Every year most anglers book at least a week off work to fish the Mayfly. Unfortunately those of us with young families and other commitments cannot afford to take as much time off.
Mayfly fishing to me used to mean only one thing and that was a two to three week stay in Crossmolina to fish Lough Conn in Co. Mayo with a good friend of mine Fergal Scully. We had some great times fishing that wild lake and the people we met were great, i class Lough Conn as my second home now.
As i have said times have changed for me and i dont even have the time to travel the 3 hours to Lough Conn for a day trip. I do love fishing the Mayfly and i love fishing drys, so i am always looking for another option so i dont have to travel so far.
Lough Sheelin is an option, an hour from my front door, lots of Mayfly and big fish. But the amount of attention the lake gets from anglers is phenominal. John Maguire brought me for a day in 2015, well an afternoon session, i caught two trout a 2lber and a 6lb 7oz fish fish , whichwas and still is a personal best. But the boat traffic was horrendous and i never went back.
This year Aiden Rush a very good friend of mine from the North of Ireland rang me up to see if i wanted to go to Sheelin. I was in two minds whether to go or not, as we hadnt fished together in years i decided to join him . Aiden and i worked together for a long time when we were involved with the I.T.F.F.A Youths,so it was about time we took to the water again.
After a slight mix up , we met on the shores of Lough Sheelin, it was great to see the wee man after so long, he hadnt aged a day since i last saw him. A big smile and full of enthusiasm. We quickly tackled up and set out onto the water. Sheelin has a reputation for large hatches of Mays but unfortunately the fish do not take the adult green fly as much as they would on any other venue. But we both persevered fishing drys in high winds to no avail.
We travelled all over the lake that day, but at 5 oclock we were still fishless. It was time for a break in case the spent came out later that evening.
We came in near Holywell and had a good natter, the green fly was everywhere out on the lake and on the shore there was so much spent, it was amazing. It was like snow, i heard the expression before but i had never seen it. The spent were everywhere. i spent an hour just taking photos, enjoying the sun and enjoying just being there. Nature is such a wonderful thing. An odd one started to go out, we agreed it was time to get back on the water.
SPENT
I had only experienced spent fishing a few time in my life and to be truthful its great but it can also be over so quick and you really are at the mercy of the elements. The spent can fly out and return to the bushes several times in the evening and never actually land on the water. Many a day and night myself and fergal watched this happen on Lough Conn, but on the odd occassion it happens and when it does, it can be great fun. But with it being cold and blustery i had my doubts that the fly would go out at all.
The wind was still up and down with an odd fish moving , but the fish only rose once and always out of range. I had put on a size 14 Conn Spent on the tail with a size 10 grey wolf on the dropper. A lovely fish around 2lb took the spent on the blind, as more spent dropped on the water. All of a sudden the wind settled and it looked much better. Aidans spents are famous in these parts and are extremely effective. Aidan covered a fish with his spent, there was no mistaking the rise, a big slurp and Aidan was into to his first trout of the evening.
After landing the fish, Aidan took out his spent box, pointed to 3 rows of immaculately tied spents and said "Take a few of them and some for your Dad". I know how long it takes to tie these flies, so i took two feeling embarassed.
Over the next three hours we caught some lovely fish up to 4.5lb. Aidan lost two bigger fish, but it was great fun and all on his spents. About 10pm the wind changed and no more spent came out.
We decided to call it a night as we both had an early start, but Aidan wouldnt let me head home without handing me another 6 of his spents. I was delighted to get a chance to fish with Aidan again, as it had been so long. It is nice to fish with someone that fishes just for the pleasure of fishing, Aidan is now retired and i am off mid week, so i am sure we will meet up again soon for more fishing on Sheelin. Hopefully the Mayfly Mayhem will be over by then and the fish will be up on the surface.
James Russell
07.07.2019 11:25
Unbelievable fishing sheelin is a magical lake can’t wait to get down for the evening sedge fishing have you been out lately
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.