All around the Ring of Kerry

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It is not just salmon, sea trout and brown trout that draws fly-fishers to the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. The circle can be completed with sea bass, pollack and mullet.

Lough Currane has for many years been Ireland’s major fly-fishing water for big sea trout. Tens of thousands of this species run up the short distance from Ballinskelligs Bay into the lake and later onwards up the little creeks and into other smaller lakes higher in the system. There they take care of future generations. Fly-fishing from a drifting boat with a team of wet flies is highly popular among fly-fishers visiting the Currane watershed. But the conditions are not always favourable for fly fishing for sea trout, salmon or brown trout. When this is the case, take a look over your shoulder and see what the sea has to offer to the fly fisher that is willing to experiment a bit.

m_IMG_3843 >John Quinlan (right) and Peter Turner with a nice pollack caught from the rocks.
John Quinlan (right) and Peter Turner with a nice pollack caught from the rocks.

 

You will need other rods and lines, shorter rods than you would use when drifting for salmonids, for line classes #6 through 10; with floating, intermediate, slow sinking but also fast sinking lines in order to get your fly to the desired layer in the water where pollack and sea bass are to be found.

Surface tactics for mullet
Fly fishing for mullet is much like dry fly fishing for trout on a reservoir. On calm, sunny days with a light offshore wind, larvae that live in rotting seaweed are pushed out to sea around high tide. The mullet are moving round in schools, intercepting as many of the maggot like larvae as they can. If you stay low, out of sight of the fish, they will come quite close; often just a few meters away. You know that with all the mouths of the mullet coming out of the water and the many swirls and bow waves that are visible in the bay, you stand a good chance of hooking into one of these powerful fish.

Even at four in the morning, when it is still completely dark, the sea bass managed to intercept our streamers.
Even at four in the morning, when it is still completely dark, the sea bass managed to intercept our streamers.

 

John Quinlan of the Thatch Cottage in Cahersiveen developed a pattern for this situation, a white or yellow fly made of foam that hangs in the water surface and looks just like the larvae that the mullet are after. Before making a cast, hold the fly under water and press out most of the air that is trapped in the foam. We want the fly to hang in the surface, not stick out on top of it. A fly that floats too high is seldom taken by the mullet. A nine or ten foot fly rod equipped with a WF6F or WF7F is fine for this style of fishing, the ten to twelve feet long leader has a rather thin, 3X or 4X, fluorocarbon tippet. Because it is sometimes hard to keep an eye on your fly, a balsa or foam strike indicator is placed some 20 to 30 centimeters from the fly. When you see the fly being taken or when the strike indicator moves, you have to set the hook immediately.

Easily spooked
Jos van der Wouw moved into position next to a big rock. He stayed low, moved slowly and the mullet stayed within easy casting range. There was a small group of fish coming from the left, their mouths half out of the water at regular intervals with which they hoovered up tiny pieces of food. Jos placed his fly ahead of the fish, in the path he expected them to take. The school kept on feeding and moving forward, but left the fly untouched. A new cast in front of the same fish did not produce a take either. Jos, again, pressed on the fly while holding it subsurface, squeezing out the air that was again trapped in the foam. A slightly longer cast now and this time one of the mullet took the fly in it’s mouth. Jos set the hook, but the hook took no hold. He waited until the school of mullet had passed the leader and fly before picking it up for a new cast. These mullet are easily spooked!

Jos van der Wouw managed to hook and land a nice mullet on light tackle with an imitation of a larva that is hanging just in the surface of the water.
Jos van der Wouw managed to hook and land a nice mullet on light tackle with an imitation of a larva that is hanging just in the surface of the water.

 

A new cast, another take after a short while and this time the hook went home. A big swirl in the surface indicates where the mullet had just been hooked, at first it stayed with the school but then it decided otherwise and made some quick runs in different directions. Jos succeeded in keeping the line clear of the stones and rocks above and below the water surface in front of him. It took several minutes before Jos managed to land the fish in a shallow stretch of water next to the rock where he was standing. He was over the moon with this mullet, he had caught mullet before, but it had always been by accident; this time he had targeted this species and managed to hook and land one. After taking some pictures of the fish, the mullet was returned and swam of with a dash. The feeding had stopped in the mean time, so we moved on to another spot.

A good sized mullet taken on the fly.
A good sized mullet taken on the fly.

 

On the rocks
At numerous locations around the Ring of Kerry it is possible to explore deep water from large rocks and stone formations. They often require quite a walk and sometimes some climbing as well, but the results can be most rewarding. In the deep water pollack hunt for prey besides and over the rocks and kelp and these are often willing to take a streamer brought down to them with a fast sinking line. Streamers of eight to fifteen centimeters are usually just fine, with some lead or brass eyes to make them sink more quickly. Clouser Minnows are a good bet here for this reason and because they seldom hook up on the bottom. Tie them in different colour combinations, with natural colours like white, olive and blue, but red/white and all black can be good choices too.

After quite a strong fight from the boat, a pollack comes up from the deep
After quite a strong fight from the boat, a pollack comes up from the deep.

