Lord only knows how often I have driven past Lough McNean. A lifetime of journeys to the north or onwards to a ferry bound for Scotland entailed crossing the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic at the bridge over the river which joins upper and lower Lough McNean. The road passes along the northContinueContinue reading “Missing bites on the border”
Category Archives: Fishing in Ireland
Heatwave
Our weather has finally turned warmer after months of cold. Unfortunately, it has gone from one extreme to another and today we had high temperatures and cloudless skies over Mayo. Far from ideal conditions, but I had two clients who had booked a day on lough Carra, so undeterred, we set off for the clearContinueContinue reading “Heatwave”
Lough style fishing, casting and retrieving
I want to talk about casting and retrieving in this post. For me, these are both the most important and, at the same time, the most neglected aspects of Irish lough style fly fishing. Why so you may well ask? I am lucky enough to know and fish with some of the finest anglers inContinueContinue reading “Lough style fishing, casting and retrieving”
Not yet!
While I had a reasonably good session fishing for roach in one of the rivers which flow into one of the big loughs in my area, I had heard big bream swam into the same pools once we were into the month of May. Well, here we are in the merry month so it wasContinueContinue reading “Not yet!”
Yellow Stimi
It is here at last – the merry month of May. Everything is a bit late this season, but mayfly are now beginning to hatch out on the western loughs at it is high time we fishers were about our business. While we all love our dry fly fishing, the good old wets have theirContinueContinue reading “Yellow Stimi”
Royal visit
Naw, not Charlie being pals with Trump, just me making my first trip to the Royal canal this year. Like an itch that I just had to scratch, the Royal canal was calling me even though the local rivers are fishing really well right now. The day was promised bright, dry and warm but withContinueContinue reading “Royal visit”
Job done
A very quick post this evening. I spent the whole day today working with my mate Ian on repairing my boat and am happy to report she is ready to go back in the water (at last). Last May the old girl was making a funny scraping sound when I was on the lough oneContinueContinue reading “Job done”
The early bird
My last session hunting for big roach has me fired up for more of the same, so I set an alarm for silly o’clock on Sunday morning and headed back to the same spot to try my luck again. I was ghillieing later in the day so this was going to be a bit ofContinueContinue reading “The early bird”
Mayo roach
Brown trout are the staple species in the county Mayo. The huge salmon runs of yester year have gone, wiped out by the industrial fishing around the coasts, so anglers come here to fly fish for the lovely browns which live in just about all the local rivers and loughs. Go back a couple ofContinueContinue reading “Mayo roach”
Being a Boatman
I have documented here in this blog why I don’t fish in the Irish angling competitions. I do however perform boatman duties sometimes, and I was called upon to do just that last Saturday. It was the National finals day and the venue was lough Conn. There was one small problem for me, my boatContinueContinue reading “Being a Boatman”
Claretbumbler 