I’ve just returned from a week’s fishing trip to Corrib and was blown away by the hospitality and the quality of the fishing.
For the past goodness knows how many years I have made at least one annual trip to Scotland or the Hebrides for the wild brown trout fishing. The last seven years have been to South Uist, however last year was a disappointment in terms of fish caught so a change was needed.
A chance conversation with someone at the British Fly Fair a couple of years ago gave me the idea of finally visiting Ireland and a recommendation of certainly one of the best guest houses and guiding services on Corrib, this being Corrib View Lodge run by Larry and Michelle McCarthy.
I contacted Larry the next day and booked a week accommodation with 6 days guided fishing for the middle of May for myself and my son Phil. I was surprised to be able to secure that week, but it turned out that there had been a cancellation just before I contacted Larry. Many of the regulars were surprised as they had taken a few years to work their way up to that week !
We drove and caught the 1.30am ferry from Fishguard to Rosslare, arriving at Rosslare at 5.30am after a few hours sleep in the Cabin. We made it to Galway by about 10am and spent a few hours there before the short drive to Corrib View Lodge. The Lodge was just the job for a week’s fishing, comfortable ensuite rooms, a lounge frequented by anglers with tales to tell, ample parking, undercover drying and rod racks that can store maybe 30 made up rods. There were about 12 other anglers staying.
The following morning, Monday, we were ready to go and met our guide for the day after breakfast. We were extremely lucky with the weather and the guide. The weather was wet and windy and our guide Frank was one of the best wet fly anglers in Ireland, having represented Ireland internationally on many occasions and a fully qualified AAPGAI instructor. He arrived with his fully kitted boat on a trailer, one of the typical large Irish Lough boats, two padded swivel seats and a large 25 HP engine. We followed him for short drive to the launch site at Greenfields and Frank had already advised us to set up with our 10.5 ft 6 weight rods, a slow intermediate line and fairly long 6lb fluorocarbon leader and three wet flies.
Both Phil and myself had spent weeks tying up numerous wet mayfly patterns from Patsy Deery’s Mayfly book (on checking the book again, Frank was one of the contributors) and thought we had it covered. Frank scanned our flies and I was allowed to use one of mine but Frank put two of his own on my leader as well. I thought my fly box looked impressive, but Franks looked just right and I now have a lot more flies to tie for next year!
The boat skimmed through the waves at a rate of knots until we had travelled maybe a couple of miles to a drift towards two large islands. I should explain that Corrib is huge, dotted with Islands many bigger than the majority of waters most of us fish. It is mainly shallow and littered with hidden rocks, some the size of buses.
Frank asked us to just fish as we normally would, with maybe 12-15 yards of fly line out. I thought I was doing ok, having fished the Scottish Loch’s for donkey’s years. After about 10 minutes Frank said “Ok, now let me show you how I want you to fish” . I handed him my rod and he cast 15 yards, immediately 3 long (3ft) pulls before 3 more long pulls whilst bringing the rod up. At the end of this the top dropper had just arrived on the surface. A momentary pause then out to repeat the same again. He explained that 90% of the fish would come in the first 3 pulls. This turned out to be 100% correct over the week.
We then set about trying to copy him and eventually got into a rhythm and it wasn’t long before Phil connected with a good fish of a couple of pounds.
This was exciting stuff! 3ft waves but the boat was totally stable, enough action to keep us totally focussed. We landed two fish each, all around the two pound mark, lost a couple and missed a few takes. Sometimes the fish just hooked themselves but many times you had to see the swirl or disturbance and lift into it. On one occasion I had a fish that Frank estimated was over 4lbs leap at my top dropper but I didn’t connect.
Day 2
We set off to the same launch site with our guide Davey. Again, a similar boat with 25 HP to speed it to our drifts. Davey is another of Larry’s regular guides and AAPGAI qualified. The weather was much brighter and winds varying between 5 and 15 mph. We were advised to set up 5 weight rods for dry fly fishing. Long leaders starting with 8 ft of 8lb green maxima, 3 ft of 6lb maxima and 5 ft of 5lb flouro. A size 10 ginger wulff mayfly was the fly Davey thought I should start off with.
We gently drifted just off some islands where mayflies and olives were hatching, and an occasional splash indicated a brownie taking one. Fairly short casts of about 10 yards were made leaving the fly static for only 10-15 seconds before re-casting to a slighty different angle. We missed a couple of fish. The takes were so quick, despite the fish and flies being large and Davey informed us we were too slow lifting.
As we drifted into a bay, Davey said “we are just about to reach the hot spot” He had literally just spoken those words when I had a take. I was ready and lifted into what was clearly a good fish. Several runs were halted but it managed to make its way under the boat when the hook pulled….gutted !
We moved to another spot again near an island and soon after there was a huge commotion at my fly, whereupon I lifted into a good fish. This made several strong runs and lead me twice around the boat at a distance of 30 yards. The water is crystal clear so I could see every detail of this fish that I knew was going to be my PB wild Brownie….. if I landed it !
I did, and it weighed 3 ½ lbs and had a huge tail!
The area then went quiet as a few other boats had arrived so we moved. Lunch is usually taken on one of the islands where we often met up with other boats from the lodge. One of the advantages of staying at the lodge is that the guides are constantly in contact with each other whilst out on the water, with up to the minute reports of what’s being caught and where.
