Hello all,
Trout season started last month, and I've been out a few
times. I'm using the nine and a half foot, four-section rod that I got
last year. It's really not big enough when there's a lot of wind, but it
suits me all the same. I lash it to the top tube of my bicycle, put my
gear in my back pack, along with a flask of tea, a sandwich, fruit, candy
bar, pipes and tobacco, and I'm ready for a day of fishing on the bog.
The first day of the season we had a brisk northwest wind
and I cycled out to Lough Fada -- it's a good wind for that lake, and because
of that and for old times' sake I went there, even though Fada doesn't
fish well until later in the year. I got two ten inch trout -- pretty lean
and underfed, so early in the season -- in a few hours, and was well satisfied.
After that we had three weeks of heavy rain and winds to 80 mph here, so
there was no chance to fish.
Tuesday last week we had a bright day that with a good
south wind, and I thought from that it would warm up, so I went out to
Gowlan, about three miles from town next to Derrylea Lough, on the Galway
Road. It's a small lake, with mostly small fish, but it fishes early in
the season and they come quickly to the fly. I don't like it much because
it's close to the road and there's so many rushes along the shore that
you can only fish in one area, a small jut of ground on the east side.
I got two trout, again small and lean, in about 40 minutes, but the south
wind never warmed the air, and the water was so cold it numbed my feet
through my wellies. And it's not at all a kind lake, there's no rocks where
you can sit down for a while out of the wind and have a smoke, so I came
home.
I went out to the Bally Bawns, one day when there was
rain on a southwest wind. It's a good wind for that lake and it fishes
early, so I was expecting to get something, but nothing moved on the lake.
Still it was a good day, because those two lakes are lovely. They're not
far across the bog from Fada, out of sight from there because of some high
ground in between, but no one seems to fish them anymore. There's a place
on the smaller of those lakes where you should always start your fishing:
if you raise a fish in that spot you can be sure of getting fish, but if
you find nothing there, you can be sure that you'll get nothing anywhere
else on those lakes. I've tested that many a time.
We had two fine days this week -- bright, with a south
wind, and temperatures over 10 degrees. I went up to Dooneen, about a mile
from town, one of the lakes that fishes early, and has big fish on it.
A west or northwest wind seems to me to be better for that lake, and even
then it often seems to fish slow, but it's always exciting to go there,
because if you do get a fish there, it'll have some size on it. Well, I
went out there on two days, and got nothing. The second day was even warmer
than the first, and though it was bright the wind had freshened, so I was
expecting to have some luck. I tied on a Butcher and fished for about two
hours and saw nothing. I thought maybe I could move some fish if I went
deep, so I put on a sinking braided leader and a large Peter Ross -- something
that's worked for me before on that lake, though not as early in the season.
Fishing at the east end of the lake, where there's a cliff, I did get something
to knock the fly around a little, but I couldn't get him to come back,
so I gave up -- found a seat of rock in the cliff that faced the setting
sun, sat down and smoked a pipe, and ended the day in peace, not one of
the best fishermen of Connemara, but one of the most content.
From Tullyvoheen, good night and God bless you.
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