Kilgad Fishery - 14th March 2009

I had intended to get up early and head to moorbrook but being soo tired I woke up at 11.30am so that idea was out the window. I grabbed a bite of lunch and a shower and packed up the car and set out to find a spot for fishing, headed up to tildarg but turned away at the gate because of the 2 ft wave rolling down the lake and decided to head to Kilgad at Moorfields. After settling up the bill for a 4 hour catch and release and got set up. Set up with snowbee buzzer line and a holoneck on the point and a size 16 firefoil on the dropper. I headed around the lake and fished for about 20mins without a bite so changed the dropper to a lime rib olive buzzer , that i had tied and moved to the bay behind the spit of land and after about 10mins I cast out and was hit by a nice rainbow who gave me a good scrap. With it safely netted I fished on with no more luck,at that point forum member waterboy introduced himself and after a chat with him and mick i moved to the small lake and put an emerging black buzzer on point as a few fish where rising but to no luck.

I then stuck an orange egg on for the craic under an indicator and had a slamming take with a poor fight, the reason why?......it was a natural rainbow about 6 inches long so with it safely returned I stuck the olive buzzer back on and opted for a goldhead hares ear with a lime tail and fritz/dubbing body (I had tied it ages ago and never caught so thought id give it a whirl). I moved around to the point of the spit and cast out across the wind. With a fast figure 8 retrieve I hit into a fish which gave me a very good fight, everytime i got it near the net it made another run. I got it netted and it was at least 3.5lb, released safely back to fight another day. I cast out again and hooked into a fish which gave me the fright of my life, it hit me and leapt out of the water to give a nice aerial acrobatic performance and back into water, after about 5 mins it was netted, leaving me with a sore arm lol. I fished on a wee bit longer to no success. I then moved around to the bridge beside waterboy and was chatting to him and cast out bringing my flies in slowly when i got a nice hit and missed it, or so i thought the fish had taken the lime rib buzzer and swam towards me. With the line tight again i netted the fish. I fished on for another 30mins or so and called it a day. 

Overall a throughly enjoyable day with 5 fish in 2 and a bit hours so I was happy enough and will be back. 

Here is the Hares Ear and Lime Rib buzzer

Tildarg Fishery - 7th March 2009

I have recently joined Ballynure Angling Club and they where having their first competition of the year at Tildarg so I headed up at around 9.30am and was greated by a strong gusting Westerly wind with boughts of rain. I set up with my new koma kassette and snowbee buzzer line and a size 12 Holo Necked Black buzzer on the point and a size 16 orange firefoil on the dropper. My boat partner Billy and I headed down the far end of the lake as the other boats had congregated around the top half of the lake, we fished for an about 30 mins or so with no luck, then I lifted my rod up in the air and was dicussing the buzzer line with billy with my holo necked buzzer hanging in the water and BANG!!! fish on, It stayed deep but it didnt feel like a stock rainbow, far too thrashy, showing the signs of a wild fish and when it came to the surface this beauty greated me.

With the brown trout safely released I was happy catching the brown trout and didnt care if I didnt catch anything else all day but slogged on anyway through the wind and the rain. With a few more missed takes and getting smashed a few times, Billy missed a nice fish that took his whole cast. We fished on with no luck, others from the club had been using intermediate and sinking lines so moved out into the deeper water and switched to fast glass intermediate with a mini orange booby and fished it with slow strips and fast figure 8, but no luck. Changed onto a hot head damsel but after 30 mins with no luck we moved back tight into the bank and switched back to buzzers with an olive and a black holo necked buzzers on. I had a big hit and looked at leader, well where a leader should have been, the wee bugger snapped my leader so retied my cast but used a Hares Head Buzzer (will post a picture in a few days) on the dropper and new holo neck on point, fished on for a another 20 mins and thought i had hit the weed but when i brought my line up my cast that I had lost was attached with my two flies, make both of us laugh and got my buzzers back. I then hit this nice rainbow

It was 2lb or so and gave me a hell of a fight despite it not having best of tails, it stayed deep but was good craic. We fished on again missing fish and then another fish hit me and made a huge arc around the boat and gave me a nice fight, with it safely in the bag, it took the Hares Head buzzer which was nice as it was first time id fished it since it came off the vice, just a wee variant i tied up and will be getting the production line going for them. We fished on for a while and then Billy finally got his first fish the boat on a black buzzer. We packed up for the day at around 4pm.

Overall it was very enjoyable day, the brown made my day. Initially i was concerned about the buzzer line, whether or not it was worth it but after using it for the day I can say it is definitely worth it, it gives a heightened sense of the take and it took a while to get used to but i can say it made the bites feel more connected if you know what i mean, its hard to describe. The Koma Kassette was excellent, i managed to get 100m of wychwood 20lb backing and the entire buzzer line with room to spare and with the space saved it my bag with kassettes it is def worth the investment.