Restocking the Flyboxes for 2013

How many different fly patterns does a salmon angler need?
Over the past few seasons, it's become glaringly obvious that a few patterns have caught me most of my fish.
Every year there seems to be one particular pattern that does the most damage.
I started fishing the river Mourne about 7 years ago. At that time I used to take the Derry bus from Castleblayney, hop off at Sion Mills buy my permit and get stuck into the most fantastic fly water I had ever fished. You see, the rivers in Co. Louth are a different kettle of fish. Salmon flyfishers are very much an exception to the norm. On the Fane, where I grew up, the spinning rod still reigns supreme. I caught my first salmon on the fly when I was 11. I read an article in Trout and Salmon entitiled 'Twitching Down the Tweed'. This was meant to be a good method for the slow Tweed pools in low water conditions. The lower Fane is a bit of a canal and most anglers shrimp but I thought I'd give this twitching carry on a go! I used a nice long tailed Ally's Shrimp with a sinking line and my Dad's 9'6'' #7/8 rod which he hadn't even tried out. The pool was Craig's, a noted hotspot with a narrow pacey neck that opened into a deep dub. After an hours flogging, a lovely fresh 7lb fish must have been so thoroughly cheesed off with my 'twitching' that it decided to swallow my Ally's in pure fury. The buzz of that catch left me hopelessly addicted to salmon on the fly.
When I started fishing the Mourne regularly, I began to learn a lot more about fly fishing for salmon. I caught a few fish from the outset but it took a couple of seasons before I began to catch regularly. Five years ago, my best fly was a Bann Special shrimp. At that time I fished one on the dropper constantly, coupled with a cascade or something similar. Lo and behold, it was the Bann Special that caught, every time.
The year after, it was the Claret Shrimp that caught most of my fish. The Claret Shrimp is a beautiful fly comprising of the usual GP body feather tail, claret rear body, claret mid. hackle, dark claret front body, J.C. wings, finished with a badger hackle in front of an orange hackle.
Three years ago, I didn't get to fish as much as I would've liked. We reached the Leinster final with Louth and football committments ate into fishing time. When the water came on the Fane, templedogs and the big water maestro, the Snaelda worked well.

First springer of 2010 fell to a Snaelda.
 In 2011, I discovered the Red Frances. What a fly!
I used it extensively on the Finn to great success. My tactic was to cast it square and twitch it fast through the pool. It was deadly. I tied the Frances on #10 and #12 Kamasan B175s for 1'6'' and lower, and had a small conehead version for big water. The conehead caught me loads of fish including my first Dee fish this year and a big Glyde double which I lost. The conehead eventually broke off and I retired the Mach 1 Frances!

                                         The Dee fish that fell to the lethal conehead Red Frances.
                                         Note the fly sitting beside the dorsal fin.

Last year however, I caught most of my fish on a Park Shrimp. If you test out a well tied Park Shrimp in the river before you fish it, the first thing you'll notice is the seductive, sinuous quiver the tail makes. The Park Shrimp looks unreal in the water and simply inspires confidence, Needless to say, I've already tied up a few Parkies for 2013.

Parkies for 2013

Irish shrimp flies are great patterns to have. I caught my first ever springer on a Silver Wilkinson, so I'm ting up plenty of those. The Bann Special will be present in decent numbers this season. I've included plenty of Curry's Reds because I intend fishing the Lackagh regularly this spring and a few people have told me it's great up there. The duo of badger hackles adds a lovely transclucency to this pattern, which is possibly the reason for its effectiveness on the clear waters of the Lackagh.

I've caught plenty of fish on a Faughan Shrimp in the past few seasons, enough to warrant inclusion in the 2013 line up. I'm using foxytails american softhackle in orange for the middle hackle.

Currently I'm at the halfway stage of tying. I think I'm gonna need to get a new J.C. cape before I finish but I've included a few snaps of the initial tyings.

                                                    Silver Wilkies at the halfway stage.

                                                  Faughan Shrimps; work in progress,

                                                 Working at a Curry's Red.

                                                   Nearly ready for the final stage.

A day on the Drowes.

Myself and James gave the Drowes a throw yesterday. It was a grey, miserable day with the air temperature still hovering around the 10 degree mark. The Drowes had a much fishier feel to it than the Lackagh but this was probably due to the fact that it was full of kelts. They were splashing around in all the pools. I've fished the Drowes a right few times in January but this is most amount of kelts I've seen in the river at this time of year. There were also fish still spawning on the redds around the eel weir. I'm no scientist, but I reckon the unseasonably mild weather must be having effect on  things. James mentioned that he had heard reports of frogspawn being spotted down in Cork. Crazy stuff! Nature hasn't a clue what's going on.
We purchased our permits at the fishery office in Lareen and headed for Lennox's Bridge. Surprisingly, there were no other cars parked so we decided to start at Briney's which is upstream from the bridge. I must admit, at this point, that I've never had a fish off the Drowes it's a real bogey river for me. I've heard it said however that Briney's is a good throw. It has a great pull on it for the fly. And there is a section from the whin bush on the far side to the tail that looks deadly.

Briney's

James fishes the likely looking tail.

