Carrick Lough

Today was wet and windy so I decided to skip the river tout and pursue some pike on the fly. I chose Carrick Lough as the venue as it is close by and reputed to hold some pike, at least. I arrived before noon and was quickly casting a fly between the platforms to entice a pike. DCAL class this lake as 'free fishing', that is, you only need a DCAL license in order to fish it: no permit required. For a 'free' lake, it is well setup by DCAL with good platforms around 2 sides of the lake.

Reading anglers spoor, I noticed that the lake had been fished recently by a lot of anglers, probably just last weekend. It seems that a lot of anglers fish the lake judging by the amount of rubbish left behind. DCAL actively clean the bins around these lake, but it seems that it is too much to ask that anglers should put their rubbish in them.

I was fishing for about 20 minutes before I nipped my first pike. Albeit small, it kept me interested. I turned another 4 at various platforms before one finally stuck. A nice jack pike.

I turned another fish before landing a smaller jack.

I would not expect to catch many large fish in these lakes as they have been quite heavily fished by anglers who like to kill and cook their catch. Although this is not something that the locals like to do, I do not condemn anglers who wish to do so, as long as it is within the fishery rules. The rubbish and damage to the platforms is another matter.

Remains of where a barbecue burnt into the fishing stands. Quite common at Carrick Lough.

I finished the day with two small pike. It was a cold affair but well worth it.

Ballinamallard River at Riversdale

I have been wanting to fish this river for quite a while. I purchased my DCAL permit online this morning and after an hours drive I arrived at Kilgortnaleague bridge around noon. I setup my tackle quickly and crossed the busy road to make my way down along the riverbank. What I first noticed about the river was that the banks had been worked at extensively, within the last year. I walked about a hundred yards from the bridge and began fishing down and across with a tungsten bead nymph to see if there were any trout about. Not a sniff! I walked further down the bank, fishing as I went, to no joy.

I walked about a mile downstream to investigate. There is a nice mix of fast riffles and deep pools along this stretch of water, although it does slow up near the end of the DCAL stretch. I noticed that there had been anglers on the river within the past few days, which may have contributed to my lack of success. The work carried out on the river was no small project. About 400 yards of river bank was rebuilt and stone structures were placed under the waterline to control the water flow (and create pools). I am not sure what these type of structures are called, but they create a good flow and look like they might create good holding water for the fish. They are clearly visible in the photo's below.

I couldn't help but notice that there were no fish rising where this work had been carried out. It wasn't until I walked up to Kilgortnaleague bridge (an area where the riverbank hadn't been 'fixed') that I seen a couple of trout rise to small upwings. It was here that I caught a half dozen small trout that saved a blank. 

It was a pleasant afternoon. It was mild and sunny. There was plenty of bird song to listen to and I spotted a couple of peasants. They were tame, which might have something to do with the pheasant hatchery well downstream. I will be back to fish this river, but I may have to try the angling club waters and give this part of the river a chance to recuperate after the extensive work that was carried out.

Ballinderry River at Kildress

Today was the opening for the 2012 fishing season on a lot of Northern Ireland's game fishing rivers. It has been a long winter and I was looking forward to this day for quite a while. I finished my first bamboo rod  and a few flies tied in preparation for today.
It was a mild morning and the thermometer read 10.5C. I decided I would fish the Kildress Angling Club waters of the Ballinderry river, which is very local to me. I arrived at around 11am and there was a sparse hatch of large dark olives coming off the water. I fished a number of pools and dropped a few trout before going up to the top corner. Here the LDO's were lining up in the current and the trout were moving a lot of water to get at them. I managed a few trout on a folded wing CDC dun.

I went back down to fish the fast water of the steps with an olive biot nymph and managed to hook the biggest fish of today. A lovely brown trout with an unusual colour around it's spots.

Overall I had an enjoyable day with too many trout to count. The fish were feeding on the LDO's right up until I left at 3pm.

One thing I did notice about the Streamlite was the handy polymer spacing for the reel seat. It has rounded edges and protects the tippet when hooking flies onto the stripper for storage. A nice feature.