It’s getting close now. The cold weather can’t disguise lengthening days. Daffodils are blooming, an incongruent splash of sulphur yellow against the washed out land. New buds are showing on the trees and bushes in the garden promising green foliage in the coming weeks. Yes, it is definitely getting close – the opening of the season on Lough Beltra.
In previous posts I have talked about fly patterns for Beltra but today I want to share some of the lies where you can expect salmon and the importance of the wind for sport on the lough. So let’s start with some basics of lough salmon fishing first.
Any angler here in the West of Ireland will tell you that the biggest factor for success is the wind when fishing still water. The premise of ‘no wind = no fish’ is not 100% accurate as the very occasional salmon can be tempted in flat calm conditions, but this is such a rarity that it can almost be categorised as a statistical anomaly. What you need is a good, strong wind whipping the surface up into waves. Some fishers will tell you that there is no such thing as a wind that is too strong but I disagree with that point of view. Fishing, or rather trying to fish in a gale is not my idea of fun as casting becomes difficult, tangles more frequent and the ability to move the fly how I want to is compromised. For me a steady force 5 or so is just fine; a gusting 7 or 8 is not my cup of tea.
Next in importance is the direction of the wind and nowhere is that more so than on the Glenisland Coop water on Lough Beltra. Wind direction is a topic which could fill a good sized book, but to keep it simple the wind needs to come from a direction which does not hinder the drifts over the salmon lies. Note that I did not say it must assist you. Sometimes all you can manage is a breeze which is sort of nearly in the right direction but vigarous work with the oars is required to keep drifting over the fish. The Glenisland Coop side of Beltra fishes best when the wind is in either a South West or North East direction, ie. blowing directly up or down the lough. A North westerly is very difficult as you will be blown directly on to the shore and as the fish lie within 30 yards or so of the rocks this means you only get one or two casts before pulling back out into the lake, obviously a huge amount of work for very little return. A South Easterly is even worse as the high ground on the Glenisland road side blocks the wind from that quarter leaving the fishable water in flat calm.
So where exactly do the salmon lie in Lough Beltra?
I am going to keep this very, very simple for those of you who are visitors to Beltra and are fishing the Glenisland Coop fishery (Beltra East). Look at the map above and note where the L136 road passes close the the shore. You want to be drifting along that shore between 10 and 30 yards out from the edge. That’s it. Locals all know exact spots along that shore to concentrate on but if you don’t know the water just drift the full length of the shore and you won’t go far wrong. You will hear of specific salmon lies such as Morrisons and the Red Barn (now confusingly painted grey) but in a good wind the boat will drift the full length of the shore in around 30 minutes, so time over unproductive water is not too great. Walshes Bay can also be good as can the buoy out from Flannery’s Pier which marks the dividing line between the east and West fisheries.
Now let’s turn to Carrowmore Lake in North Mayo for a very different set of circumstances and the effects wind will have on your day’s fishing. Carrowmore is set amid extensive bog land, largely flat with little to break the wind from any direction. You can see the Atlantic Ocean just a few hundred yards away so this is obviously a windy spot. That should be good, right? Plenty of wind for that all important wave? Well, ‘Yes’ but……………
The surrounding bog does not stop at the lake shores but continues under the water. Run off from the countryside deposits huge volumes of fine peat silt into the lake which settles on the bottom where it lies in clam weather. Problems start when the wind gets up and causes waves which stir up this fine silt, turning the lake the colour of Oxtail soup. This happens frequently as the lake is shallow and any wind above a fours 4 or so is going to turn the water cloudy. I don’t know if there is any proof the fish go off the take when the water colours but I have never seen a salmon caught in those conditions and the received wisdom is the fish become uncatchable in the brown water.
One possible ray of hope when confronted with the silt colour on Carrowmore is to look for other parts of the lake which are not affected. Sometimes the wind from a certain quarter churns one area but leaves another part of the lake clear. Local knowledge really comes to the fore here and visitors will find it hard to figure out where the clear water is without consulting the local guru’s.
More info on the Glenisland Coop water is available on the club website http://www.loughbeltra.com
The lough opens on 20th March
Claretbumbler 