February 30-
A daunting task at the best of times, only this time it was four adults and seven children, all of which were beginners which made it a challenge, the booting up, the gathering of the rods and the getting in the cars, all logistics ran as smooth as one could have hoped. We got to the lake and I issue all with their rods except the youngest who was sharing with his mother. The spring sun was warm and there seemed to be plenty fly life around, things looked very fishy.
Lessons in fly-casting began and my party spread out along the shore. Now you can imagine the craic as I ran from one to the other starting them off on the roll cast and while some picked it up very quickly others got tangled in a way only Houdini himself could get out of. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, which is the main thing, and fish were starting to rise in the distance, teasingly. Not surprisingly everyone drew a blank but the two families in question no doubt had a great morning fishing at Gleninchiquin Lake.
February 29 -
Met Mr green this morning, it was his 50th birthday and his wife had organised a surprise-fishing trip for him. Having fished for 20 years and never caught a salmon this was the fish he was after. "I've caught an 18lb sea trout before though" he said as my jaw dropped and then I replied "I'd settle for one of them on any day". It hadn't rained for well over a week surprisingly and the spate rivers were low I told him, you'll have to go to Killarney for a chance at the elusive salmon or settle for Brown Trout on the nearby lakes if the hours drive there and back was too long he decided to go for the brownies which was a wise decision as far as I was concerned.
We reached the lake in fifteen minutes and as I rowed out you could tell he was delighted to be there, rod in hand happy as a pig in s#%t. I mentioned to him that the fish here were like lightning and he smiled with confidence. Then he had a take and missed it then I asked him if he had drank any coffee this morning to wake him up, he laughed and sat up and concentrated .Mr green had a lovely casting motion and you could tell he was experienced but five good takes later and still no fish .
I knew he would get one, it was just a matter of time, you almost have to anticipate the take and strike instinctively to catch these fish. The sport is excellent and it raises your game no end, then if you fish anywhere else the fish seem to take in slow motion. I left Mr green to his own devices as my time was up, he left me a lovely letter telling me he had plenty takes after that and managed to land two beautiful brownies around a ½ lb each, which he sportingly released. So I hope Mr green comes back so he can catch his dream salmon maybe on his 60th it'll make it all the sweeter good luck Mr green.