Fish Jumping from Jack Prendergast on Vimeo.

A better video of some salmon and trout trying to get up the falls on my local river.

Throw Back Thursday

Another nice trout from the Dodder from a few years ago.

Salmon Leap from Jack Prendergast on Vimeo.
Just some short footage of some salmon and sea trout trying to get up a waterfall. I just missed a better fish nearly getting up the falls, it was a big salmon well into double figures.

A nice video of trout spawning. Taken from the guys at www.frontsidefly.com

Some successful trout flies for me this year.

Some nymph patterns that worked really for me.

A crappy picture but shows the size of fly that I had to use sometimes,

Some purple spider patterns good for getting picky trout.

A variation on a grey duster where I used goose biots for the tail. A very successful pattern this season.

My go to elk hair sedge pattern which is nearly always good for a fish.

The River Erriff.

I went on my first salmon fishing trip a few years ago down to the River Erriff which is in Connemara in the west of Ireland. Its a lovely little spate river that gets a decent run of salmon as well as some sea trout. I've only fished it a couple of times and would like to get back there again next season and catch some more fish. The salmon below was caught just before a big storm a few years ago when the river was rising. I fished it last year but the water was very very low so didn't connect with any fish but we did see plenty of salmon waiting in the pools for some rain so they could move upstream.

Small grilse taken from the Erriff.

Throw Back Thursday

My first trout from the Corrib a few years ago.

The Iceland Trip.

I was lucky enough to get to Iceland in August for three days of fishing. As it turned out I only got two days of fishing in on the Varmá River. The Varmá is a river that flows through the town called Hveragerði. It is well known as a big sea trout river but unfortunately I didn't manage to connect with any of them though I did manage to see some of them trying to jump the falls just outside the town. Its pretty impressive watching the size of some of the fish jumping this waterfall.

The waterfall just outside Hveragerði. Not my photo.

The fishing was pretty good for brown trout again I didnt connect with any of the monster trout but I did see some big fish flashing at my fly. This fish below is the first fish from the river that I caught I thought it was a normal brown trout at the time but it could be a sea trout. 

Small brown trout or sea trout.

How it went this year...

This years trout fishing got off to a pretty good start in march when the season kicked off. Had some good success on pheasant tail nymphs and hairs ear nymphs. I caught most of the fish using the New Zealand method. There was some early season success as well with some small midge pattern dry flies that I tied up myself. 

 

The dry summer here in Ireland caused the rivers in my area to stay low for the whole summer more or less but it didn't seem to affect the fishing too badly and I had some of the best fishing on my local river for a few years. The average size of the fish was down in my opinion but the amount of smaller fish that were around is a good sign.

A nice sized early season brown trout from the River Dodder.

The late summer and autumn fishing was pretty good as well but I had limited chances due to work commitments but I did manage to get out a good few times for a couple of hours. Catching trout mostly to small sized midge and duster patterns but also some nice fish on the surface with skated sedge patterns.

Sea Trout from a mystery location!

Late autumn rise on the Dodder.

Last trout of the season on the Dodder.

Not a bad season all in all. I didn't manage to beat my personal best trout this year but maybe next season.