Heatwave slows mayfly but buzzer provides great sport on Corrib

Please note: There have been a spate of fires around the country recently, including a huge forest fire in the Cloosh Valley, with smoke drifting over Corrib for the past few days. Many anglers enjoy lunch on an island or shoreline, which may include lighting a fire to boil a kettle. After the prolonged dry spell we have had lately, vegetation is tinder dry, and a wildfire can be started very easily. Anglers are asked to take every precaution, and to make sure all cooking fires are fully extinguished before leaving.

Declan Gibbons reports on very mixed fortunes in returns for the last week as northerly and easterly winds prevailed, when they blew at all, and bright sunshine held sway too. Mayfly hatches have been patchy in the mini-heatwave, but buzzer and olive hatches have more than compensated for this.

Larry McCarthy from Corrib View Lodge, Glencorrib reports guests enjoyed a great week at the lodge with lots of fish caught in often difficult conditions. Monday last produced 26 trout for 3 boats, best boat being Gareth Jones and Tony Cartwright with 14 fish up to 4lbs, mostly in the Saddle area and all on buzzer. Vaughn Ruckley, visiting from Edinburgh at 84 years young, had 3 fish on buzzer for 11lbs on Tuesday last. Wednesday saw brighter conditions and fishing was tougher, with the average catch reduced to 3 or 4 per boat with some big fish caught in the evenings. Gareth Jones from Wales had a fish of over 6lbs which he sportingly returned on Wednesday evening on buzzer. Saturday and Sunday saw an improvement, with Shane Cramer from Tipperary & Larry himself boating 12 trout on dry olives on Saturday.

Gareth Jones and Matthew Griffith had 12 trout, also on dry olives. Sunday with light winds all boats caught fish with the best boat on Sunday being guide Frank Reilly and Ben Watson from England with 8 trout on buzzer in the Greenfields area – best fish 5.5lbs.

 

Basil Shields of Ardnasillagh Lodge, Oughterard 091-552550 says they had a busy week at the lodge with excellent fishing on buzzer and a few fish caught on mayfly. Neil Glavin from Mallow had 2 fish on Monday averaging 2lbs each on buzzer. Gary Maguire, Northern Ireland had 5 fish on Wednesday from 1.75lbs to 4.75lbs, and on Thursday Gary had 5 fish on mayfly from 2.25lbs to 3.25lbs. Four anglers from Enniskillen had 15 fish on buzzer and mayfly for two days, with the best fish 5lbs. Cork anglers Pat Collins and Shane Bird on Saturday had 9 fish last Saturday on mayfly and 3 fish on Sunday on buzzer, including 2 fish of 4.5lbs and the third 5.25lbs. Visiting anglers from Wales Tim Llewllyn and Mark Thomas had 9 fish on buzzer with the best fish being 7lbs, and 3 more in the 5lbs range. Ronnie McQuaid from Newtownards had 2 fish on buzzer for his day on Corrib – best fish 4.5lbs.

Staying in the Oughterard area Gerry Molloy ( www.loughcorriboughterard.com) reports Greg Turley and 5 friends spent Saturday last dapping, landing 16 fish and saw many undersize fish moving.
Kevin Molloy from Baurisheen Bay Boat Hire, Guiding & Self Catering (+353 (0)87 – 9604 170) hosted visiting USA father and son Liam and Jasper Blake, who caught 2 trout trolling on Monday last – 6.5lbs and 8.5lbs – both sportingly released.
Duncan Lawless from England and friends were also with Kevin and had 8 trout for three days.
Paul Coridia, a guest at Currarevagh Lodge (www.currarevagh.com), had 12 trout for four days fishing.

 

In the Cornamona area Richard Molloy of Ballard Shore Boat Hire & Self Catering (+353 (0)87 – 2879 339 ) hosted visiting Swiss angler Roland Nobs, who is a regular to the area, catching a fine Corrib trout of 14lbs on a Lane Minnow.  John Walsh and visiting French angler Daniel Paris fished on Wednesday and had 4 fish. On Thursday they had 5 fish and on Friday they had 3 fish, mostly returned and caught on wets and dries. Tom Doc Sullivan ( +353 (0)87-6113 933 ) guided brothers Craig and Chris Oliver for two days and they had 12 trout for their visit to Corrib, with 10 of the fish caught on wet may fly and the other two caught on dry fly – best fish 2.5lbs.

Ballindiff Angling Club hosted the ITFFA Connacht Cup on Sunday last with 56 anglers participating: 64 fish were recorded by the 31 anglers who had fish on the day. Along with the 5 winners mentioned below 9 other anglers will make up the Connacht team in the Inter-Provincial competition. The competition was run on a catch-and-release basis in flat calm and very bright conditions with most fish caught on buzzer.
Winner on the day and proud holder of the trophy for 2017 was Barry Fox, a renowned competition angler and former socialite, with 5 fish. In 2nd place was Oughterard angler Brian Ferguson with 3 fish, while 3rd place went to Mike Keady from Moycullen with 4 fish. Michael Monaghan was 4th, and Toby Bradshaw finished in 5th. Toby was also the winner of the Longest Fish prize with a fine trout of 61 cms.

By Kevin Crowley
Read the rest of the report here.

Definitely Buzzers and Nymphs, no Mays be on Sheelin

“I look into … my fly box, and think about all the elements I should consider in choosing the perfect fly: water temperature, what stage of development the bugs are in, what the fish are eating right now. Then I remember what a guide told me: ‘Ninety percent of what a trout eats is brown and fuzzy and about five-eighths of an inch long.’
~by Allison Moir

Glancing through Ireland’s angling news flashes this week, from the great Western lakes and down to Lough Derg, reports were excitedly coming in declaring the arrival and progression of the mayfly (even rumours of spent fishing on Derg!).

There are regrettably no such glorious announcements for Lough Sheelin, simply due to the fact that there has been neither ‘hide nor hair’ of Ephemeroptera dancia on this lake over the past seven days. There have, of course, been plenty of rumours of definite sightings of one or two but nothing substantiated so it was all down to wishful thinking and Lough Sheelin finished another week where anglers focused on buzzer and nymph fishing – pulling teams of wets and battling the challenging conditions.

 

The week gone by was a difficult and frustrating one for anglers because of the persistent north east to easterly winds which stubbornly dogged this lake every day with little or no reprieve. Thursday was particularly painful where white horses skidded along the surface water and access from the Kilnahard/Chambers side and crossing the lake was treacherous.  Bright sunny days and crashing night time temperatures (sometimes as low as 1 degree) guaranteed that any anglers who did catch fish were simply in the right place at the right time – when the wind slackened, the area was sheltered and the trout happened to be feeding.  One angler informed me reliably that the only fly that was working was the one called ‘lucky’.

The Hatches
There is a palatable restlessness among anglers here, we are pushing through May and that word is synonymous of colossal hatches of mayfly with corresponding takes from trout averaging 2 ½ lb and upwards. I remember one year when there was an ‘unofficial’ 8lb club on Sheelin during the mayfly, which reflected the numbers of anglers catching that weight and upwards.

 

Suppressing impatience/panic and in some cases despair, we are where we are and rest assured Lough Sheelin’s mayfly will not disappoint, these mystical insects will arrive at their own pace, happily ignoring our calendars/timetables and holidays booked.
But for now it’s a waiting game.

By Brenda Montgomery
Read the rest of the report here.