What I bring for a day afloat

I was out on lough Conn yesterday. My usual routine of lugging all the gear out of the car got me thinking you might like to know what I bring with me on when I head out for a day on the Irish loughs. Rather than a boring list I will run through what each item is and why I take it with me. Let me say from the off that this is just what I need, it will vary wildly from angler to angler what he or she feels is essential. Seasoned west of Ireland anglers may find little of note in this post but visitors may see some value in these musings.

Let’s start with safety. Spending a day out on a large, exposed lake can be dangerous, even for experienced anglers.

Lifejacket. I prefer a manually inflated life jacket. This is a legacy from the early days of automatically inflating jackets when some brands had an unfortunate habit of inflating for no good reason instead of when they were submerged. I don’t hear anglers complaining about this these days so maybe I need to think again about automatics.

A length of rope. Obviously for securing the boat when ashore for lunch or a comfort break but also to tow a boat in trouble (or be towed myself in emergency). This needs to be strong enough to do the job without being too thick. About twenty feet is sufficient.

Tools. I take a basic tool kit including a sharp knife, pliers, a few spanners, screwdrivers, needles, superglue, strong thread, spark plug and spanner for the engine, shear pins, spare tholl pins, a small can of WD40, a torch, wire for clearing blocked tell tales, assorted cable ties and old rags. There is a small bottle of 2 stroke oil in the too, not for me (I run a 4 stroke), but in case another angler has forgotten theirs. This has happened a couple of times and saving someone the trouble of dashing off to the nearest town to hunt for some oil when they forgot theirs is not a bad thing. While that list may look far too long, at some time or another each of the above items has been used on a day on the lough. On those occasions, whether due to haste of failing memory I have forgotten the tools you can be sure I needed something which was in it. I used to keep all this lot in a sturdy black bag but have recently switched to a cheap plastic tool box just so everything is kept dry.

There is a small small first aid kit in my bag. Look, I can’t perform brain surgery in the middle of lough Mask but there are the basics to deal with cuts or at least bandage anything more serious. Sun block is in my tackle bag too and is essential on all but the rainiest of days.

Getting around

Engine and tank are always checked the night before and the petrol topped up if required. These days I try not to keep petrol too long as it goes off so quickly. I keep a pair of oars in the boat so I don’t have to worry about forgetting them. They are chained up so nobody can steal them easily.

Cooking etc

If out for a day on the lough I bring some sandwiches with me and my faithful and much battered Kelly Kettle for a brew. In an old hessian bag I keep the kettle and base, some firelighters in a waterproof box, a lighter and if it is a wet day a small poly bag of dry twigs, just to make starting the fire a bit easier. In a small rucksack I have cups and plates, basic cutlery and the bits required to make tea or coffee. It is easy to underestimate the reviving powers of a cuppa on a day afloat.

Clothing

Keeping as dry as possible is the aim of course, but that is easier said than done on a big Irish lough. These days I wear neoprene waders and an oilskin jacket. The waders allow me to be in reasonably deep water when launching/retrieving the boat while also keeping my lower half dry when driving in rough weather. Oilskins are so much cheaper than those fancy Gore-Tex jackets and are just as good. Licences, permits, a little cash and some odds and ends are stashed in the pockets of a fleece I wear under the oilskin Under that I wear layers so I can take off/add as required to keep warm. Being follicly challenged, I always wear a hat and have examples of beanies and baseball caps in the car and in most of the bags I take fishing, just to make sure I don’t forget to take one with me. In the spring I take a pair of gloves with me for those days of biting cold. I don’t bother bringing spare clothing with me on the boat and just put up with it if I get wet, but that is a personal choice.

That is a fair amount of gear already and I have not even started on the fishing tackle yet! Let’s presume I am doing my usual and bringing both fly and trolling gear with me.

Fly gear

My normal rod is an eleven foot seven weight, my current one being made by Leeda. I regard anything less than ten feet in length as too short for lough work, be that wet or dry fly. For many, many years all the fly rods and reels I fished with were Hardy, but I believe quality has dropped and I won’t pay the high prices for poorer kit. This Leeda does fine, it casts well and should see a few more seasons. If I am salmon fishing from the boat I use an eleven-foot-six Daiwa Wilderness which chucks out an eight weight line. A fine rod, but you need the strength of Hercules to fish all day with it. Choice of rod, and indeed all tackle, is down to the individual. These days I don’t fish with expensive rods and reels. Wonderful though this modern gear is I find lough fishing to be a tough business and it is all too easy to break a rod in rough weather. While breaking a €100 rod is never a pleasant experience, smashing one costing €500 is an awful lot more upsetting.

