Fly Fishing Report From An Irish Angler

Co. Wicklow, Ireland.


A fish of rumour and conjecture became reality to me when I met by accident Denis O'Toole outside the Woodenbridge Hotel, Co. Wicklow. A man approaches me, "Are you Ashley Hayden who writes the angling column in the Wicklow People". "Yes I am", I reply. "My name is Denis O'Toole". Before he could utter another word I said, "So you're the man who caught this mythical sea trout". "That I am", said Denis, and after that it was like we had known each other all our lives.

To cut to the chase, rumour had abounded as to the capture of a great fish but nobody had seen the evidence. Denis, a professional fly dresser was holding his powder because he did not want the river being overrun. The time however had come to filter out the story, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. So in Denis's own words:

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

I and a fishing partner had been fishing on the Avoca one evening; we had caught several small sea trout and released them, the fish showed in the pool above where I was fishing, before it was fully dark, so I didn't try him straight away.

I fished some other pools while I was waiting for darkness to fall, at this point I did not know it was a sea trout.

I had fished down one of the pools when my fishing partner walked up to me and I asked did he want to go home or stay?? He said he would fish the pool that I had just been at as he had just changed his fly's.

Then I went down to the pool where I seen the fish move (Lucky Boy) I put on a 1 1/2 inch aluminium tube with a salar single (with the barb squeezed down) and started at the head of the pool, on my 4th cast while stripping the fly back he hit it with a BANG!! and all hell broke loose, all I could see was white foam on the water through the inky darkness, I thought I hooked FREE WILLY, the fish's 1st run tore off 20 or more yards of line downstream and he made 3 other big runs after this.

He was lying in only 3ft of water when he took, in total the fight lasted 20mins. He was then carefully weighed & measured and released back to spawn and produce more 16lb’ers.

I am a professional fly dresser and live locally, the tube fly he took was one of my own patterns called the Lava Tale, far too many big fish today end up in pictures with gill tags in them.


Tight Lines, Denis O' Toole.

Griptilian Replacement Review

Three Benchmade knives come immediately to mind. As most of us know, the Griptilian, like all of its sisters in the Benchmade harem, is an incredibly useful as well as well made cutting instrument. To replace an aged and decrepit Mini Griptilian I humbly suggest: another Mini Griptilian, the Mini Stryker Nitrous or the newfangled Mini Barrage.
Pluses and minuses:
Griptilian + good blade geometry, lower price point - PLASTIC scales, no Nitrous

Stryker + great blade geometry, moderate price, G10 scales, Nitrous, I am the satified owner of a high performing full size Stryker - 4.25 inches long

Barrage + good blade geometry, moderate price, Nitrous - PLASTIC scales

You're probably guessing by this point that I'm not a fan of pastic handles on higher quality knives.

Fly Fishing Report, Bell Meadow, CA

July 30, 2011
Clavey River, CA


Went flyfishing with my family to Bell meadow, to the headwaters of the Clavey River. We fished for three hours before heading out. We caught three rainbows and one brook trout. The flies used were Stimulators and Hare's Ear Nymphes. I caught two rainbows, my dad one rainbow and the brookie went to my mom.


Submitted by: Jon H.

Maine Striper Fishing Report Kennebec River August 4th, 2011

7/3/2011 Yesterday I had repeat guest Bob McClements & his grandson Mason back aboard the Super Fly....last year young Mason put on quite a show as he slammed several nice sized Stripers...this season would be no different. This year I suggested that we run out to the bay to start the day by filling the livewell with Mackerel...a prime Striped Bass bait here on the Maine coast....After filling the livewell with enough Macks for a morning of fishing we cruised to one of the many productive ledges where Bob & Mason proceeded to each boat several nice sized Stripers including a couple of keepers for dinner!!!

Wind River Trip 2011

Well this Wind River Range Trip was a real tough one.  We ended up hiking 64 roundtrip miles in 7 days.  We had a fuzzy brown visitor.  The fishing was tough!  We think we got alot of snow here in Colorado, you should of seen The Wind River Range in Wyoming.  We had to change our whole trip because we could not cross the river in the pictures below.  More to come!!!!

Mark your calendar

Entomology with Connor Giorgi has been rescheduled for Thursday August 18th from 6-8pm. If you signed up last time please sing up again (it will be worth the wait). Those of you who weren't able to attend last time here's your second chance!

The Season So Far...

While conditions are tricky at the moment with blazing sunshine and, yet again, a lack of water - here's an update of the season so far...

Wild brown trout: 1799. After a tremendous May (941), June was a little trickier with 346 fish recorded. July recorded 184, with some cracking fish including a trout of 13.5in for Clive Hames. Nymphs are producing most of the trout, although the fish are still rising!

Sea Trout: 53. The numbers of fish have been down this season, perhaps due to sustained low water. There are however small pockets of bright, fresh fish on our Lyd beats at present and reports of many more fish on the lower Tamar fisheries.

Salmon: 1. Due to sustained low water, nobody has been salmon fishing! We really need a good spate before the salmon rods are dusted off...