 

A line tray is necessary to be able to cast a longer line, otherwise the line will get stuck among the rocks and weed around your feet. Let the fly sink deep and then fish it back with irregular pulls. Do not strike on every tab you feel but rather keep on stripping until you feel a good bit of resistance. Pollack do not have teeth to grab a baitfish, they have to take it into their mouth completely in order to get hold of it. Sand eels can often be found lying in a U-shape in the stomach of the pollack, another sign that they have to swallow their prey whole.
Pollack will often follow your streamer right up to the surface, you can see their golden brown colour showing up a short distance behind your fly. I am sure that under some circumstances, pollack can even be caught on poppers. Upon setting the hook try to pull the fish up, do not give it a chance to dive back to the bottom. A tight line is quickly cut among the barnacles and shells on the bottom. Pollack fight well on a fly rod and they do not seem to be tippet shy, so use something like 15 to 20 lb breaking strain for the tippet at least.

Pollack of this size provide some excellent sport on the fly rod.
Pollack of this size provide some excellent sport on the fly rod.

 

Fly fishing from a charter boat
The problem with fishing for pollack of the rocks is that you will pull a hooked fish towards the rocks, not away from it. A boat would solve that problem, but small boats are not always available for this ‘exploration of new worlds, new civilizations’. There are many charter boats available from ports all around Ireland. These make a comfortable platform to fly fish for pollack and this was proven again last summer.
With Nealie Lyne’s boat the Mary Francis we went out in the evening on two occasions to fish for a few hours. Nealie Lyne’s home base is the town of Knightstown on Valentia Island. Fishing all day long amidst people that fish heavy shads or natural baits was not what we were interested in, but going out for a few hours in the evening with just the four of us was a great experience, and also for Nealie. He has had fly fishers on his boat before, but these had not been successful. With our extra fast sinking lines and #9 – 10 weight rods, we proved that pollack fishing with the fly can be really successful. We even hooked more fish, in ten to fifteen meters of water, than other anglers fishing with heavy, weighted lures from a nearby drifting boat. And we had more fun doing it this way as well! Deeper than fifteen meters is not practical with the fly rod, especially when there is some tidal flow running, it is hard to reach the bottom.

Nealie Lyne (right) knows where to find water of ten to fifteen meter in depth where you can hook pollack on the fly.
Nealie Lyne (right) knows where to find water of ten to fifteen meter in depth where you can hook pollack on the fly.

 

After a cast let the line and fly sink for a minute or so, adding extra line during the process. There is usually room in the back of the boat to make a long cast but casting over the deck in the middle of the boat is not a good option. In that case it is better to make some kind of roll cast and then let the line sink to the depths. Hooking up on the bottom is part of the game and you will lose flies regularly, but you will get more takes close to the bottom than in the upper layers of the water. When you tie some streamers on circle hooks, you will find that these will not get stuck on the bottom quite as often. You will also loose flies on fish that you just cannot stop, pollack over ten pounds in weight are almost impossible to land with a flexible fly rod. When they have set their minds on reaching the bottom again, it is hard to stop them with a fly rod.

This pollack took a chartreuse Clouser Minnow.
This pollack took a chartreuse Clouser Minnow.

 

In the delta
Bass can be caught too from the rocks, although more likely in shallower places than the pollack. They are also caught off the beach amidst the braking waves, at river mouths, in areas with bottom full of stones etc. We went out twice at a quarter to four in the morning, when it was still pitch dark. When the tides are right at that time, you have to sacrifice some bedtime hours. John hooked up a few times with bass in the darkness, but by the time he was close enough to me and my camera, the fish had thrown the hook. Fishing off the beach with intermediate and slow sinking lines, we all had takes in the dark, but it produced no fish for the camera.

Fly fishing for bass in the delta of one of the rivers that runs in to Ballinskelligs Bay.
Fly fishing for bass in the delta of one of the rivers that runs in to Ballinskelligs Bay.

 

What did produce some interesting fishing was to concentrate on some of the deeper pools in the estuary of the River Inny. When the tide drops, schools of mullet and bass stay behind in some of the deeper pools in this estuary. The water in these pools can be up to two meters deep, in fact when you see mullet making zigzag movements in the surface, the bass are usually not too far away. With waders the four of us walked to some of these pools. While in some place the mud can be very soft and dangerous, in other places the bottom of the estuary is hard enough to make for some easy walking. Had the water been a bit higher John would have launched a small boat with which we could have reached the same spots as well.

The bass is ready to be landed.
The bass is ready to be landed.

 

These pools we fished with floating and intermediate fly lines in a line class #6 and 7, with ten foot leaders and a tippet of 10 to 12 lb bs. After a cast was made we let our flies sink for a few seconds to reach the desired depth, and then fished them back with different retrieves. Streamers of some eight centimeters in length, tied with nylon thread, Super Hair in white plus blue or olive, Sticker Eyes and Softex for the head, produced the most takes. Most bass were small, only one and a half to two pounds in weight, but a few of the fish were in the four to five pound range. Excellent sport on light tackle, that is for sure! With these bass fly fishing in the Ring of Kerry had come full circle for us.

Super sport with which fly fishing the Ring of Kerry came full circle for us.
Super sport with which fly fishing the Ring of Kerry came full circle for us.

 

Addresses:

Thatch Cottage
– John Quinlan
Kenneigh West
Cahersiveen, County Kerry
Ireland
Tel. +353 (0)66 – 9474721
Website: www.thatchcottageireland.co.uk
Email: thatchcottageireland@eircom.net

Valentia Island Sea Angling
– Nealie Lyne
Alazamuth House, Knightstown
Valentia Island, Co. Kerry
Ireland
Tel./fax +353 (0)66 – 947 6300
Mobile: +353 (0)87 – 687 1261
Email: nealielyne@eircom.net
Website: www.valentiaislandseaangling.com

Website: www.loughcurrane.com

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