I’m the same as most fly anglers and reels with different lines seem to be something I can never have enough of. Aware of the burgeoning reel case with reels loaded with every manner of different lines I do try to keep this in check and now have a system which works for me. I have two fly reels in my main tackle bag, one with a floater and one with a slow sinker (both seven weight forward tapers). That covers the vast majority of my fly fishing. The reel case holds reels with various sinking lines, my salmon reels with the 8 weight lines on them and also my reels for trolling.

I bring a range of leader materials with me of course. Personally, most of my wet fly fishing is done with good old mono as the last link to the flies. I like its durability and strength and am happy to forgo the slight loss of transparency compared to modern materials. For dry fly fishing I usually use Stroft but others do find their way into my bag too.

Trolling gear

My favoured trolling rod is an old ABU fibreglass nine footer with an ABU multiplier strapped to it. In addition there are some other rods and reels which get pressed into service from time to time. Trolling does not require very hi tech gear and as long as it is strong enough for the job just about any rods can be pressed into action. Some anglers prefer longer rods, others will tell you shorter ones are easier to handle in the boat.

Line on my trolling reels is normally 20 pound nylon. Maxima is as good as any in my book but I have used many others. I have moved back to nylon after finding braid just too difficult to handle and it wears the softish rings on my old rods. I get the advantages of braid, in particular low stretch for more positive hooking, but for me personally, the disadvantages stack up and so I have generally reverted to nylon.

My baits live in one green bag. Most dedicated trollers set off for a day with multiple bags and boxes overflowing with different baits and I used to similarly incumber myself like that. I could easily move to one small box with half a dozen baits and catch the same number of fish, of that I am in no doubt. The thing is, part of the fun of trolling of swapping baits and trying different ones. Note that I am talking about salmon trolling here, not pike. I totally understand the need of dedicated pike anglers to haul box upon box of hard and soft lures with them.

I own a quite ridiculous number of landing nets. River scoop type nets, coarse nets, salmon nets, pier fishing nets and many, many more. For this season I bought a triangular folding one which extends. I am fervently hoping this works flawlessly and my indecision over a boat net is finally put to bed. A few seasons ago I brought my ginormous salmon net and brought it with me every time I went out. Then, on the one day I took my ancient and none too dependable trout net with me I hooked a nine pound salmon. I did land that fish, but only after the second attempt. This latest net will hopefully be big enough to deal with most eventualities yet not take up half of the space in the boat.

My much battered Fishpond bag holds the majority of my tackle like fly boxes, leaders, etc. This bag must be twenty years old now and is getting a bit frayed around the edges (a bit like myself). The Fishpond boasts an unholy number of pockets, into which I have secreted all sorts of bits and bobs. Most of these things never see the light of day and at the end of each season I go through the bag to clean it and remove all the boxes, spools, weights, tools etc, firmly vowing never to put them back in there again. Of course I do exactly that before the start of the new season and so the cycle is repeated. The answer is never to buy a bag with scores of pockets – you will just find ‘stuff’ to fill them.

I am toying with the idea getting a box to replace the multi-pocketed blue bag. The main reason is the wet conditions in a lough boat which renders everything on the bottom sodden. A box would put an end to that alright but good ones are frighteningly expensive. The competition lads can justify that level of expense but I am not sure my pockets a deep enough for one.

In a little chest pack I keep the small items which are required often. spools of leader material, scissors and nippers, floatant and degreaser, a spare lighter, etc. This is especially useful when I am ghillieing as it allows me to fix a clients busted leader or change a fly for them without searching about in my main bag for all the bits.

There you have it, a big pile of gear just to go out on a small boat for a few hours fishing. I can cut down on it by just taking the fly gear but I like to be able to troll if the wind drops or I simply get a bit tired fly casting. A short session means a reduction in the requirements as the food/kettle stuff can stay at home and likewise, if I just go fly fishing the trolling gear is not required. Each to their own, but I like to have room to move around in the boat.

NB: you are all wanting to know how the day on Conn went! Fishing in excellent conditions, we had 6 trout in the boat, nothing big. I stupidly managed to break on a good fish when I tightened down on it just as it decided to make a run. We rose/pricked/lost another few trout in addition to the ones we brought to the net. Here is Shane bring one to the net: