Iron Blues, River Fishing in Kilkenny

I moved to Kilkenny some seven years ago and one of the big attractions to moving here from the Garden County was for the exceptional river fishing and the sheer variety of rivers only a short drive from where I chose to live. If you haven't spent some time exploring this region and its waters then it a must on your to do list, it boasts lots of small streams and the larger River Nore with miles upon miles of glides and fast water stuffed with quality wild brown trout.

When I visited here as a young angler fishing All Ireland's in Durrow and the like I can remember seeing carpets of Iron Blues on the River Nore and the trout breaking their necks to take them at will. Sense then and now living here it is one of the times of the season that I look forward to most, during a blustery April or May day you can be guaranteed some great action when these blue treats come on the water. 
Over the years I have tried and tested many good patterns to imitate this hatch and while some of them have been successful these two dressings stand out the best for me. 

I have found that using Heron Herl is the superior material for dressing the body of my Iron Blues, it is a soft material and has a wonderful natural colour that darkens when wet and just the right tone for the trouts trained eye.

I use this fly in the calmer waters and for the fussy trout, it has a Coq de Leon tail, only three fibers though on a size 18 or 20 hook. I then use 8x clear mono to rib the fly and give the body strength; use only two fibers of the herl for the body. The wing is two small CDC feathers and a small thorax of Musk Rat natural dubbing is used to prop up the CDC and finish off the head. 
I find this fly will bring fish on the blind and I normally fish it on 7 or 8x tippet with a long progressive tapered leader that I make my self. 

This parachute version of the hatch is normally fished in the broken water or on a windy day when the flats have a wave on them. I normally tie it on a size 14 or 16 hook, while the tail is the same as above the tag is tied with holographic red tinsel. I like the holo red over flosses because it dose not darken when wet and stays bright with that little fleck that can catch a trouts eye.
the body is also the same as above dressed with Heron Herl and clear mono. I use an off white para post and some grizzle cock for the hackle, while the thorax is again musk rat natural dubbing.  The combination of Heron and Musk Rat is worth experimenting with on your dries and even nymphs I find it lethal for wild trout. 

As I have mentioned before if you have some spare time or a desire to explore some new fishing grounds then Kilkenny and its multitude of rivers is well worth the journey, and cost effective as days tickets are widely available for all the different clubs that control the water. If you happen to be here for the hatch of Iron Blues then make sure you have these two dressing with you and you wont go far wrong.  

I hope you enjoy tying these patterns and enjoy fishing them even more then I have had. If you would like any of these flies or any other patterns of you choice you can find my contact details on the right side of the blog. Thank you for reading and tight lines.

FLYFISHING IN KILKENNY

I spent two days this week on the Nore and some of its tributaries with some good friends chasing brown trout and discussing many aspects of trout fishing. The weather was slightly overcast and breezy which made for good enough fishing conditions but the low levels of water did prove to be challenging at times.

Trout fishing around Kilkenny can often be passed over for fishing on the River Suir which is not to far away, or salmon fishing on the local rivers throughout this area. I generally find the brown trout fishing in this region fairly good and mostly forgotten leaving it untouched in places and its mostly for a very reasonable price. The one thing I enjoy mostly about fishing these waters is you rarely bump into another angler and you can enjoy the elegant surroundings at peace.

With the Nore making its way through miles of lush banks and is fairly accessible from the towns of Durrow down to Inistioge there is an abundance of fishing to be had on its runs, riffles and super glides for your dries. The range of fish vary here also with a solid stock of fish from 10 to 12 inches, there is also many good quality trout running into several pound in weight  to be had. There are clubs on the rivers however and permits can be obtained at good prices for the day or for a full season.

There are also many great tributaries to the Nore which include the Kings River in Kells, Dinan in Castlecomer and the Erkina in Durrow among others; these rivers also hold great stocks of fish and are good options if the main river is fishing slow or in heavy water. The majority of this fishing is only a 20 minute drive or less from the town so changing location or river on any day won't take too long from your fishing.

We spent Wednesday on the Nore just outside Kilkenny on the Bennettsbridge side of town where the river begins to widen out and the water type is good for dries with some productive nymphing runs breaking up the long glides. With the fish lying low during the day the most productive method was the dry dropper, fishing a simple system of a tapered leader down to 0.12 tippet; the dry fly was tied on a smaller dropper than normal and below this was two nymphs, one around two and a half foot away on another dropper and the point fly was in the region of five foot from the dry.

Fished up stream the two nymphs working at different levels  didn't have to travel long before they were picked up by a fish. Also using a dry that the fish see as a meal we picked up some rising trout in the margins on the dry fly, it was simply a size 12 Hears ear klinkhammer with an orange post and grizzle hackle,  I find this dry very successful for this set up as it is very visible even in broken water and will suspend two 2.5 mm beaded nymphs, plus it is quite attractive to the fish. I also like to coat the fly in water shed before I fish it so it stays up longer.

On Thursday we tested out some of the tributaries around the area and found the fishing tough enough as the water levels were extremely low but we still managed some good fish beading the small light fast water. Using very light tippet and going down to a single stripped quill nymph  with a 2mm bead was a productive approach for this water condition . Changing to a sedge pattern on a short cast and quickly casting into the streams we picked up a couple of nice fish, but we didn't allow the fly to sit too long on the water before you recast it again into the stream giving the fish only a brief moment to make their mind up on the take. You can cover a lot of pockets and streams quite quickly this way picking up the fish that are looking up.

After a few hours break we headed out for the evening rise on the Nore just on the edge of town. This section of water has some stunning weirs and turbulent water leveling out into really good glides where a lot of fish tend to hold this time of year. The temperatures dropped a bit in the evening and even though we managed some really good fishing the explosion of rising fish didn't really happen that we had hoped for; by eleven it had passed and time to retire from the river.

With a huge variety of fishing to be had around the town of Kilkenny its well worth a visit for a day or two; you might be surprised with the results and would be impressed with the scenery along with the cost. If you would like any information on permits, location or whats working where, you can contact me on my email and i'll be glad to point you in the right direction. I hope you have enjoyed this post and if you have any comments or questions please feel free to post them below. Thanks for reading and thank you to my friend Danny Lahart for the pictures.