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Lough Corrib, May 2000 With 13 other
anglers I travelled to Oughterard, Co Galway, which
is situated on the shores of Lough Corrib. Four days
of 'dapping' with the natural Mayfly lay in wait! It
was my first club trip and was to be my first time fishing
from a boat on a lake. It was a lovely summers evening
on arrival and first stop was the pub. However, the
Guinness wasn't as nice as the thought of seeing the
water, so an old school buddy and i took a 15 minute
walk down to the pier. The view was breathtaking, a
mass expanse of water littered with islands as far as
the eye could see. (There are 365 islands on Lough Corrib,
that's one for every day of the year!) There were children
with small wooden boxes collecting mayfly on the pier
with (I found out later) the intention of making sales
to the anglers the following morning. I sat and stared
at the water. It was abundant with mayfly. It was hard
to contain my excitement at the thought of tomorrow…………………..
The following morning brought strong winds and heavy
rain (this was going to be fun!). Aidan (my old school
buddy) and i were paired together for the first day
and he offered me the middle seat in the boat. He took
the front and the gillie the rear. Around 10:30am the
rain stopped and the wind mellowed, so conditions were
perfect. But by lunchtime, our gillie had 5 or 6 wild
brown trout in the boat while both of us had drawn a
blank (Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!). What was going on?
We met everybody for lunch on a nominated island at
1pm. Pork chops, sausages, rashers and mugs of tea,
all cooked on a stone circle open fire (lovely!). So
with full stomachs and words of encouragement from our
fellow anglers we went on to the lake with 110% concentration,
determined to get some action. Conditions were perfect,
so there could be no excuses for coming back to shore
that evening empty handed. 15-20 minutes later, into
our first drift after lunch, I saw bubbles where my
fly was lying. The line went down and the gillie shouted,
"strike!" 'I was in.' The fish started to take line.3
0 yards out from the boat, a bar of gold leapt out of
the water three or four times in silhouette fashion.
After 5 or 6 minutes i had a beautiful 1 ¾ lb wild brownie
in the boat. Within another 10 minutes Aidan also had
a fish. The feeling of satisfaction was amazing and
it allowed us to really enjoy the remainder of our day's
fishing. What happened on that afternoon was like a
dream come true. By the end of the day i had six fish
in the bag while Aidan had four and the gillie about
a dozen. What a day!
Dapping - A rod of at least 14 foot in length is required.
A fly-reel with no fly line, just nylon, - 8 or 10 lbs.
Tie a little bit of floss around the line a few yards
away from the hook. This is used to keep your line in
view at all times. And a good sized hook, say size 8
or 9.
Stab the Mayfly through the thorax or thickest part
of the body and thread onto the hook When the wind is
behind you let out line until the wind catches the light
floss. Now lower the rod so that the fly skips or dabbles
on the surface.
When a trout takes - lower the rod so that he has time
to turn and head down deeper into the water before he
swallows. Count to three or four quite slowly and then
raise the rod firmly but smoothly…. tight lines!
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