May came and went with unreasonable haste. I hardly wet a line during the merry month, a combination of work commitments and Mediterranean weather kept me occupied and the fish unmolested. Reports suggest the mayfly was late but is still hatching in good numbers as I write in the first week of June and asContinueContinue reading “An easy mayfly pattern”
Tag Archives: co. Mayo
The Soldier Palmer
I like old patterns. Something nostalgic is awakened when you tie on one of the classic flies from the last century or the century before. That link with the past offers reassurance and knowledge if a fly has been around for this long it must catch fish. So my fly boxes bulge with old-stagersContinueContinue reading “The Soldier Palmer”
Small river fly fishing
Tackling small streams can prove a challenge for anglers who are more used to wide open spaces and plenty of elbow room for casting. Here in the west of Ireland we have a number of small streams, most of which are never fished, yet contain a reasonable head of wild Brown Trout. Rivers like theContinueContinue reading “Small river fly fishing”
Planning for the new season
Don’t you just love technology? OK, so it kind of takes over our lives sometimes and swallows up too much of our free time (if we let it), but on the whole technology enriches our everyday lives. Here in the West of Ireland I use Google Earth to look for likely places to fish. MuchContinueContinue reading “Planning for the new season”
Flies for Lough Conn, part 2
Following on from a previous post I will discuss a few more patterns which have worked on Lough Conn for me over the years. Malloch’s Favourite Firstly we will take a look at a Scottish fly which has worked for me during the olive hatch. Each spring the Western lakes get good hatches of lakeContinueContinue reading “Flies for Lough Conn, part 2”
Dredging is not the answer
It is raining today. It rained yesterday and the day before that. The countryside around here in Co. Mayo is totally waterlogged and serious flooding is occurring as I write this post. People’s livelihoods and homes are threatened by this prolonged period of wet weather and they are understandably angry with a government who theyContinueContinue reading “Dredging is not the answer”
After the rain
The weather Gods have pissed on us for more than a week now and the county of Mayo is sodden. Rivulets of water are still running across roads and the fields are flooded. Most of the rivers around here have burst their banks and spilled their contents across the landscape. And amidst this deluge we hopedContinueContinue reading “After the rain”
Pass my hammer, it is getting cold
It’s mid-November and the year is showing its age. Leaves clog the drains around the house now and the heating boiler had to be coaxed into life again with some deft hammer blows to the pump housing and a liberal stream of expletives. We were blessed with an unusually calm period of high pressure duringContinueContinue reading “Pass my hammer, it is getting cold”
Fly tying season
Now the angling is over for another year I will start to post some fly patterns and tying instructions on this blog. Here in Ireland we are quite conservative when it comes to different styles of fly but I use a wide range of different flies to meet the conditions so don’t expect just DabblersContinueContinue reading “Fly tying season”
Back to the rain
A couple of windy, rainy days this week seem to herald the onset of winter properly and the forecast is depressingly ominous with high winds and even some snow promised before the week is out. I went out on the Cashel River one more time today, more in homage to the past season than withContinueContinue reading “Back to the rain”
Claretbumbler 