Fishing is usually from 10am till 6pm, so on this day we had caught no further fish by 5pm and Davey said we should go back to where I caught the big fish as the other boats will have moved away. He was right and we had the area to ourselves, and there was a good mayfly hatch on. In the last hour we caught three more fish, lost one and missed a couple of takes.
Day 3
We met our guide for the day at a different launch site, Annaghkeen, another Davey. Weather was much calmer again with little wind and mixed sun and cloud. Davey suggested we should fish with buzzers. 6 weight outfits, 8lb flouro leaders, 3 buzzers with the bottom two being epoxy buzzers.
Again he picked a couple of his own flies to add to our leaders. There was a gentle ripple pushing the boat along gently. A 15-20 yard cast infront, making sure the leader landed straight and extended, and a very slow figure of 8 retrieve, just keeping the fly-line straight so the flies eventually sank the full depth. Takes were savage! One minute you are gently retrieving, suddenly the fly-line is yanked away by a very surprised trout! Hence the 8lb leader.
We caught a couple of good trout each that day. Right at the end when the wind had died completely and it seemed we were just going through the motions a fish took. This felt a big fish and it was. It had taken line and was maybe 30 yards away and I could clearly see its big tail fin out of the water. Davey commented ‘That’s a big fish, as long as you land it” At that precise moment the hook pulled ! Davey was hugely apologetic he had made the remark, but we all knew it actually had nothing to do with the hookhold failing.
Day 4
We were again with Davey and he had decided to take us off in the direction of Galway, motoring for 35 minutes through the narrows to an area he called the bloodworn holes. He told us that the weather looked perfect for fishing buzzers and this spot held very big fish. He showed us a photo of one that his angler caught there the week before, and it weighed 7 ½ lbs. He obviously couldn’t guarantee fish but if one is caught he has never had one less than 4 ½ lbs. We blanked !! His friend and fellow guide was also in the area with a couple of anglers and they lost one good fish. There were a lot of caenis floating on the surface and Davey thought it likely the fish had gorged on caenis overnight and at dawn as we are only a couple of weeks away from the caenis season. We later moved back up the lough and tried dries, both missing a take each.
Day 5
A very windy and overcast day best suited to pulling wet mayflies and today we were with John
The wind was particularly strong today up to 30mph so we couldn’t venture out too far from shore. John explained that this was about the limit of conditions he was prepared to take anglers out into the open water. Any stronger and the only option is to fish the back of the islands.
We ended up with 11 fish between us today, mainly about a pound to a pound and a quarter, and it was a very enjoyable day. The sort of day you expected something every cast
Day 6
Jimmy was our guide today, a real character, together with his two small dogs to keep us company. Weather was mainly cloudy with a 10-20mph wind so Jimmy said we could either fish dries or pull wets whatever we wished. He told us whichever we chose he could guarantee he would put us on the fish and the rest was up to us! We both fancied fishing dries, as we had had two days on wets, two on buzzers and this would make it two on dries.
He was true to his word. He took us to a spot that mayflies were constantly hatching and lots of fish were rising. Phil had 3 good fish in 30 minutes on the first drift.
We drifted several times over the same area and towards the end the rise had petered out, although Phil missed 3 takes but I hadn’t risen a single fish!
During lunch Jimmy suggested Phil give me one of his successful flies, a Dennis Moss pattern. A ginger mayfly with a dyed olive arctic foxtail wing. I had been using a standard ginger mayfly with a dyed yellow squirrel tail wing, and it hadn’t worked today.
We tried a different drift after lunch where Larry and Frank were catching some fish.
Again the mayfly hatch was on and this time with my new fly, I started getting takes (and missing them). When I did hook one it flew toward the boat so fast and then lept towards me and the hook dropped out.
I did get a couple in the end and one of them was a better fish at 2 ¾ lbs. Phil also caught a couple more. To be honest we could both have caught half a dozen each if we had timed hitting the fish better. That was it, the six days fishing over but what a fantastic six days it was.
We have already booked for the same week next year, but next year we will fly there from Bristol to Knock Airport which is only about 40 miles from Corrib View and hire a small car.
I wanted to drive this year as we took all sorts with us ‘just in case’ , boat seats, boat cushions, large boat boxes, too many rods, landing nets, waders, wellies etc etc. Having experienced the set-up all you need is a 9-10ft 6 wt rod with a slow intermediate line for pulling wets, a floating line for buzzer fishing and a 9-10ft 5 weight rod for the dries. You could get away with just the 6 weight if you wished. Good waterproofs, a range of flies, 6 and 5lb flouro tippet and the usual accessories, floatant, snips etc.
Corrib View can provide everything if you wish, and its good quality kit. They have a good selection of tippet, flies, lines to buy if you forget something. They even have about 30 pairs of wellies!
The season runs from March to end of September and starts with buzzers in March through to May, April sees hatches of Olives, May/June the Mayfly hatches, June/July has massive hatches of caenis where very large fish can be caught on tiny dries starting at dawn until around lunchtime. End of June/July has a second Mayfly hatch with Sedges starting to show and later daddy long-legs. In September pulling wets becomes good again, so take your pick.
Corrib View Lodge offers a discount for group bookings which made me think if any other club members were interested in a club trip to experience the wonderful wild brownie fishing on Corrib, Mask or Carra.
If anyone was interested let me know and I can contact Larry for prices and availability.
Thanks for reading
Mick
