Over the last couple of days I have had some good sport on a wild fishery not to far from where I live in Kilkenny. The rivers have been slow at times this spring to get going with the cold breeze and rain keeping the hatches and fishing quite on our streams; so it is handy to have this place to feed the addiction and pick up some nice spring brownies at the same time. The fish are beginning to move up in the water here and on a constant stream you will see fish gently breaking the surface picking off emerging buzzers and hatching flies. It is always nice to see rising and feeding fish after a long chilly winter and the impulse to select a dry fly might not pay off as much as it looks like it would. The fish over the last few days have been picking off the buzzers just under the surface while breaking the water in doing so. Fishing a clothes line with a suspended buzzer on the point and two buzzers on droppers puts your flies right where the fish want them.
Here is some patterns that have been taking nice spring fish like the one above over the last few days. I have been fishing these on a midge tip to anchor the flies in a light gusty wind so the don't get dragged across the lake. I use 6lb Grand Max soft plus for my leaders and just keep in contact with the flies till you feel that magic pull from the trout.
The point suspended buzzer, its a simple tying with a primrose butt and black buzzer body wound up the hook to form the body. The thorax is peacock dubbing, spectra no 46. The foam head is a booby cord cut and tapered then coated in water shed to help float the buzzer.
The first dropper was this small black buzzer with antron wool at the head with the same body and thorax as the above fly. This fly was the one that took the majority of the fish and its a size 14.
For the top dropper I used this orange quill with several strands of antron at the back of the fly and sunburst cheeks all coated in UV resin to give it a glossy look. While this fly took a few fish it was not as successful as the other dropper buzzer.
Hopefully the rivers will come to fruit next week at some stage but if they do remain dormant I will be quite happy picking up these lovely fish on buzzers also. With the Leinster Lake Championships and a trip to Czech Republic coming up in the next two week make sure to keep an eye on the blog to see how the fishing is going and the preparation for the World finals progresses.
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