Briney's was full of  kelts. We must have counted about ten of them splashing around. No pulls though.
Next up was Lennox's bridge pool. Again, plenty of kelts showing but no chromers.

 Lennox's Bridge Pool.

A Conehead Parkie was on the menu for the day.

We fished two or three more pools on this section before heading up to the top section at Lareen. We stopped off at the Mill Pool where a fresh fish was reportedly lost on Thursday. I usually only fish the Drowes in January, simply because it can get a bit busy. I have also found that the usual salmon fishing etiquette of cast and step from the top of a pool downstream doesn't apply to the Drowes. Be prepared for anglers to start from below you and fish upstream and leap frogging is also a  popular pursuit. Lo and behold,  just as we were getting to the tail of the pool, another angler appeared and began worming where we were just about to cast. Very infuriating, but that's just the way it is on the Drowes. I just bit my tongue and made for the jeep.
The upper section of the Drowes where it leaves Lough Melvin is really nice fly water. We began at the Eel Weir and worked our way down to the Crooked Hole, just above the Mill Pool. We bumped into an old mate Simon at the Blackwater. Simon, who will travel anywhere in the country for a chance of a salmon, is just back from a trip down under and had plenty of tales of big New Zealand trout and Chinook salmon.
The Blackwater regularly produces springers and at the bottom of the pool the line tightened and a fish was on. It was pretty obvious however that this was no springer though and after a brief scrap, I unhooked a kelt that was in poor condition with a fair amount of fungus around the head.

Kit for the day was my Orvis 11' #8 Access Switch with a Rio Scandi-Short Versitip, 480grain head. This outfit was perfect for the Drowes. The wooden walkways that run along the left bank of the river mean that double speys and snake rolls that are necessary in a downstream wind can be tricky and the fly often ends up stuck in the walkways.The 480 grain head loads the #8 Access Switch deeply and is ideal when you don't have much space to form a 'D' loop. It absolutely flies out, and covers all water on the Drowes. I used the fastest sinking tip along with a short leader and the conehead Parkie. Luckily most of the other anglers were concentrating on the blackwater so it was enjoyable fishing down through the uncrowded streams.

Lovely fly water on the Drowes.

After lunch we tried the top pools where the river flows out of Lough Melvin and worked our way down to the Blackwater where there were plenty of other anglers fishing so we moved back down to Lennox's where we finished off the day at the bridge pool... fishless.
There's talk of a cold snap heading our way later in the week and I think it will be more than welcome. Presently, I think I'll leave it for a fortnight or so before I head out again. It's back to work tomorrow however and there's a good chance that I'll have a notion to get out again next weekend.
To finish up, here are a few more snaps of the Drowes:

And we're off.... River Lackagh, Co. Donegal.

Top of the Lackagh Fishery.

Well, there is no dramatic tale of springers caught, lost or seen. Visited the Lackagh today, with my mate James. Weather was unusually mild for this time of year with the air temperature 10/11 degrees. There was plenty of water in the river and a couple of local anglers advised us that it fishes better in lower water.

The Lackagh flows from Glen Lough for about a mile or so until it reaches the sea at Ards. 

The uppermost 1/4 of a mile, is heavy, rocky water and doesn't look all that fishable. It is easy to imagine, however, that in low water, this section might slow fish down and persuade them to linger longer in the river.

Top part of the Lackagh, just below Glen Lough.

We headed to the top pool and prepared to fish down for the first time. Outfit for today was 11' Orvis Access Switch, teamed up with a 480grain Rio Scandi-Short Versitip line.  I started with the 3ips. tip and tried a Broc an Earraigh. The top pool has a very heavy flow so I changed to a conehead Parkie tied on a copper tube.

Top Pool 

The next pool down is called the Garden pool and has a reputation for being a bit of a hotspot. The whinbush at the head marks a lovely stream which widens out into big pool. The current flows along a steep cliff face on the left bank and looks like a nice spot to try a Frances on a later visit.

 Head of the Garden Pool; young Casey reckons he's doing a great job of fishing it.

 Middle Section

Tail of the Garden Pool

 Bottom pool on the fly only stretch.

Mirage Sunray ready to rock.

Bottle Snaelda.

I tried stripping a Sunray though all the pools followed by a heavy Snaelda but all to no avail.

Not to worry, it was great to be back out again and the Lackagh will definitely be getting a good fishing in the coming months. It's a really nice fishery set in wildest Donegal. 

Main Pool.

Tús na Bliana

First trip of 2013 tomorrow. Heading to the Lackagh in Co. Donegal.
Probably not much chance of a Springer but, you never know!
I've been busy at the vice, tying plenty of Parkies, as well as a few Broc tubes. Apparently flies with badger hair in them are a must for the Lackagh.

 Broc an Earraigh

 Feadán Broc Leacach

 Feadáin Broc

 Sunray Shadow with a mirage body.

 Softhackle Parkies

Alec Jackson #7 Single.

The Lackagh is a catch release fishery for 2013. By law, single barbless hooks must be used. Tubes are very handy on C&R fisheries, all you have to do is attach a barbless single. I'll have to squeeze the barbs on the Alec Jacksons.
Report on tomorrows outing to follow.....