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Ireland is a very popular destination for travellers from the world. For many Anglers Ireland is famous for its wonderful Altlantic Salmon fishing, but it also has some of Europe’s best trout streams. Many of these streams are world class with excellent fishing for wild brown trout in magnificent Irish Countryside.

TEXT ANDREW RYAN

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PHOTO ANDREW RYAN

The Irish fishing season runs from the beginning of March until the end of September. During the 7 month season there is a variety of fishing to be had.

The spring has usually higher water with wetter weather, resulting in some dry fly fishing at the warmer parts of the day but mainly nymph and wet fly fishing.

The summer months are the warmest with less rainfall so river levels are lower with much more dry fly fishing especially in the mornings and evenings. Fall weather can be unpredictable, but in recent times we have had mainly low water with little or no rainfall. The fish at this time of year are wiser, so much of the fishing is on small dries and nymphs with fine tippets. Much of Irelands beauty lies in its greeness, which means that we get a lot of rain, even in the summer months!

fish and guide in the south east of Ireland which has several large rivers which are fantastic for both trout and salmon. The rivers Suir, which is Irelands second longest river and has several tributaries which are also excellent and include the Nire,Tar and Anner. Each of the rivers has their own character and offer a variety of fly fishing experiences. The river Blackwater which is also close to where I guide is a famed salmon fishery and offers some excellent salmon fishing right through the season.

Trout fishing in Ireland is challenging as all of the fish are wild indigenous brown trout. The rivers are of a very high calibre and in fact one of the most famous Irish trout rivers; the River Suir, was deemed to surpass the celebrated chalkstreams the Test and the Itchen by Lord Grey of Fallodon, in his book Fly Fishing, first published in 1899. He wrote of the river Suir when he fished it in 1880 “in May and in June it might be the finest dry fly fishing in the United Kingdom”.

However the fishing on Irish rivers is challenging. The rivers have abundant fly life therefore making the trout very selective and they often refuse a fly. Lord Grey also wrote “There were trout visibly and audibly rising, which had never seen an artifical dry fly... they defeated me utterly. I walked and knelt and waded and laboured and perspired under August sun without success”

We get lots of Caddis, Blue Winged Olives, Mayflies, Spurwings (close to PMD’s), Black Gnats (midges), and other specific local hatches. The sizes are usually small, Caddis in hook sizes 10 to 14, Mayflies in sizes 14 to 18, Spurwings in sizes 16 to 12, Black Gnats sizes 18 to 22. We have many specialzed patterns to imitate the above. Some are variants on well know themes and some are specific to Ireland and Europe.

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Five flies that are a must in your box in Ireland are Klinkhammer Specials, Elk Hair Caddis, Comparaduns, Pheasant Tail Goldbeads, and CDC emergers. This selection in various sizes would pretty cover most fishing situations. However it would be best to obtain some local knowledge when to make sure you are using the right ones. You will get best advice on these from a local guide or tackle shop. Good US patterns to have in your box would include Blue winged olives, Comparaduns, Crippled emergers, Elkhair caddis, Pheasant tail nymphs.

Standard river fishing outfits are ideal for Irish rivers, a 9ft 5 wt with floating line rod is most suitable for the larger rivers (Suir & Boyne) while a ligher 3 or 4 wt would work well on the smaller streams (Nire, Tar, Blackwater). Tippet sizes from 5X to 8X, with leader length from 10 to 15 ft long (sometimes 18ft!). Chest waders are essential. Bring layered clothing, as the weather can change to being very warm in the morning to heavy rain in the afternoon. A waterproof wading jacket is a must.

Much of the fishing here is using dry fly. From May to September there are hatches at some stage during the day and often sporadic hatches all throught the day. The best dry fly fishing is to be had from mid May to mid September at dusk. Prolific hatches of mayfly, caddis, and midges occur during these summer evenings. A typical evening would begin with fishing with emergers about 7 pm, then onto duns for a period, later changing to spinner patterns, and finally fishing skating a large caddis just at dark.The daytime fishing is also excellent, with smaller streams usually fishing better due to the fact they are more shaded.

One of the preferred techniques is dry fly with a nymph dropper (New Zealand style) usually using a bushy dry fly and a small size 18 pheasant tail flashback.

High stick or Czech style nymphing is also very popular in Ireland as the rivers have an abundance of acquatic life. This technique tends to work best when there are no rising fish in the faster, streamier water. Tungsten bead heads, brick nymphs, sparkle nymphs, or any heavy patterns work best. The usual layout of the leader is an indicator, a heavy nymph (size 12/14) and a smaller bead head (size 16/18) tied off the back of the heavier pattern. The smaller pattern “waggles� behind the larger one and thus catches 90% of the fish.

The brown trout in Irish rivers are indigenous species to Ireland. The average size is from 10 to 14 inches. Larger also exist and using techniques such as streamer and nymphs have produced some very large fish. In the last few seasons we have caught several fish over 60 cm and some close to 70 cm mainly on large woolly buggers. Larger fish are caught each season fish of up to 12lbs are caught on some of the rivers. A typical day fishing in Ireland would consist of 8 to 15 fish ranging in size from 10 to 15 inches.

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Access to Irish rivers is relatively easy. All of the fishing is privately owned, some of it by individual owners or fisheries or some of it by fishing clubs. As the fishing is privately owned a fishing permit is necessary. There is no state licence for trout fishing in Ireland, a licence is only necessary for Salmon fishing.

Permits and licences are easily obtained from your guide or Lodge, tackle shops or often the local pub.

