Salmon Fishing Ireland 2013 August ( On the Fly ).

                                
                           

Having fished down beat 4 with a Hot Orange Ahilles shrimp fly i decided to give it another run, this time with a new fly pattern that i had just tied up the previous night. Moving down the beat a salmon just barely broke the surface film with a fast turn and suddenly my line was going down stream at high speed, lifting into the salmon it showed straight away and i could see that it was a coloured fish. Putting plenty of side strain on the fish i brought it in close to me and then i allowed the fish to fight for a few seconds so that it would easier to deal with as the fly wasn't visible in the mouth. Landing the salmon i saw that it had taken the fly deeply but seeing as i was only using a size 15 double it was easy to remove from the salmon with very little harm done to the fish. Holding the fish for a few seconds it was ready and rearing to go so i released it back into the river. The new fly has now been moved to my smaller fly box which is for my blooded flies, these are flies that have successfully taken salmon and depending on their success rate will be tied in all sizes for future sessions. I hear anglers complain about their favourite fly that was lost either in a huge fish or a rock but they couldn't remember the exact colour etc to get a new one tied up, well that is why i keep a good stock of my blooded flies to save that happening to me. If you have a great fly that catches fish either take a photograph of it on your mobile phone or take it to a flytier so that you always have a copy of it just in case you lose it, also keep two boxes and everytime a new fly catches a salmon put it in the blooded box so that it will boost your confidence next time you use it as you know it has worked before. As for my new fly it doesn't get aired on this blog until it has a better success rate because it could have been a fluke and that might be the only salmon that it takes..

"On The Fly" An evening session in August.

           

During an evening session i caught two salmon on the fly with my 6 wt switch fly rod, the water was very low so i was using a 7ft.  2.6ins per second sinking tip with a 10lb flurocarbon tippet of three feet and a Hot Orange Ahilles shrimp fly on a size 15 double salar hook. In my haste to start fishing i left my camera in the car so the first fish wasn't on the video, the second salmon boiled at the fly twice before hitting it and even then it was  barely hooked with only one hook caught just at the tip of its mouth. The salmon exploded into life once it ventured into shallow water and jumped a number of times trying to shake the fly, putting plenty of side strain on the fish i played it out fast and beached it. Resting up the salmon for a few minutes i then released it back into the river none the worst for its encounter with yours truly. Both salmon were coloured and had been in the system for a few weeks, even though the fish was very silver i don't class them as fresh unless its covered in sea lice and has a blue hue running along its flanks. The upper beats of the Lee are coming to the end of the salmon run as it doesn't get much of a back end run in september, but as there are still some wild fish going through there is always the chance that if you have a fly in the water you could meet the odd fresh one passing through.

Salmon Fishing Ireland 2013 " August Report."

          

After a month of very hot weather and extremely low water i hadn't been fishing at the Dam Salmon fishery until today. The Dam was not releasing water even though there was plenty of rain and floods about. I got a call that they had released some water the night before so that was enough for me to get up there and see if there were any fish about. The water was on full load with the two sills also releasing water and this gave it an extra foot above normal high water. Having that extra foot of water makes it hard to hold the spinner on the salmon lies for any decent lenght of time and also to hold bottom. There were some very heavy showers that made fishing hard as they made the braid stick to the reel causing it to ball up but slowing everything down i was able to overcome that issue. The first fish hit very fast but didn't stay attached to the spinner for very long as it jumped about six feet into the air and released itself, a good fish of about 15lbs but slightly coloured.

The next salmon was a smaller fish of about 5lbs very silver and net marked which i played out very fast and released. In quick succession i hooked and landed two more salmon both were in the system for some time as they were both coloured up. As the water went off i quickly changed over to my Switch fly rod and hooked two more salmon only for them to get off. Unfortunately darkness arrived and i had to call a halt to my fishing, the only issue is if the water had gone off earlier there would have been a great fly fishing session. Can't complain as i hadn't been fishing there for over a month and to hook up on my first day back was great even if was only spinning.

Salmon Fishing Ireland 2013 Update.

Since the water levels were so low at the Dam over the month of July i turned my attention to seatrout fishing at night. I have been very successful in catching and releasing a good number of seatrout and would have caught a huge fish even by my standards only to have been broken off by a rock that i couldn't see in darkness. The seatrout gave me a lesson on the art of  night time high speed evasive manoeuvres by taking me upstream under the banks and then downstream and once again upstream and it ended by going downstream and exiting the pool through a narrow run with one big rock in the middle that i didn't see in the dark and unfortunately that rock sealed my faith by breaking my 7lb cast. I had been too naive by using a 5wt 9ft fly rod and had landed fish upto 3 and a half pounds without any problem until i met this monster, i had gone into a gunfight with a banana. Now my switch rod is being used for my night time seatrout sessions and a minimum of 12lb breaking strain cast, as the marines say i am going into battle with superior fire power so that never happens again. Back salmon fishing tomorrow so i will have more news on that front soon and by the way i have tied up some great seatrout flies that have been doing the business for me and i will have them up on my blog soon.