The word on the street was that there were salmon being caught in Lough Conn so I decided to head out today and give it an auld lash. My boat is on Cullin so it meant driving it across Cullin, under the bridge at Pontoon and motoring half way up lough Conn. The journey wasContinueContinue reading “Conn tricks – catching trout on sandwiches”
Category Archives: Fishing in Ireland
Reflections so far
We are in the last week of April and I have been thinking about the season so far and any lessons I need to learn. By now I would normally have landed my first salmon of the year and brought some decent brown trout to hand. Neither of these things have come to pass and theContinueContinue reading “Reflections so far”
The Goat’s Toe
One of the great joys of salmon angling is the sight of a fly in the scissors of a fresh fish you have just landed. The hours/days/weeks and months of abject failure melt away when you see your fly in the corner of the king of fishes mouth. We all love the scenery, the companyContinueContinue reading “The Goat’s Toe”
Rummaging and repairs
I came across an old cardboard box in the shed with some fishing related odds and ends inside. There was my father’s old tackle bag for a start. I washed and dried it and it will give me some more years of service even if it is a little faded. A filleting knife from anContinueContinue reading “Rummaging and repairs”
Deer Deer – muddled thoughts
I am a big fan of deer hair. It is versatile and hard-wearing and of course it is buoyant. I first became aware of it when I was given the first three volumes of Tom Stewart’s ‘Fifty popular flies’ by my uncle for Christmas one year. I consumed the contents avidly and can still rememberContinueContinue reading “Deer Deer – muddled thoughts”
Lough Cullin
Many of you are familiar with the great western lakes. Conn, set below the heights of mighty Nephin, the wild Mask with shallows and reefs rising from the depths, beautiful Carra with the near tropical look of the green water and Corrib, huge and daunting too the newcomer. Less well known is Lough Cullin, theContinueContinue reading “Lough Cullin”
Hail, drains and trees
The weather is all over the place. After a couple of days of unseasonably warm, dry weather the rains came back yesterday evening. Temperatures dropped overnight and today dawned cool and breezy. Showers, some of them of hail, added to the feeling that winter was sneaking back again and I had to push myself toContinueContinue reading “Hail, drains and trees”
What you need in your box
The trout fishing on the rivers has taken off now and those of you who are lucky enough to be able to fish for wild Brownies in the West of Ireland should be on the river at every opportunity. A lot depends on the weather of course, but the next 6 weeks will provide usContinueContinue reading “What you need in your box”
The Iron Blue Dun
I want to discuss the Iron Blue Dun (it is too much hassle to write Iron Blue Dun all the time so I will refer to it as ‘IBD’ in this post). For such a tiny insect it has generated a huge amount of words in angling literature, and rightly so. From the earliest historyContinueContinue reading “The Iron Blue Dun”
Scratching a dry itch
The fickle March weather has turned cold and wet again. The balmy few days we had last week have been swept away by mean winds that seek out every opening to send a chill through me as if to remind me of my advancing years. Looking back over the season so far the rod hasContinueContinue reading “Scratching a dry itch”
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