from their shackles. What a comfort it must be for them to at last be able to migrate as they please. Some fish were held up for so long in the same pools that gravel could be seen dug up out of frustration as if they were spawning. Alas, they are now free to hone in on their natal spawning gravels.

If you try to photograph salmon leaping over a weir/waterfall, a technique I find useful is to find the area where most fish are jumping. Next, use the automatic focus function on your lens to adjust it to this area. Then, revert to manual focus so that the lens does not readjust. Too often the lens looses focus whilst waiting for the next fish to jump. Turn the shutter speed up as far as the light allows. Adjusting ISO and exposure accordingly helps to mitigate against very dark photos. After you're happy that you have the appropriate settings in place, be patient and hopefully a few good photos will come your way!

Indian Summer Sea Trout

And so it continues... We waited with anticipation for the elusive big flood at the end of August however it never materialised. The Bandon had to be content with 2 rises of 8 inches in a week to bring her to life. Salmon ran in these short, extremely dirty spates and anglers tried to make the most of it with many picking up a fish or two for their efforts. During the latter rise a stale grilse succumbed to a worm trotted down the current. When the river was showing its bones once again on September 1st, another fish fell to one of my favourite lures for this time of year, the red and silver flying c.

As the last month of the fishing season progressed I took a break from salmon fishing and turned my attention to the Bandon sea trout for a couple of evenings. What has become apparent this season is that the bigger sea trout have had a tendency to run straight through the tidal stretches and on wards up river. Taking this into consideration, I ventured out further west along than I usually do to try and track down these travelers. Using a set up of 2 flies on 8lb fluorocarbon I enjoyed excellent sport with sea trout up to 3lbs in weight, measuring 49cm, and the smallest measuring 37cm.

Trying to winkle these out wasn't easy as the current state of the river doesn't lend itself to comfortable fishing. Many casts saw the flies covered in algae which was flowing down the river. Being patient and cleaning the flies off every couple of casts is the best way to get around this. Snappy roll casting and speedy false casting can also help to rip off the weed. As for flies, anything dark provoked an attack with 99% of fish coming to a bushy fly, like a bibio or zulu, on the dropper. No need to linger for an extra cup of tea while waiting for darkness to set in, as early dusk has seen some good sport. 

Finally, last week I saw a photo of what must be one of the largest salmon ever to come off the river Bandon. This photo comes from Fred Buller's "The Domesday Book of Giant Salmon" Volume 1. It is thought that the salmon was captured some time between the 1920's to 1950's via a draft net in the estuary. At 51/52lbs, will we ever see the likes of it in Ireland again? 

Is There A Flood Around The Corner??

The days are slipping by as the dark nights are drawing in and the evenings are that bit cooler. Indeed autumn is beginning to set in and still the Bandon hasn't had an appreciable rise in what feels like the whole summer. Water levels have pretty much being at a low summer level since the start of June, except for a very short rise of a foot in mid July. 2013 was a real test for salmon anglers in West Cork but 2014 is turning out to be even tougher. Nevertheless, moaning will get you no where and if you want to catch you have to persevere. Its a time for stealth and using light gear if ever there was one and although takes are very few and far between, a trophy fish is still achievable. Last month, Dad released a whopper of a sea trout and this month he landed one of his biggest ever salmon on worm weighing in at an impressive 17lbs.

The fish was just off the tide and covered in long tailed sea lice. With September 30th fast approaching its going to be hard for us to better this poundage! Try as I might, I've landed 2 more fish on the worm also, which both went back to continue their trek to the headwaters. Both fish were in the 4-5lb bracket and swam off strongly.

On the nocturnal side of proceedings, sea trout have made a most welcome, and relieving, resurgence. For the last few years returning numbers have been quite low but not so this summer. My best night so far yielded 9 sea trout with many more lost and takes missed. Nothing huge, with a lot being of a small size and a couple going to the pound. Most of the bigger trout went through earlier on in the season but there is still the chance of the odd, bigger fresh salmo trutta. Sport seems to be coming in pulses of late with trout seemingly coming on the take all of a sudden and switching off just as fast. The usual flies are producing the goods and from now on darker flies will be coming into their own.

At this stage of the season a flood would be a blessing for fish and fishermen alike. Just look at the fish in the foreground of the photo I took at Galway Weir last weekend! If it does materialise there is nowhere I'd rather be than on the Bandon as fishing should be fantastic. It would also be nice to take the switch rod out again for a final whirl!!

Irish Bass Festival 2014

Another year, another hugely successful bass festival. This is the third successive year that the event has been held and 125 anglers turned out to pin their wits against the mighty bass. The sun was splitting the stones as per usual... for anyone planning a sun holiday to Ireland plan it around the bass festival as you will be guaranteed a scorcher!!

Due to these conditions, most of our efforts were put into fishing from dusk till dawn. Fishing unfamiliar ground at night time isn't the easiest but it sure is some buzz when you get the hit. On our first evening out, just as darkness was setting in I had my first fish of the festival off the surface on an IMA Salt Skimmer. Keeping an eye on the lure proved futile so I tried the "walking the dog" technique as best I could and it worked in seducing this fish.

Catch, photo, release and back she went into the waters of the Copper Coast. That's one of the greatest things about this competition, in that it encourages conservation at all times. A member of IFI was present over the weekend in the shop to discuss the National Bass Programme. All anglers on receipt of their ID card and ruler on registration morning were handed a scale sampling package also. This was to help collect data to provide scientific advice on how best to manage our precious stocks of bass. 

As the weekend progressed we all managed to land some beautiful fish. Besides a couple of follows and a lost fish, I landed one more small, but plump, bass which took a liking for a Daiwa Shoreline Shiner R50.

Interestingly enough, even though we all spent a lot of time fishing soft plastics, all our fish came to hard lures. Just one fish was hooked and lost on a soft plastic. Below are the 3 lures which worked for me over the weekend. The top lure is the IMA Sasuke 120 and it was the first time I had fished with one. First cast with it I had a fish follow it right in to my feet and bump it which gave me confidence right away. Its got a great action and even when you slow the retrieve right down over shallow ground it keeps slaloming from side to side. A nice little addition to the lure box!

Once again, hats off to Cian and James of Absolute Fishing for organising this event. Between swimming in after lures stuck on rocks in the darkness, rudely waking up a buddy trying to get some shut eye at dawn, dancing in McDonalds with chest waders after midnight, making some new friends and a few savage Waterford bass on the line, it really was another festival to remember.