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Sunk Lures, the original revisited
Tuesday, 31 August 2010 at 20:37
A month or two ago, I was fiddling about trying to make Sunk Lures with braid, and promised to report the results in this unreliable and dubious chronicle. I tried the patterns out in Ireland a couple of weeks ago. Short story: using braid to make Sunk Lures/tandem mounts is n.b.g. However you try to stiffen it with waterproof glue, braid eventually gets wet, and when it gets wet, it starts to sag. Sagging is at least unpromising. Then it begins to droop. And drooping is disastrous. The rear hook dangles limply and uselessly behind the front hook. No. Therefore I went back to the original mounts, described by Falkus and developed by Tom Rawling in the 1960s. There's little, it appears, to beat these originals. I make mine from 14lb. Trilene, which is about right for size 8 and 10 tandems. The Trilene is springy enough so that you will droop not, neither will you sag. Overall length of these lures is 1.5- 2 inches, which is about right for many parts of Ireland though may possibly be a touch small for sea-trout waters in England and Wales.
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Delphi 1
Monday, 23 August 2010 at 19:52
I've just returned from a long week in Ireland during which I visited Connemara, Mayo and Sligo in search of sea-trout (and salmon) together with Gardiner Mitchell. We were aided and abetted in the field by Mark Corps, Michael Shortt, Markus Müller, Bryan, Kevin, Heidi, Amanda, Soraya, Father Jack, Gorgeous George, the entire cast of extras from Ben Hur and a lorry-load of Fry's Chocolate Cream. What follows in the next entries is a short photographic tour of our angling travels.
I hope that these adventures will appear as a linked set of feature articles in Trout and Salmon, and I would ask you - urge you - all right then, beg you, damnit - to get hold of a copy of that journal for much fuller information (accommodation, prices, fly patterns and much more) than there's space to include here.
We began at Delphi (www.delphilodge.ie).
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Delphi 2
Monday, 23 August 2010 at 19:50
Mark Corps is one of the finest salmon anglers I know. Here he is on Finlough doing one of the things he does best.
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Delphi 3
Monday, 23 August 2010 at 19:47
This is visiting angler Fran Sanders, who was taking part in one of Peter O'Reilly's angling courses hosted at Delphi. This cracking Doolough sea-trout - around 2½lb. - was not only Fran's first-ever sea-trout but her first-ever fish. The smiles say it all.
http://oreillyflyfishing.com/
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Kylemore 1
Monday, 23 August 2010 at 19:45
The tiny Dawros river is part of the Kylemore system in Connemara and offers lovely fishing for salmon given the right water conditions. We fished the river for a morning when it was at a perfect height. The result was this pristine little grilse. Angler: Gardiner Mitchell.
http://www.kylemoreabbeyfishery.net/the_fishing.htm
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Kylemore 2
Monday, 23 August 2010 at 19:42
Kylemore had had a good run of sea-trout in July. This fish, caught on the Middle Lough by Nigel Rush, had clearly run in July and had therefore been up in freshwater for three weeks. It's heartening to see the runs of sea-trout hanging on at Kylemore despite the presence of an operational 'organic' salmon farm in the estuary.
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Kylemore 3
Monday, 23 August 2010 at 19:39
Nigel Rush uses the Collie Dog not so much to catch salmon but simply to check how many fish are lying in certain pools. (The salmon typically move to the fast-fished Collie but miss it.) Watching him fish the Collie is an education in itself - great sweeps of the rod-arm and the ' fly' fished fast in big arcs across the current. Here's Nigel in action.
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