Tuesday 18 March 2014

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.