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Another day another lough

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports — Leave a comment
August 8, 2015

Our days here have settled into a familiar routine. If we had any brains we would be up at first light and looking for trout but this does not happen. We put the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the Guinness brewery in Dublin. At dawn when the trout are active we are nowhere to be seen.

Breakfast is eaten at O´Connors just down the road from Mark´s place in Westport where we can steal a little internet and spend a little while in civilized company. This is where we are now. There is a toasted sausage sandwich in front of each of us, and a coffee to help kickstart the day. O´Connors is where we talk strategy and decide on a venue for the day´s fishing. View full article »

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Trout from the hill loughs

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports — 3 Comments
August 7, 2015

When it comes to trout fishing here in the west there is a choice to be made. One option is to fish one of the big loughs like Mask or Carra in the hope of picking up some potentially large trout while another is to head to one of the many small loughs which hold good stocks of feisty little fellas.

Having had a slow day on Carra the previous day, we decided yesterday that we would head to the hills and see if we could catch some of the small dark trout that live in the mountain loughs. View full article »

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Skunked on Lough Carra

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know — 4 Comments
August 6, 2015

The pints we consumed were not celebratory as they had been the previous night but a consoling remedy after a day´s rejection by the trout of Lough Carra.

To be honest we needed little consolation. Everyone who plays the trout fishing game might expect things to be inconsistent, particularly at this time of the year but we were nevertheless surprised at how little activity we observed. Sean and Mark each had a couple of furtive rises but put these down to small fish but my own flies were untroubled over the several hours they were on the water. If we failed to catch it was not from lack of effort. We offered those damn trout everything they might have asked for, wets and dries and buzzers, and we drifted over very promising looking water. The weather conditions seemed fine. Who knows why things pan out this way sometimes. It is what it is. C´est la vie. View full article »

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Great western adventure

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports — 2 Comments
August 5, 2015

Every now and then my brother Sean and our old friend Mark arrange a little rendezvous in the west of Ireland to see if we can catch a few trout and yesterday we convened in Westport for this long-anticipated fishing trip.

Mark Twain once said that the worst winter he ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco and, while things are not quite that bad here, to begin to imagine summer weather in the west of Ireland it is helpful to consider winter weather in as a starting point. View full article »

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Have you got any books on lampreys?

Filed under: Books and stuff, Folks I know, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
August 3, 2015

I have just come from the CLA game fair at Harewood House, just outside Leeds, where I was signing copies of a book that has just been published. The publisher is Coch-y-bonddu books and they sell and print books on an enormous variety of subjects. If you are interested in fishing, hunting, working dogs, falconry, natural history and all kinds of “outtdoorsy” things they are the people to go to.

The company was set up by Paul Morgan with whom I have collaborated on the book over the last three years or so and Paul was at the fair accompanied by Luke Edwards, Jane Kelsall and Marion Griffiths who are part of the Coch-y-bonddu team. They were joined by Ken Callahan who is another bookseller from New England and a longtime friend of Paul Morgan. Ken has a fine beard but not a whole lot of hair north of his eyebrows and he reminded me a little of Charles Darwin. It has to be said that, coming from a biology teacher, saying that a person reminds them of Darwin is the highest form of praise. Ken seemed to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the literature relevant to his work and no end of other things besides and was and was a pleasure to listen to. I´m sure the real Darwin would have had little to say about the shortcomings of American airline security or the worryingly reduced life expectations of professional American Football players. View full article »

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Three men in a boat

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know — 2 Comments
July 30, 2015

Harry and I headed out on Rutland again today to do battle with the trout. It was a quiet day for everyone and the fishing people back at base told us that very few fish had been taken. Harry and I had one fish apiece.

Rutland is, very crudely, a V shaped body of water with one arm north of the other and so they are called the north and south arms respectively. On the far side of where they meet, again very crudely, is the club house where boats can be hired (there are 65 of them) and you can buy a ticket to fish it. The boats float (an important design feature in my view) and have an engine at the back. You need an engine here as it is a big water – 3100 acres. View full article »

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When Harry met Hogie

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July 29, 2015

I have just spent a day on Rutland Reservoir boat fishing with Harry Abbott. Harry used to be a mate of mine but today he caught loads of fish whereas and I caught nearly none and so now I hate him. If he were writing this blog he would be speaking about fish landed, others lost and a big lump of a trout that swam off and emptied his reel of fly line in a matter of a few seconds before the line parted. He has just headed off to bed and I bet he will be tossing and turning now and will have trouble sleeping as he relives the drama of those moments.

We never saw that fish but Harry reckons it was significantly heavier than his four pounder which was the first and best fish of the day. View full article »

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The Royal Wulff

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July 25, 2015

I must confess that I knew nothing of the Royal Wulff before going to live in New Zealand and discovering for myself what a versatile fly it is. It seems that in New Zealand fly patterns are strongly influenced by successful patterns from the States and among the best known are the “Wulff” variants originating from Lee Wullf. Strangely enough the Royal Wulff itself is not one of his own flies and the credit for its creation goes instead to a guy called QL Quackenbush (what a great name!) and it was he who made a hair wing version of the Royal Coachman and this was originally given the name of Quack Coachman (another great name!)

This fly was first given a swim in New York by members of the Beaverkill Trout Club and it has since travelled the world and become very famous.

 

For my money the Royal Wulff is a great choice when you are scratching your head and wondering what the hell to use. If there is no rise in evidence it will often draw a fish up to the surface and I must admit to having used it in New Zealand when the trout were taking mayflies because my mayfly pattern was hard to see in the dying light of the evening. I´m sure a purist would have been appalled but the trout seemed perfectly happy with it. View full article »

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Black Bass at Concepción

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July 24, 2015

It has been a very hot summer here so far. It can seem sometimes as though opening the front door is like opening the door of a blast furnace. Outside, our dog Brutus is panting away. He lies in the shade but it is not  cool even there. Brutus is a campo dog and he has never been in the habit of being indoors but even he will sneak in just a little and lie just inside the front door where the tiles on the floor are a little cooler.

The heat has also put the brakes on fishing to a large extent. The river is warm and the fish are in the same kind of torpid mood as Brutus, the other dogs and the rest of us. Where it is deep enough on the reservoirs the bass will leave the shallows for much of the day and early morning and late evening are likely to be the optimum times to catch them. View full article »

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A Monster from British Columbia

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Natural history — 5 Comments
July 20, 2015

Yesterday I received a short message by email and a single attached photograph. It came all the way from British Columbia and showed the irrepressible John Langridge holding onto the tail of a fish he had just landed.  This fish, a white sturgeon, was about the weight of me, my wife Catriona and our two teenage kids put together!

I have only a few details about the capture of the fish. It was taken in the Fraser River which is the longest river in British Columbia and took 45 minutes to subdue. It towed the boat along as if it were a dog being taken for a walk and was eventually landed a full mile from where it was hooked. View full article »

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