Anticipation was high was for my weekly fly fishing trip out of Ardnasillagh in Lough Corrib on Saturday. Winds were light to moderate coming from a westerly direction and changing to a more south-westerly direction by evening time. The sky was overcast and there were plenty of sedge flying around the boats on the shore. Not wanting to stray too far before casting a line, myself and my mate kick-started our fishing with dry fly fishing in Ardnasillagh bay. Both of us put up a team of sedges (chocolate drop, elk hair caddis, devaux sedge, welshmans button) and I threw on an Adams in addition. We weren't long into our first drift when my mate got a very nice take to the chocolate drop. But after a few seconds, the trout came up trumps and rejected the fly. We fished on and seconds later I struck into a nice fish on the welshmans. At just under 2lb's we were off to a nice start. We continued to meet a few more fish drifting in Ardnasillagh bay. One of the fish I met and lost screamed out the front of the boat. I was fishing from the back of the boat so I struggled to get any sort of control over him as he went towards the front and under the boat with my line. He got the upper hand on me and soon managed to reject my Welshmans button. I hate to loose fish that way! Anyway, we were getting eager to see what the rest of the lake had to offer, so after another drift we packed up the fishing rods and headed off.

Next stop - the Urkaun's. This place is normally a banker when fishing wets, dries or dapping. Strangely enough we fished it in one long drift from the red marker to the Island on the eastern side with not even a touch (not even from small fish). My mate gave the wets a go and I stuck to the dries the whole way but not one fish rose to our flies. We decided it wasn't worth another drift, so we headed to Oughterard. Oughterard is the kind of place where you can spend the full day fishing different drifts - and we did just that up to lunch time. Mayfly and sedge were flying over our heads coming out of the bay and there was the odd fish to be seen picking them off. We had a bit of action just off the bay and picked up a few fish. At lunch time we pulled into the pier and sat and watched the lake. We could see some trout sitting in the calm just off the shore, picking the flies off as they came off the shore. The fish were maybe 10 feet from the shore. You could see them heading and tailing.. I quickly headed over and tried my hand with a few short casts. It wasn't long before I stirred up a nice swirl from a decent sized fish but I didn't manage to hook into him. I rose another 2 trout and my mate rose one fish but we just didn't manage to get them. Ah well...next time maybe. It was bit of craic though. 

After lunch, the fishing turned poor. We picked up an odd fish and rose a few more but all in all the fly fishing was very slack. The fishing just seemed to turn off. The wet flies didn't rise a thing for my mate. I stuck to the dry fly fishing all day but the trout rises were few and far between. We headed to Inchagoill, Inishannagh (another banker) and fished a few spots on the way back but no joy. All in all it wasn't a bad day. It started out nicely but the evening fishing let us down. The best trout flies were the Chocolate drop, the Welshmans and the Adams. The sedge fishing seems to have come on nicely and I think with the right weather there's some serious fishing to be had over the coming days/weeks.

If you're out on a fishing trip let us know how you get on by posting your fishing report here. Tight lines..