That’s better!

After three very tough days on the Corrib I had a relaxing day with a mate planned for today. We would fish lough Cullin together, a lake he has been doing well on recently. 10am was the agreed time to meet up on the shore and before then I had a hectic couple of hours doing things i should have done over the weekend but had put on a back burner. Chores out of the way, I headed off to Pontoon in altogether better overhead conditions than yesterday. Thick grey clouds wafted along in a soft northerly breeze which was surprisingly warm. Confidence was at a very low ebb though after taking such a beating over the weekend, but at least I would be out on the lough.

Boat loaded, engine started and gear stowed, we motored out past a couple of pins which mark nasty rocks just under the surface. I kept going and took us about 400 yards off the shore. Most anglers rightly concentrate as close to the limestone rocks as they can, but I have had success further out on Cullin and from what my boat partner was telling me it sounded like a safer bet to be further out today. You see he had been getting a few trout on the sinking line in previous days, something which I associate with trout feeding on mayfly nymphs at this time of the year. We had both tackled up with sinking lines and I wanted to be in slightly deeper water to use this to our advantage.

My fly choice might raise a few eyebrows too! The bob fly position was occupied by a glitzy little number known over here as Melvin Gosling Variant on a size 10 hook. The middle billet was filled by a trial pattern of my own which is a sort of lime green bodied French Partridge of a similar size. My tail fly was a yellow Gosling tied on a size 8 long shank hook, a fly which has been very good to me over the years. All three were specifically chosen to be fished deep.

And so we started to fish, the breeze behind us creating 6 inch wavelets and the odd greendrake sailing along in the company of some olives. Maybe 15 minutes had elapsed when my partner lifted into a solid trout, a trick he performed again not 10 minutes later. Both trout were beauties for Cullin, being well over a pound in weight. Next it was my turn and another fine trout came to the net. So it continued for the rest of the day. There were lulls and we took our time over a leisurely lunch, but the fish were still falling for our flies right up until our last drift. Most fish were in the one pound to a pound and a quarter range but we had a few better ones. I had a fine trout of about three and a half pounds and another which would have gone two and a half if I had bothered to weigh it.

A thoroughly enjoyable day was had, maybe made even better after the tough gig on Corrib. The dry fly anglers we saw were having a lean time of it today, but I believe the trout were taking mayfly nymphs close to the bottom. That warm wind of the morning gradually grew colder as the day progressed and by the time we returned to our berth it was decidedly cool. We need more warmth to really get the hatch going and stir the trout to rise instead of grazing on the bottom. Until then I will be sticking to my beloved sinking line.