I really like writing theses little snippets about my fishing escapades, but its hard to keep the site updated, but i will try. Thanks to everyone who wrote to me and any ideas to improove the page are great. I have added like buttons and you can now comment on the page too. Thanks again to fjord for supplying me with waders and boots again this year. As you can see in the photos i wear them a lot and they are extremely durable.
Back to the fishing
The lake fishing have really come into its own in the west, with buzzer hatches and now Olives, most anglers have turned their attentions to Lough Corrib aind Lough Mask. But it seems that the weekend anglers have hit the Jackpot weather wise so far this year, as any day I am off it seems to be blowing hard. So it was an easy choice to go and fish the River Liffey a place I love to fish. Whether it be at the headwaters near Ballysmuttenor lower down towards, Ballymore Eustace, North Kildare Water and continuing on down stream to Clane and Celbridge.
Just to be clear, most of the water on the Liffey is managed by clubs and if you want to fish a section of the River Liffey please do some homework and see if a club is managing the stretch you want to fish. If there is, you will need to buy a day ticket.
My guide for the day was once again Peter Doherty, I dont think there is anyone that knows the Liffey better. I joke calling him my guide, as we fish together a lot and we have learnt a lot together over the years about river fishing and it is always nice to go fishing with him.
It was a cold day when we headed to Sallins to do a bit of fluff flinging, Peter reported that the river was fishing slow, even though the season had started really well. The Iron Blue Olives were yet to make an appearance, but there were some olives about. Hopefully we would not have to nymph all day.
We normally fish together when we are on the river, taking one side of the river or the other and working our way up the the stretch. We were both set up to fish the klink and dink or New Zealand style, fishing one nymph behind a dry fly. The cast was a normal 9ft tapered cast with 3ft of 3lb mono tippet tied on the end, attached to this was a well dressed size 12 klinkhammer, a lenght of flurocarbon is tied to the bend of the hook of the klinkhammer and to the flurocarbon a tungsten beaded nymph. The lenght of flurocarbon behind the dry fly is the dictated by the speed of the surrent, the depth of water and the weight of the nymph.
Pheasant tail nymphs and hares ears are the main stay of early season nymphing, there are so many tyings of these flies. You can fill a box purely with pheasant tails and another with hares ear variants. Again I will be doing a blog on the tyings I use, so bare with me.
I fished up the right hand side and Peter fished up the left. We picked off trout and salmon parr as we went. It was fun but there were no olives hatching at all, we fished up some lovely pools catching fish between 6 and 12 inches. But not as many as I expected. The fish were not feeding at all and stomach pumping the fish seemed to tell the same story, with the contents of the fish stomachs being shrimp and snails. At the top of this stretch there is a weir and sure enough Peter caught some larger fish here. They fought really well in the strong current. It was noticable that the temperature had increased and a few fish had started to rise.
Peter continued to fish the area at the weir, but I went back down stream to see if there were any other fish rising. Sure enough Olives started to hatch and fish started to rise, I changed to a single dry and 0.09 tippet. The fish took the dry nice and easy, its important not to strike hard into these fish as you will break every time. Lifting your rod gently is good enough to set the hook and normally once you have connected with the fish the light leader should hold.
I had a great hours fishing taking a lot of fish on the drys, but it was over too quick. It was time to change area, so we headed to Clane. This water is managed by Clane Anglers and further on down by Dublin Trout Anglers. You will need a permit to fish this water and permits can be purchased Cleeres fishing tackle shop in Clane, it is well worth the few Euros.
The olive hatch was over for the day but the trout were still happy to feed on the Simulium Larvae and its adults black fly form after the Olives have finished for the day. This little creature is a huge part of the diet of Liffey trout.
It was very noticeable that the fish were still holding in the tail ends of the pools, normally at this time of the year they should be in the first third of the runs. It just prooves that the hatches of olives are not as good as they were last year. There are also a lot less simulium on the weeds than there has been in previous years, whether this is due to the pollution that occurred recently or not is anyones guess.
I enjoyed the last hour or so on the water, catching on both drys and nymphs. The strenght of these little golden missiles is remarkable. And the colours are amazing, with blue sheens comimg from their gill plate covers.
I started my fishing on the river Dodder with my father many many years ago as a child and I think every child should at least get the chance to experience the wonders of our rivers and streams in Ireland . Young and old alike should learn to appreciate the wildness of the streams and the riverbanks. If you sit there still enough you really never know what you will see.
Back to the lake next week, another venture upon Lough Lene. Lets see if i can catch one or two
Ed Burke
18.06.2017 04:07
Great work Denis. Really enjoying your site.
Danny Murray
22.04.2017 12:26
Well done again, keep at it. D
Derek Halpin
22.04.2017 10:50
Great information... was always curious as to where to fish this great river
Latest comments
19.05 | 05:47
Hi Denis
Good meeting last night, and enjoyed reading your blog. Felt I was on the lake with you. Great work
02.05 | 20:42
Hi Dennis loved the article straight to the point .just wondered will the trout feed on the small buzzers all year ?
