Fooling Trout On the 1st of April. Whats working on the rivers at the moment

So its been a while sense I have posted something on the blog, this was due to the arrival of my son a while ago and a slow start to the season. But after getting out for a few hours recently on a lovely tributary to the Nore in Kilkenny here is an update of where the fishing is at the moment and whats working.
For us anglers here in Kilkenny we don't have the pleasure of fishing before the 17th of March and the majority of rivers in this region of Ireland are slow starters unlike the Munster rivers that get flying in early February. It is normally around April before we start to see good movement of trout from there winter lies into the runs and some evidence of fly life that might get them interested.
At the moment the temp of the water around here is still about 8 to 9 degrees and with a rise of one or two more degrees we will see huge improvements in the fishing.
This morning I managed to get out on the water for a few hours on a stream near by my home, while the Nore is still too high and cold to produce a catch, these tributaries are where I do the majority of my early season fishing. With the odd but little foliage on the trees and not much fly life in the air, it was only the nymphing set up I took with me.  I picked a stretch that had a nice mix of water from fast water to glides where I would have plenty of options to find some fish. At this time of the year here the fish can be still in pods or groups and not fully spread out in the spring/summer lies.

I began fishing the tail waters of the pools, this calmer water is the most productive water for me this time of year. While it is flat it still has enough movement to euro-nymph with great results. It was only one cast or two and the fish start coming, some by the doubles. In the side margins I pick up a few salmon Parr. These averaged from 6 to 9 inch fish and while they were sporting indeed at this early stage of the season that was not the catch i was looking for; also great to see them in the river in abundance.

Once I began fishing in the deeper channels of the pools and glides, I began meeting some lovely trout in great condition for early April. This trend continued through out the 3 to 4 hour session from pool to pool. For my set up, it was a syndicate 10 foot 2 weight rod with a 20 foot leader and tippet. The leaders was an aggressive taper with Mirko Skafars Neon wax as the indicator instead of any bio colour mono. I find this a good set up as I can move the indicator wax as I am fishing different depths of water. For the tippet I was using shogun .12, because the water was dull in colour and I could get away with the heavier tippet.  A good thing to remember is that use the maximum diameter of tippet you can get away with, I can nymph with as low as .06 but if I can get away with .12 I will use that. This heavy tippet also means that at this time of year when I am fishing 3mm to 4mm tungsten beads dragging the bed of the river I wont lose as many nymphs and because the water is slightly coloured it dose not bother the fish or effect the results to my net. 

The nymphs were simple and two or three trusted nymphs of mine a pair of copper beaded pheasant tail and a gold beaded hares ear nymph. I was switching between 3mm, 3.5mm and 4mm depending on the depths of river I was fishing. When I was fishing the tails of the pools and the slower glides I would let the nymphs sink to the bottom and one I felt the tighten of the nymphs down deep I would flick them off the bottom with a slight movement of my wrist and drop them back down again through out the drift, this produced some good takes. It is also worth you while allowing the nymphs to swing around behind you as this produced some nice results also.

It was great to get out for the few hours and begin to see some real movement from the fish , also nice to get some action with a few nice lumps in the net also. It is to be a long season ahead with  comps and various fishing adventures so make sure and check in regularly and i will try keep you updated. Next i am off to the Munster Blackwater to get in some practice for a pairs come coming up
I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and enjoy the 2019 season. If you would like to stock up your boxes for this coming year make sure and contact me through Facebook or email. If you have any questions or queries please feel free to contact me. Also make sure and check out my website www.piscari-fly.com for all your tungsten beads, flies, Dohiku barbless hooks, Tommi-fly products,the amazing Syndicate Fly Rods, Reels, leaders and much more. Thanks for reading.
Also check out my new YouTube channel for all my latest tying and hot tips. 

100 River challenge and Forgotten Rivers OF Ireland

Last summer myself and a good friend of mine David O Donovan, took on a challenge that saw us fishing over one hundred rivers in one week. The challenge was not only to do this but to each catch a qualifying fish of 18cm in every river.
After several months planning and investigation we selected 130 out of 165 rivers that we looked at through out Munster and Leinster.  We got under way on the 28th of May 2016 at 3am and began back in West Kerry, ending up at one stage in North Meath. For the duration it took us to complete the challenge which was 6 days 5 hours and 50 Mins we drove nearly 2700 kilometers overall and slept just 15 hours for the week. it was the hottest week of the year with temperatures peeking around 26 to 29 degrees most days and the river were low, so there was several factors that made the challenge that bit more difficult.

When we were finished and reflecting back on a amazing week there was several things that I took for the experience and one was for me was that we would fish rivers that I and many other anglers would pass over and rarely imagine or attempt wetting a fly on. It is truly amazing how many stunning rivers we have in our country and how little they are fished. The majority of fly fishers including myself drive past some of these gems to go fishing on other rivers that we fish far to regularly because we think we will catch better fish on bigger or more popular waters and often overlook the small tributaries that have an abundance of catch-able trout.

The challenge was a fantastic experience one that I would recommend to anyone that is looking for something different to try with fishing rather than the usual competition, trip out West or to foreign shores.
A long the way we recorded every fish and location through out week, all the people that helped along the way, fly patterns that worked on every river and the most productive times we caught trout; which was between 4am and noon, the during the evenings the rivers and trout played hard. With so many photos and information we decided to make ourselves a book to accompany the memories of each river and the fish they were caught in, it is something that finished off a truly memorable fishing expierence.

The quality of the trout in these rivers was outstanding and we had many surprises along the way; fishing small overgrown streams that would produce fabulous coloured brown's and in good quantities and sizes. Rivers that ran through town centers to tiny brooks moving at speed down the Wicklow mountains, every one worth a exploring further. So for the coming season I have planned to revisit some of these gems and spend more time on their waters exploring the treasures and seeing whats around the next bend, as unfortunately during the challenge we had to rush through them quite a bit to complete in our allocated time frame, and that natural desire of the angler to try the next run was not to be.
As a competition angler the importance of fishing different waters to expand you knowledge of fish, water and ability is crucial to success, and from what I learned in last the year is that we have a variety of rivers here in Ireland that are often over looked or forgotten about that can offer the angler every challenge that he or she needs. For the week we only fished a handful of patterns and mostly the dry dropper worked best, so you don't need an array of nymphs or dries to go exploring, just a desire to get out and look for something different and most important look up now and again from watching the dry on the water to witness the amazing scenery that surrounds the river.

All I can say is what a week!!

If you would like any information on the challenge or rivers please feel free to contact me here.
Also we would like to thank every person that helped us out with permission to fish the rivers and gave us the locations of good beats, every fish was caught on barbless hooks and returned quickly and safely to the rivers. There was also a fundraiser attached to the challenge and again we would like to thank every person that donated to the Margret Murphy Memorial Fund.

Thanks for reading I hope you got some idea of the experience we had with this challenge..and I hope it encourages you to try that stream or brook that you drive over and often considered giving it a cast..now we are wondering whats next for this year....maybe a 1000 trout...who knows.