‘The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials’
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The elements as they say in Cavan ‘played holy hell’ with the fishing on Lough Sheelin for the last few weeks. There was a persistent disagreeable and unseasonable mix of continuous rain, nightly chills and contrary wind changes. The meteorological unpredictability each day was palatable but it seems that nothing deters the true blue blooded Sheelin angler as this week saw boat numbers into the double figures out on the lake for most days (even the wet ones).

Last Friday September 22nd heralded in the autumnal equinox (at 4.02pm precisely) and because we are in the Northern Hemisphere this means that we are now officially into autumn. With the remnants of summer left in our wake, the trout here are gearing themselves up for their spawning run. The trout which are going to spawn during the coming winter months undergo physical and chemical changes, as well as these changes, the trout also feel the need to migrate inshore. This inshore migration doesn’t appear to involve a mass movement of fish, but rather it is staggered out over a number of weeks as the trout move into certain locations and hold in these areas prior to making their river run. The trout will gather near particular features year after year, with little change, so it is important for the angler in the final throes of the fishing season to search out these areas as it is an almost guarantee that they will hold some fairly hefty fish.

By Brenda Montgomery
Read the full report here.