Fish range in size from from 8 to 14 inches with plenty of larger fish.

Each season a few 30 inch browns are caught in the Suir, but these are rare.

There is a good stock of trout from 14 to 20 inches, but they are difficult to catch and usually fall to a skating caddis or to a woolly bugger during high water.

Access is easy, Clonanav Fly Fishing Lodge has access to many private catch and release sections on this river. The river Suir is also a noted salmon river and is famous for its larger late run fish. The main salmon run occurs during the months of August and September and can be prolific. The average fish at this time of year is around 10 - 14lbs, but fish over 20lbs are not uncommon.

They are a very strong muscular fish and fight very well. The past few seasons have been catch and release on the river which has lead to an increase on the number of fish present in the system. The Suir has many tributaries along its length. Two of the most famous and prolific are the rivers Nire and Tar.

Catch and Release is becoming more the norm in Ireland, during the past decade there has been a big turn around in the attitude of Irish anglers and they are now embracing the practice of returning our beautiful wild fish.

River Suir The river Suir is the second longest river in Ireland, it flows for 115 miles southward and eastward from the Devils Bit mountain to where it enters the sea at Waterford. It is a large limestone river with pools and glides. The river bottom consists of fine gravel ensuring easy wading. It ranges from being 50 – 60 ft wide near the source to up to 200 ft wide in the lower sections. The river becomes tidal at Carrick-on-Suir, which has some excellent salmon fishing.The Suir is noted for its dry fly fishing and as mentioned above is often compared with the English Chalkstreams or the Henrys Fork in the US.

The Nire The Nire is a prolific river offering some fantastic fishing to the visiting angler.

A spate river (freestone) which flows down from the Spilloge lakes in the Comeragh mountains. It is a fast rocky river with currents and pools along its 12 mile length. At its source it flows from the lakes through peat bog land. The water has an almost tea like colour, and is very sensitive to rainfall.

The river has excellent hatches of fly throughout the season. The Spring (April & May) consists of mainly small mayflies, midges, some caddis along with a large amount of nymph fishing. Summer fishing has more BWO, Spurwings (similar to PMD), Caddis. The Fall usually has more midge fishing and lots of dry fly with nymph dropper fishing.The highlight of the fishing year is the “evening rise” during the summer months. From 7 pm onwards the river comes alive with spinner falls and hatches. It is a technical river to fish, with lots of slow pools and “slick” water with conflicting currents, making it hard to get a long drift. However it is a fascinating river to fish, with free rising browns.

On many occasions it can rise a couple of feet in as many hours, but due to its steep gradient it quickly drops back to normal again. It has a lower pH than the river Suir, which gives it different range of insects and hatches including stoneflies, black gnats, and mayflies. In late April and early May there is a very exciting fall of hawthorn, a black terrestrial insect which lives on the hawthorn tree. The trout gorge on these for a couple of weeks giving some exciting dry fly action to large black flies. The fish size ranges from 8 to 16 inches, with some fish up to 22/23 inches. Again the larger fish are hard to catch and are usually fooled during one of its many floods during the year.

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Due to the tea stained colour of the water the trout are probably some of the most beautiful brown trout in the Suir system, very dark coloured browns with deep red spots. A typical day on the Nire can result in up to 20 fish with catches of over 30 fish regularly being recorded. However many of these fish can be small so a light 3 wt rod is ideal for the smaller fish and the “fly eating trees”!

Fourmilewater Bridge is a typical Irish “hump back” bridge on the Nire. Above and below it are some of the best pools and runs on the river. It also has the charm of being located beside Lonergans Bar, one of the only places in the country where you can have a pint of Guinness while fishing!

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Info: For more information on stream fishing in Ireland please contact: Andrew Ryan, Clonanav Fly Fishing Lodge, Ballymacarbry Clonmel Co Waterford Tel + 353 52 36141 Fax + 353 52 36294 . yfishingireland.com

River Tar The Tar is another major tributary of the Suir and is only 3 miles away from the Nire. It flows down from the Knockmealdown mountains over more fertile land than the river Nire. It is a lowland river and a classic chalkstream/limestone river and slow flowing with little gradient. It is made up of mainly glides and riffles, with lots of weed beds. The weed beds in the Tar are Ranunculus, a beautiful weed which flowers in June and July. The abundance of this weed makes an excellent habitat for insects and is thick with nymphs. Fish range in size from 8 to 12 inches, but they are in huge numbers. It is very densely populated, so much so that it was at one time considered to be the most densely populated trout river in Europe with up to 3,000 fish per mile. This does mean that the fish never get to very large size. A large fish on the Tar is around 15 inches, and even then they are rare. Hatches are similar to the other rivers, with small dries and nymphs being most productive. Then the weeds are at their thickest in June and July the fishing is restricted to fishing the channels between the weeds and the deeper pools. A difficult time to fish this river, but if you are an accurate caster it is great sport as the fish are concentrated into these channels.Beautiful flowering ranunculus, lots of trout, clear water, make this one of the gems of Irish fishing.

River Blackwater A prolific salmon river in the south of Ireland. A good river to catch a spring fish as early as February, but also has good runs of fish in July and September. With really good runs of fish, beautiful fly water this river is a must fish.

A large spate river with fast flowing runs of fish and beautiful deep glides this river is a fly anglers paradise. Typical equipment includes DH rods from 1315ft, a variety of line densities down to 3/4 ips and small tubes and trebles depending on the time of year.Fishing in Ireland is an unforgettable experience, great fishing, pleasant people, wonderful countryside, its all here and only a short flight away. I

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