06.04 | 11:57
Cant wait to read this
01.03 | 03:03
glad u enjoy, ty, will be back when the fishing returns
AND SO IT BEGINS.
After fishing from the bank all winter long, I was looking forward to getting back in the boat. Normally I would wait for the first hatch of the year and travel down to the west of Ireland or not go at all until the Duckfly appears in the midlands. But after not fishing for 3 weeks I was starting to loose the plot. So with limited time I opted for Lough Owel and maybe chance to see the first hatch of the year, which is a small buzzer about half the size of the Duckfly which hatches just before the Duckfly itself. The weather looked good enough in the days before my trip, but as always the weather turned. A South wind but 19 to 24km which isn’t really what I was hoping for.
Arriving early at Lough Owel I was greeted with a bare pin ripple on the lee shoreline and a balmy 10c, but as I fitted the boat out I could feel the breeze building. Two 10ft ever reliable 7 weight RS Wychwood Competition rods were both adorned with floating lines, a straight buzzer set up on one and a bung on the other.
As I travelled down the lake it was lovely to hear the hum of my 15hp Johnson, I checked every bay and reed bed but more in hope, for any sign of buzzer. The wind was picking up all the time and after an hour or so I resigned myself to defeat and out came the di3. Fishing at this time of year in my opinion is normally shallow for hoglouse and snail feeders, whilst drifting in 10 to 20 ft of water you would be after fry feeders on the drop off with di5s and di7s depending on the wind.
The greater the wind the heavier the sinking line. At this stage I had travelled as far as the cornfield and I drifted off the shelf in nice conditions pulling dabblers and fry patterns. A three fly 16ft cast of 8lb strong leader, 6ft to first fly and then 5ft between with flys .
Just coming off the shelf I got my first fish, a lovely marked but thin overwintered Triploid Brown of about 2lb. Working up the shoreline to the neck I got two more on Black Dabblers and a big white Hummungous.
Stomach pumping the fish is a must when fishing in my opinion, you don’t need to go mad emptying the fishes stomach, a brief pump will tell you what the fish are on. In this case snail and hoglouse were high on the menu.
HE WHO DARES WINS....
I worked along the lee shorelines as it was getting very blustery picking up a fish here and there. I changed flys a few times, but it seemed whatever I put on the top dropper the fish took. The top dropper is the first fly the fish sees as you pull it by him, typical early season fishing. All fish were in the 1.5lb to 2.5lb bracket. Its been years since I fished Owel on a regular basis, so this year I have decided to fish it a lot more and re-learn the lake. With this in mind, I kept moving, instead of repeating drifts.
About lunch time I decided to head to deep water and see if I could contact some of the larger trout Lough Owel has know become known for.
I put up the di-5, but after one drift I felt I was not staying in contact with the line or getting deep enough due to the wind. So the dreaded di-7 was taken out of the box and the cobwebs blown off it. It took me 5 or so minutes to get the feel for the line as I hadn’t fished it from a boat in what seemed like an age.
But sure enough 10 minutes later after a count to 35, followed by a long slow retrieve the first marker went through the rod rings and I hung the flys, I thought I got slight knock, I waited and waited, nothing, continuing my long slow retrieve I barely got three more long pulls before the rod hooped over and the tip of the rod buried into the lake as line peeled off the floor then off the reel. Playing a fish alone out in the middle of the lake on a blustery day will certainly get your heart thumping. Anything and everything can go wrong , so that’s why I keep a tidy boat( stop laughing) when fishing alone. Regaining half the line onto the reel, I began to drag the fish from the depths. At times it just hung beneath the boat and there was nothing I could do. The wind was pushing the boat along too quickly.
Eventually the fish came to the surface and at over 4lb I was gobsmacked and puzzled at its strength. Lying on its side one second, then it vanished, the penny dropped, I had two on. Now it got messy, eventually I guided the first one into the net, unhooked it, then netted the fish on the tail fly with the first fish in the net. The tail fish was about 3.5lb and the fish on the top dropper was over 4lb, they certainly stretch the di7. Both released back to their watery homes, after a little rest in my net.
I fished all the way back to the moorings, catching an odd fish and I had another double hook up of newly introduced fish but it was pleasant. Just as I packed up the redundant Bung Rod, a fish rose in front of me. As a wise man once said “never pass up a willing fish”. Out with the di- 3 and 3 casts later the line went tight, fish number 13 was landed. Enough was enough and in I went.
Lough Owel was kind to me on a not so kind day. It was great to be back out on the lake and I hope to be back out again next week, hopefully there will be Duckfly !!!. But knowing my luck , the wind will be howling and the rain will be coming down sideways.
But as Anglers we Live in Hope.