APGAI Fly Fishing Instructor, Keith McDonnell was over the moon with catching the largest trout recorded on Navan anglers stretch of the Boyne. Keith tells us:
I arrived at the river to find reasonable fishing conditions as there had been a small rise in height following recent rain but after an hour or two, I had covered a number of pools without any sign of fish.
Targeting larger trout in the river with streamers can be a fruitless pursuit and my mind began to wander a little from the fishing. I had almost resigned myself to another one of those blank days, when a fish moved to the fly and snapped me out of my daydream. I cursed to myself thinking that I had missed the chance.

It is very rare in my experience to move a big brown trout twice in quick succession but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. I made a few more casts to the general area with no response. I was almost out of ideas when I cast the fly above where he had shown and made a big downstream mend so that the fly ran head first downstream alongside where the fish had showed. One strip and the fish hit the fly aggressively and took off downstream with fly firmly attached. I knew immediately that it was an exceptional fish. Sometimes the fight from a big river trout can be disappointing but on this occasion the fish went absolutely berserk running downstream.

At this time of year there is a lot of weed in the river and I have lost a number of good fish as a result of them burying their heads and leaving the fly attached to weed. I jumped into the river and made an attempt to follow the fish, I soon realised that it wasn’t going to be possible go after him due to the water height. I applied as much pressure as I could in order to bring it back across and upstream to me.

For a resident brown trout in a river in Ireland this is a fantastic fish and I am delighted to have been lucky enough to catch it.

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