Salmon Fishing Ireland Waterville

                                                         Lough Currane, Waterville.

Salmon Fishing Ireland Waterville

Here are some scenery photo's of Lough Currane in Waterville, Co Kerry .

                                       

As i have said before  beautiful scenery if you only look up once and awhile just to admire it, take in a deep breath and thank god that we as anglers can enjoy this.

Salmon Fishing Ireland, Waterville.

Salmon fly fishing on Lough Currane is a special experience as unlike river fly fishing where the flow of the water takes the fly to the salmon,when fishing in a boat one has to line up the boat with a known salmon lie and drift slowly over it or if you are lucky have a ghillie hold station over the salmon lie and then one can tease the salmon with the fly.Having arrived at the lake we were greeted with a heavy mist and strong squall which was the total opposite to the weather forecast but as all anglers (optimists) we reckoned that it would pass over and we would get our warm 15 degrees and light south westerly wind ...... never happened, it was cold and the squalls kept pushing the boat over the lies too fast and also pulling the boat backwards thus bowing the line causing it to be pulled away from the fish. I met a good fish on the first drift but having a slight bow in the line allowed too much slack and never got a hook set and the salmon got off, but we saw it show on the surface and it was a very heavy set fish. I was fishing a floating line with a two fly cast of a Wilkinson salmon fly size 10 on the point and a Greenpeter sedge size 10 on the dropper and this was bringing up the fish. I met a few nice sea trout as we drifted into the bay but they wouldn't stay with the fly and we saw the splashy boils which indicated that they were decent fish. I fished the day with my 11 foot switch rod and found that it dealt very well with the strong winds even though the line was a bit light for it and i should have been fishing a weight forward size 8 line and not a six, but all my fly lines are six as i fish a lot of competitions so i had to compromise with my casting. As the day wore on i changed over to a kelly green intermediate fly line and caught a few nice brown trout on the Greenpeter and one lovely trout on the Wilkinson salmon fly. As its a bit early for the larger numbers of sea trout to arrive i did well to catch anything on such a rough day and if luck had been on my side i might have landed the salmon and sea trout and then it would have been a great day ( optimist again ). I will definitely be going back to Waterville soon as i have seen a few new locations that i will have to fish under better weather conditions and seeing a nice salmon being landed by another boat only makes me more determined.

Salmon Fishing Ireland 2013.

Salmon Fishing at the Dam Fishery April 16th 2013.

The weather was really nice with some lovely warm sunshine, something that we haven't seen in a few weeks. I put my hand into the water to check the temperature and found it to be tepid maybe about eight degrees celsius  and that must be the warmest it has been for a few weeks, looking good, we might get some action as it is close to the magical ten degrees. I fished a size four flying "c" down the run and hadn't moved anything and just as i was about to move further upstream a small salmon just head and tailed above me. I quickly covered the fish and took bottom with a few casts and hadn't touched the fish or even moved it so i extended the casting area around the salmon and kept touching bottom with every cast but no pull or touch. The salmon showed once more and i could see that it was a very shallow head and tail so i reckoned that the fish was staying high in the water column so i changed over to a smaller size three flying "c" and met the fish on my second cast. The salmon came in to fight close to the bank and kept rolling on itself and jarring the line this made me quite nervous  and when i looked i could see that there was only one hook in it's mouth and that was ideal for a quick release. Having tailed the salmon i could see that it was very fresh but it hadn't any sea lice on it and it was a hatchery salmon of about six pounds, letting the salmon rest up for a few moments i released it back in to the river. If only all spring fishing days could be so perfect, nice warm sunshine and an obliging salmon.

THE POSSUM POSSE

                                                         THE POKER POSSUM

                                                           THE YOKANGA POSSUM

                                                                 TONY'S POSSUM

                                                           YELLOW GREY POSSUM

                                              PAUL'S FAVOURITE POSSUM

                                       
These are the new breed of salmon flies made with possum to add more life and movement to the fly. Not only are they beautiful salmon flies but actually on closer inspection they are actually works of art and i think that these flies will take a lot of salmon for me this year. To view the tying materials for these flies go to www.osullivanflies.blogspot.com.

Perfect Water but no fish moving.

The water level on the Lee River has been perfect for the last week at just two feet above low summer level but having fly fished it through all the beats with different sinking lines i had nothing to show not even a take. Using heavy flies on a floating line with a very long tapered leader has produced plenty of salmon in the past but not this time and yet the Laune river and the Blackwater river at Fort William are getting fresh fish almost off every tide. Maybe with some fresh water at high load will bring fish in because even though the east winds are keeping the temperature down one must always remember that the water coming out from the bottom of the dam is cold and added to the wind chill is very cold even to wade in. Once the wind moves to the west or south then we will have fresh fish moving upstream from the sea.

                                                              The Croy at Beat 4

                                                           Beat 1 Woodside

Perfect water but not perfect temperature, we will have to wait for milder weather and then we should see some springers showing up and hopefully being hooked on the fly.