Fly Fishing for Rainbow and Brown Trout. ( HD ).

   

         

Having driven through some of the worst fog i have seen in some time i was very surprised to be greeted by bright sunshine and a flat calm lake, but this is Ireland and that can change in a heart beat and it did. As soon as the wind came it dropped the temperature to about four degrees celsius and trust me you could feel it even the landing nets started to stiffen up especially when trying to release some of the trout. I started on the dry fly as this lake has a good population of free rising trout but they can be very finicky and it can take some time to get them to take the dry fly with confidence. Having tried some small Klinks and only getting a few shy takes but a lot of refusals i moved over to a size 16 F- fly midge and the trout were very happy to hit the small fly with gusto. This presented a problem because some of the takes were very explosive and i came out of a few good trout as the hook was quite small and they were able to shake it loose with ease. The lake itself was very busy with most of the casting areas taken by anglers so i couldn't set up my cameras as normal but still got some nice footage with one or two good trout thrown in. The best trout were under the 9lb mark as they had dropped some body weight due to the cold weather and it being off season but they all gave a great account of themselves and therefore i made sure that they were well rested before i released them back into the lake. The brown trout were fairly static on the bottom so i used a Di3 sinking fly line with a black / green booby which i had just tied up the night before, using a very slow figure of eight retrieve i was able to catch a couple of good browns but thinking back i should have used a sink 7 line which would have presented the fly longer in the zone and with the booby just sitting off the bottom i probably would have met more trout, but that's for another day. The fishing itself was slow with some of the other anglers only meeting the odd fish but this is December and any fish is a bonus in the challenging weather conditions.

Fly Fishing for Rainbow and Brown Trout at Ballinlough Lake.

          



          
         

Arriving at the lake we could see that it was flat calm with a fog hanging over the hills, the temperature was cold so i was happy that i had the sense to put on some termal pants because sitting on an icy timber beam in the cold isn't my idea of a fun day out. Setting up two fly rods i put a Di3 sinking line with a two fly cast of a Hot orange Blob and an Ace of Spades on one and a floating line with nymphs on the second. I had a cast of dry flies ready just in case the trout started taking on the surface so that i could easily change over because speed is everything at this time of year as the rise can be fast and furious and if you miss it you're not going to catch fish. From the  start i met some good rainbows on the sinking line and we boated over a dozen fish averaging 3lb plus in mint condition, they were very hard fighting and gave a great account of themselves. Since i return most of my fish i have started using a fish friendly rubber mesh net and you could see the benefits straight away, (1) the deep pan net stayed open and never collapsed making it easier access to the fish, (2) the trout could swim around without harming its fins or gills on the mesh, (3) the dropper flies never caught up in the mesh and any competitive angler knows that this can be a nightmare trying to weave flies out of a mesh net especially with a lively trout in it. The sinking line took most of the fish for the day but as soon as it warmed up there was a fast rise on the surface and i changed over to dry fly and caught a few nice browns on klinkhammers but on hind sight i should have used  a C.D.C flying midge as the trout were just taking flies in the film.

Later in the evening the lake went flat calm and  we could see that there was a good rise starting heading up the shoreline and then moving out into the lake, they were mostly brown trout sipping fly on the surface. I moved the boat slowly out into the lake and changed over to nymphs on a floating line and quickly picked up some cracking brownies up to 2lbs. Having caught bigger brown trout from this lake ( 7lb plus ) i was surprised at the number of browns rising and on catching some small brown trout around 1/4 pound i reckon the browns are definitely breeding there, as the small trout are too perfect in fin and tail shape to have come from a breeding pen. All in all a great day out and i will definitely be back when things warm up as i really love dry fly fishing and i can imagine the fun to be had when there are good hatches of fly on this lake.

Fly Fishing for Rainbow Trout at Lough Doire Bhile.

       

        

Using three different fly fishing methods i caught some nice rainbows at Lough Doire Bhile near Littleton. The first method was using a Di3 sinking fly line with a Black Booby on point and a Hot orange blob on the dropper, the cast was only six feet long to maximize fishing depth and the most productive retrieve was a slow figure of eight and when i felt weight on the line or a small bump i struck into the fish. The trout were very wary and i got a lot of short takes but also lost a few trout to the weeds because i was using barbless hooks and the trout were able to unhook themselves by wrapping up in the thick weed. The second method was the Bung method, using a floating line and a ten foot cast  consisting of a foam strike indicator with two flies, on dropper was a Blood red blob and on point i used a heavy gold head pheasant tail nymph. After casting out i would give the line a long pull to straighten it out and then allow the nymph to sink, a long slow pull or even a slow figure of eight retrieve every so often will move the flies up the water column and let them fish in different locations back towards the bank, as soon as the strike indicator sinks or changes direction you lift into the fish. This method produced some good heavy rainbows and better hook ups with few lost fish. The third method was Dry fly, even though i didn't see any trout rising and the fact that there was a gale blowing i still took a good rainbow on the margins with a small Klinkhammer pattern. The  lake is undergoing renovations at the moment and promises to be a really good venue in the future.