Regular visitor Charlotte Jones with a lovely Tamar brown trout.

More Family Fishing Days Part 2

Caleb Wallentine


I fished with my family in a stream next to Highway 120 near the Tioga Pass resort. I caught this Rainbow Trout on on a Red Copper John.

A few pics from The Saint Mary River

Floating the Saint Mary River 

We ventured  West  yesterday and floated the St Mary River , despite the higher the usual flows the fishing was pretty darn good .Willy's Ants and Streamers where the top producers .Give it a week and the river will be in fine form .

Hook -Up

St Mary River  Cutthroat 

A sedge imitation proved too tempting for this lovely grayling:

~Dave

Without the bubble, it would be less cool.

-Alex who reminds you to not forget the camera.

More Family Fishing Days Part 1

Joshua Wallentine


I fished with my family in a stream along Highway 120 near the Tioga Pass Resort. I caught this nice Rainbow Trout on a streamer my dad told me was certain to get us a fish. It did!

Don't snort ocean bricks

If you're an angler who finds a brick of something floating in the ocean, you might want to think twice before snorting the contents, no matter how inviting.

Kenneth told investigators that about 90 minutes later, Thomas began running around the boat, throwing things into the water, including a cell phone and a VHF radio. Thomas also picked up knives, pliers and a gaff and removed the cowling from the engine, which fell overboard and sank, leaving the brothers stranded.

The boaters were rescued by a passing vessel but Thomas passed away a few hours later at the hospital. A cause of death has yet to be determined. via Gawker.

photo US Coast Guard

belly love

The View from Southern Alberta

Recently we have been all over the map  ..mostly Southern Alberta fishing a variety of rivers ranging from the Crowsnest to the River X  .Fishing has  been good to excellent  , the trout (Cutts ,Bows and Browns ) all have been eating a lot of different stuff ,ranging from P.M.D.'s to Golden Stone Flies .Hatches are strong and so is the Dry Fly Fishing .Fishing  in Alberta will just keep getting better as the rivers continue to shape up .

Tailwater Sunset 

Golden Stone Fly Patterns 

River X Put In 

Tailwater 

Tailwater Hook Up

Getting Ready 

Floating the River X

River X Hook up 

River X Brown 

River X Brown 

You know you are in Alberta when ...

Maine Striper Fishing With Capt George Harris & Super Fly Charters: Kennebec Report July 30th, 2011

( 07/29/11 Joel Morgan with a 43" nearly 30 pound Striped Bass that he caught in 2' of water in bright afternoon sun...for those who think that big Stripers only feed at night....you'd better think again!!!)

With the warm river temps we have changed some of our tactics and some of the habitat that we are fishing...usually during the heat of summer we do exceptionally well fishing the cooler water that flows over deep structure...which was the case from mid june to mid july...recently, during the last couple of weeks, we have been finding most of our fish in shallow water....this time of year crabs are prime forage and they are easy prey for the stripers that cruise the sand, mud and grass flats. over the past couple of weeks we have slowly made the adjustments from deepwater to shallow and it has paid off with some impressive fish to the boat...

also when the conditions are right we have had some pretty cool sight casting opportunities that have resulted in some amazingly explosive strikes that will not soon be forgotten by my anglers

I'm also proud to announce that "Super Fly Charters" was named one of the very best Charter Fishing Tour Companies in the State of Maine by the Portland Press Heralds "Peoples Choice Awards" as seen in todays (07/31/11) Portland Press Herald...A big thank you to all of my guests for helping to make my business so successful..Please rest assured that we will continue to work hard everyday to put our anglers in front of fish and give them an amazing Maine saltwater fishing experience!!!

for reservations & availability please call 207-691-0745

Evening sedge fishing can be really productive:






~Dave

Fiesty

...ate the bloody midge.

Found in the urban wild - produce edition

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Fly Fishing Video

Joseph on the Marble Fork Of The Kaweah River, CA

you are not allowed to complain...

...if you didn't pinch the barb.

-Alex who reminds you to yank quickly.

help send Olive to Hollywood

http://olivethewoollybugger.com/blog/?p=1613
my friend Kirk is making an exciting animation movie! see the LINK here...

A delightful but tough afternoon and evening on the Wylye. Starting condition were perfect, but an increase in cloud cover, an increasing breeze and a slight drop in temperature was enough to put the fish off. When the cloud broke and the sun shone through, the fish started to show interest again:

There were small grayling willing to play ball, happily rising to an F-Fly.

There were plenty of Mayfly (Ephermera Danica) fluttering about - this river shows late trickles of the large specimens. There were lots of nymph shucks floating down:


A loop emerger tied on a Partridge 15N 'Gold' did the business with some very selective trout:


Allowing plenty of slack line into the leader helped to overcome some tricky currents. I was pleased to put the net under a nice grayling:


My sincere thanks to Roger Fagan for the invitation to fish this beautiful part of the river. Challenging fishing makes the success you do have even more rewarding.

~Dave